The Condition audiobook

This novel is really wonderful in the same way that Pink Floyd is really wonderful... but you know how if you listen to Pink Floyd alone on a cloudy day, you'll spiral into a bone-chillingly real, suicidal depression? All the while consciously maintaining that it's fantastically beautiful music, and knowing somewhere deep down inside from the blackest of your darkness that you'd be completely fine if you'd just listened to Supertramp instead?That's a powerful phenomenon, and you should respect it, but if you aren't prepared, parts of this beautifully written story may hit dangerously, abyss-suckingly close to home. I'd recommend reading it during the best possible stretch of one's menstrual cycle... preferably on a sunny day.

The flap copy states that the core event in the book is Gwen’s “condition,” but I did not really get that from reading the book. Her medical condition is one of several conditions addressed in the book, emotional conditions, maybe the “human condition.” This is a domestic novel, a multi-generational portrait of a family, focusing on the period between 1976 when we first meet them, summering in The Captain’s House in Cape Cod, and concluding in 1998, by which time the issues raised have come to fruition. Time before and after is indeed noted, but not at length. The core family is biologist Frank McKotch, his pretty, moneyed, uptight wife Paulette and their three children, Billy, the oldest and favorite, Gwen, who Frank realizes is suffering from a condition that will stunt her growth, and Scotty, the ADHD youngest, bouncing off the walls, getting into trouble for biting and challenging everyone’s ability to cope. Other family members are portrayed, but play subsidiary roles.The issues raised here are common enough, how we are affected by our upbringing, how we communicate with each other (or don’t), the value, both up and down of family, finding out who we are, and in that learning coming to see more clearly those around us. Haigh writes with great sensitivity and insight into human relations. I found plenty here that rang the bell of reality. There are many structural elements that support the commonality of the family members’ experiences, particularly in their romantic attractions and relationships, and in their difficulty with communicating their inner selves to others, with allowing others to get emotionally close. There is a high level of craft and talent at work here. The promise evidenced in Haigh’s earlier work has been fully realized here, and we can look forward to more great work from her in future. =============================EXTRA STUFFSince this review was originally posted, I have had a chance to read more of Haigh's work. Here are three excellent books by this outstanding author:FaithBaker TowersNews from Heaven: The Bakerton Stories

This is a book about a family that is slightly dysfunctional—that is to say, a normal family. One of the main characters is Gwen, who has the genetic disease Turner's Syndrome, which keeps her in the body of a pre adolescent. First, the good: many books with a character like Gwen would have gone for the comedy/drama thing, where she would have been one of several “zany” characters. In this book, it's just about a family, where one of the members has this condition. Also, all of the characters were written about appealingly, so that there were none who were just bad (or good). All of them were developed and had nuance. The way that Gwen fell in love was well done, and the response by her family seemed true to life.Then the bad (which is more nit-picky type things than something really bad!). Mainly, I was surprised that so much of the book was about the family and not more about Gwen. She doesn't get much play until you are well into the book. Also, since the book was called “The Condition”, I thought there'd be more about, well, the CONDITION! I was really curious about how it would be living with this, living as an adult in a forever-child body, and there wasn't as much about this as I had expected. Again, I probably would have been fine with it had the book not been titled as it is.Overall interesting read.

What a beautiful book. I can't say enough good things about it and when I say "I can't," I mean " I don't have time." But I'm thinking lots of really good things about it and words like "moving," "intelligent," "honest to the bone," "brilliantly constructed," "characters you can believe in (with apologies to Barack,) and "I didn't want it to end," all figure in my thoughts. Read this book.

Finally-- a new author to add to my list of favorites after a long winter full of mediocre books. This book grabbed me on the first page. Every character in the featured family was likeable despite their flaws. This is how I view families in my work as a psychotherapist. The book illustrates how we can all be misunderstood despite our good intentions. It looks at the ache within all of us to be loved and approved of and the actions (good and bad) that we take to achieve this. I LOVED this book and found it difficult to put down!

This book involves a young girl (and her family) who is diagnosed with a condition called Turner’s Syndrome, which prevents her body from ever maturing into or beyond puberty. When I started reading this, I did so with the notion that girl with Turner’s was the center of the book, and that the rest of the story focused on how her family dealt with (or failed to deal with) her condition.In some ways, I was right. In actuality, though, the book is not really about the condition of Turner’s Syndrome so much as it is about a condition that afflicts us all: the human condition. Some of the characters’ flaws and/or mistaken actions made me wince with discomfort, and their sense of regret went against my basic philosophy of life (which is pretty similar to Mike Damone’s advice in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, if you take out the “act like” part: “..Wherever you are, that’s the place to be. Isn’t this great?”). At the same time, though, these same flaws/mistaken actions/regrets were almost comforting in a weird way.Haigh gives each character such depth that I truly felt like I knew them all by the time I finished reading, and although the book was laced with melancholy, it left me feeling warm and wishing there was more of it to read. I suppose I’ll have to settle for reading her previous books instead.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's a fascinating look at a family of flawed, but good people and the effect they have on each other's lives. Particularly powerful is the Mother who is perhaps the most flawed of all. Though well-meaning her issues are so great that the impact on the family is near-devastating. Yet you find yourself not hating her or angry at her, (unlike the mother in August:Osage County) but rather wishing you could sit her down and give her a good talking to and make her understand if she just got out of her own way there was a world of love surrounding her.

