Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Search - Envy

Envy
Envy
Author: Kathryn Harrison
"Kathryn Harrison is a wonderful writer?Spellbinding." — - The New York Times Book Review — "A juicy story of psychosexual suspence" — - The Wall Street Journal — "Shockingly complex and compulsively readable." — - O, The Oprah Magazine — "[Envy] has to be considered another succcess for one of the most interesting writers of her generation." — - St. L...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780812973761
ISBN-10: 0812973763
Pages: 336
Edition: Reprint
Rating:
  • Currently 2.8/5 Stars.
 9

2.8 stars, based on 9 ratings
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Envy on
Helpful Score: 2
Stress, guilt, pain - they all collide in a middle aged man's life to create a crisis of enormous proportions, bringing to life old pains he never even knew existed....
reviewed Envy on
Helpful Score: 2
The back of the book strongly pushes the sex aspect of the story, but I think really the story is about grief. It explores different types, degrees, and methods of grieving, along with different losses â" children, siblings, intimacy, innocence and purity. Will is self-analytical to an annoying degree, and there were several times when I just wanted him to shut up already. If you don't mind that, this is a pretty good story. I do wish you got to spend some more time with Carole. She and Will don't really come alive until the end of the story.
Yoni avatar reviewed Envy on + 327 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Beautifully written...Kathryn Harrison is a wonderful writer. Although this was a very good book, I was a bit disappointed in that I wanted it to go further, and if I say more I will spoil it! Still, I highly recommend this and any of her books.
Read All 9 Book Reviews of "Envy"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

reviewed Envy on + 289 more book reviews
Kathryn Harrison's Envy is an engaging, suspenseful, self-contained novel. I say "self-contained" in the sense that it cleverly constructs a universe around the protagonist, a middle aged psychoanalyst named Will, which veers off from plausible life experience. The death of a child, an estranged and disfigured identical twin who becomes a famous long distance swimmer, potential paternity suggested by a college reunion class update report, and uncontrollable sexual fantasies of his female patients seem like an excess of subplots, but after one dramatic scene all these elements pull together and the title begins to make sense. Most of the action involves Will's attempts to make sense of his present situation, through inner monologues, therapy sessions, and lunchtime conversations with his father, so readers who don't enjoy "psychobabble" might not find the sex scenes compelling enough to pick up this well-crafted story.
reviewed Envy on
So bad that I could not even finish reading it!


Genres: