Once a privileged and loving couple, the Armsteads have now reached a breaking point. Ben, a partner in a prestigious law firm, has become unpredictable at work and withdrawn at home—a change that weighs heavily on his wife, Helen, and their preteen daughter, Sara. Then, in one afternoon, Ben’s recklessness takes an alarming turn, and everything the Armsteads have built together unravels, swiftly and spectacularly.
Thrust back into the working world, Helen finds a job in public relations and relocates with Sara from their home in upstate New York to an apartment in Manhattan. There, Helen discovers she has a rare gift, indispensable in the world of image control: She can convince arrogant men to admit their mistakes, spinning crises into second chances. Yet redemption is more easily granted in her professional life than in her personal one.
As she is confronted with the biggest case of her career, the fallout from her marriage, and Sara’s increasingly distant behavior, Helen must face the limits of accountability and her own capacity for forgiveness.
Jonathan Dee is the author of five novels. He is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, a frequent contributor to Harper's, and a former senior editor of The Paris Review. He teaches in the graduate writing programs at Columbia University and the New School.
It is funny I liked this book so much in the end because I loathed most of the characters. Even though I understood Helen's motives I did not always agree with her and the way she approached things. Sara was a real teenager. Ben really messed everything up with his behavior and Hamilton though his motives where explained clearly and understandable was not very nice either. Still all motives were out on the open and even with the feeling I wanted to hit them all I am not sure what I would have done different if I would find myself in any of the situations (except for Cornelia)
I liked the way Helen convinced the big cooperate bosses about her way of working. It is something the human being hates doing and we all know it is the best way.There are a lot of those tricks in this book and I think that was the part that make me enjoy it so much.
A Thousand Pardons
Author: Jonathan Dee
Publisher: Random House
Pages: 224
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0812993217
ISBN-13: 9780812993219
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