If you asked me why I liked this I wouldn't be able to tell you, I just did. "A woman in love would part with anything. Comfort, security, dignity; her own plans for the future. And when love raced off to Providence in the new truck she'd bought him, she would stand at the curb waving goodbye."

From the author of Baker Towers and Mrs. Kimble, Jennifer Haigh, comes her long-awaited new novel, The Condition. Set in and around Massachusetts, The Condition tells the story of a family that is torn apart by a daughter’s medical condition. Or rather that is merely the crutch everyone uses to blame their dysfunctional situation.The story opens in 1976 when the McKotch family makes heads to Cape Cod and the familial retreat. Paulette, Frank, and their three children—Billy, Gwen, and Scott—are joined by Paulette’s brother, Roy and his family, and her sister, Martine. It is there that Frank notices that his thirteen-year-old daughter, Gwen, has developed at the same rate as her cousin. Frank, an MIT scientist who would rather be in his lab than at the beach, is positive that something dire is wrong with Gwen. Frank’s suspicions are indeed correct. Gwen is diagnosed with Turner’s Syndrome, a genetic condition that will not allow her body to mature. Gwen will forever be short. She will never have periods, breasts, or babies.I had thought that The Condition would be more about Gwen and her condition and how this syndrome affected her life. Instead, Haigh takes the readers on an unexpected, and remarkable, journey. Gwen’s diagnosis is merely the catalyst for the rest of the family drama. In fact, Gwen shares the role of protagonist with each member of her immediate family. The story skips ahead to 1997. Frank and Paulette have divorced, Billy is living in the closet in New York, Gwen works in a museum in Pittsburgh, and Scott has recently returned from a failed life in California with a wife and two kids. Haigh’s novel looks deeply into the lives of each family member. Readers get a chance to know each family member intimately. It is a satisfying read, with each family member having a chance to have his/her story told. As wonderful as the story was, the writing didn’t sparkle. Some chapters droned on and on and were over-written; the information more back story than plot point. And at The Condition’s near end, Haigh moves the timeframe into 2001 by using a cheap shot of 9/11.

To quote Tolstoy, Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. This family wasn't as abject as all that, and I didn't feel the story depressing. Still, the family dynamics was at the center of it all.I keep coming back to authors who excel at characterization. Jennifer Haigh (I learned she pronounces her name like the city in The Netherlands) spends several months writing about her characters, learning about them thoroughly, before she actually begins writing the book. And she writes in long hand, because that takes more thought than tapping it out on the computer. After that there are two or three revisions so that the sentences are well constructed and interesting. She is a treat to read.With the foregoing, I'm wondering why this wasn't a five star read for me. In the end, the story just didn't quite make it. The Condition tells the story of a family torn apart not just by a daughter's medical condition, but by the decades' worth of mistakes and disappointments and regrets that followed. It's a story about five adults trying to function as a family - five people who didn't choose each other and probably wouldn't have, but are tied to each other in ways they don't welcome and don't completely understand.I don't know that I'd agree with the "not choosing" part of that - the parents were married and chose to have children. It is an ambitious premise for a story. Perhaps it was too ambitious, or perhaps it should have been developed further.

I really loved this book! The story is told from the perspective of many characters in the McKotch Family, which reminded me of another book I enjoyed Three Junes....their flaws and shortcomings come out and yet you still enjoy them and root for them. The ending was very satisfying. I'd like to read her other books. Thanks to Eliza for recommending this book!

If you are looking for a book that delves into the good, the bad, and the truly ugly of a family that isn't yours but oh so easily could be, look no further.I'd never heard of Turner's Condition or Turner girls, but I've loads of experience with dysfunctional families. This book has something for everyone: straying husband, prudish wife (but is she, really?), a gay son who bears the burden of being first and being perfect, the second son who bears the burden of just that - the one not perfect and the one not physically flawed. And then there is Gwen. Who is possibly the character I liked most.The Condition will make you both shudder and smile. Who can ask for more from a book? Definitely a worthwhile read!