I added this book to my paperbackswap.com wish list in 2016 after learning it was on some recommended book list. I finally requested it (3/2022) from my local library as there apparently are no copies in paperbackswap.com--my place in line is listed as 1 of 0 (copies available). The first couple chapters grabbed my interest. It's the story of a 19-year old girl who was conceived via IVF. Chapter one is the story of the embryos being frozen. Then, the next chapter is Kit, the protagonist, at 19 years old.
Kit decides that she wants to disappear--apparently because she's mad at her dad, a CNN reporter who spends a lot of time away from home; her mom died of cancer six years earlier. The driver behind Kit's decision to disappear is apparently the fact the she was conceived via IVF and believes that her parents "abandoned" her because she was kept in cold storage for eight years before being implanted. That seems to be a pretty thin and unbelievable reason for wanting to drop out of sight from all one's friends and family. Louise Brown, the first "test tube" baby, was born in 1978. Since that time thousands of children have been conceived that way so it's suspect that someone born years later via IVF would be so troubled by the way she came into being.
After throwing her cell phone in a river, Kit decides to head for Berlin where she stalks a man, befriends him, and then moves in with him for about 10 days before going off with someone else. My initial impression of Kit was that she was probably in her mid 20s based on some of her experiences prior to her taking off. In spite of the fact that she was only 19, Kit still made some unbelievably stupid and potentially dangerous choices. Kit was an unlikeable character.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS: The fact that she decided to head for a small mining community in the arctic was, I believe, the author making a point that Kit was returning to an environment with which she was familiar and comfortable (the cold and dark of being frozen for eight months). The ending--where Kit decided to call her father after she was kidnapped and assaulted--was abrupt and not surprising. END OF SPOILERS
Many times throughout the book, Kit would imagine different scenarios--her father's reaction when he returned home from his latest assignment and found her gone; her father searching for her). It would have been helpful if the author had italicized these passages or at least indented them so the reader would know when the imagined situation ended and the "present" picked up again. Also, I'm not sure that these imaginary scenarios added anything to the book other than length. Perhaps the author had a commitment to write so many pages.
This is the first Rupert Thomson book I've read. I'm not certain I will read any of his other works.
Kit decides that she wants to disappear--apparently because she's mad at her dad, a CNN reporter who spends a lot of time away from home; her mom died of cancer six years earlier. The driver behind Kit's decision to disappear is apparently the fact the she was conceived via IVF and believes that her parents "abandoned" her because she was kept in cold storage for eight years before being implanted. That seems to be a pretty thin and unbelievable reason for wanting to drop out of sight from all one's friends and family. Louise Brown, the first "test tube" baby, was born in 1978. Since that time thousands of children have been conceived that way so it's suspect that someone born years later via IVF would be so troubled by the way she came into being.
After throwing her cell phone in a river, Kit decides to head for Berlin where she stalks a man, befriends him, and then moves in with him for about 10 days before going off with someone else. My initial impression of Kit was that she was probably in her mid 20s based on some of her experiences prior to her taking off. In spite of the fact that she was only 19, Kit still made some unbelievably stupid and potentially dangerous choices. Kit was an unlikeable character.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS: The fact that she decided to head for a small mining community in the arctic was, I believe, the author making a point that Kit was returning to an environment with which she was familiar and comfortable (the cold and dark of being frozen for eight months). The ending--where Kit decided to call her father after she was kidnapped and assaulted--was abrupt and not surprising. END OF SPOILERS
Many times throughout the book, Kit would imagine different scenarios--her father's reaction when he returned home from his latest assignment and found her gone; her father searching for her). It would have been helpful if the author had italicized these passages or at least indented them so the reader would know when the imagined situation ended and the "present" picked up again. Also, I'm not sure that these imaginary scenarios added anything to the book other than length. Perhaps the author had a commitment to write so many pages.
This is the first Rupert Thomson book I've read. I'm not certain I will read any of his other works.
