Review: & Sons, David Gilbert

The funeral of Charles Henry Topping on Manhattan’s Upper East Side would have been a minor affair (his two-hundred-word obit in The New York Times notwithstanding) but for the presence of one particular mourner: the notoriously reclusive author A. N. Dyer, whose novel Ampersand stands as a classic of American teenage angst. But as Andrew Newbold Dyer delivers the eulogy for his oldest friend, he suffers a breakdown over the life he’s led and the people he’s hurt and the novel that will forever endure as his legacy. He must gather his three sons for the first time in many years—before it’s too late.

David Gilbert is the author of the short-story collection Remote Feed and the novels, The Normals and & Sons. His stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’s, GQ and Bomb. He lives in New York City with his wife and three children.

Philip is the most creepy stalker wannabe family member I have ever read about! He tells the story about Dyer and his family and he is not even part of it!! He is talking about all these private things he is not even supposed to be part of and I am still curious how he found out all those things. Still you easily forget the story is told from his point which makes it a little less weird I guess.
The story tells the story about the Dyer family and the Topping family. Charles and Andrew grow up together going trough things. Andrew has his own way to deal with everything that happened. The way this story develops is so interesting and it keeps you reading because you simply have to know what happened exactly.
I really loved the writing too. I felt a lot of effort has been put in the choice of words making it a pleasure to read the book too.

& Sons
Author: David Gilbert
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Pages: 448
Format: Hardcover
ISBN-10: 0007552793
ISBN-13: 9780007552795
Fourth Estate: eBook | Hardcover | Paperback

• Tweet
• Share
• Share