Audiobook6 hours
What You Have Left
Written by Will Allison
Narrated by Jonathan Hogan, Angela Rogers and Joseph Collins
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Just after her mother's funeral, five-year-old Holly is dropped off by her father at her grandfather's South Carolina dairy farm. It will be 30 years before Holly sees her father again-plenty of time to develop a fondness for drinking and video poker. And also plenty of time to contemplate why her father abandoned her. "Loss and redemption take center stage in story writer Allison's beautifully written debut novel."-Publishers Weekly, starred review
Related to What You Have Left
Related audiobooks
Best Friends: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Another Place You've Never Been Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Gilded Life of Matilda Duplaine Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Long Drive Home Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5You Believers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In the Doghouse: A Couple's Breakup from Their Dog's Point of View Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5In Wilderness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mothers and Daughters: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLeaving Coy's Hill Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLike Wind Against Rock: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Never Coming Back Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDark at the Roots Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sea Escape: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Time in the World: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Angel in My Pocket: A Story of Love, Loss, and Life After Death Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSun Seekers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Blue and Gray Christmas Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Price of the Haircut: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love Child Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Daisy Children: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shore Girl: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Coal Tattoo Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Underground Moon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Cracker Queen: A Memoir of a Jagged, Joyful Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Adelaide Piper Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Grown Ups: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pause to Rewind Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Home Place: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Turning Trixie: Winning the Lottery Often Comes at a Cost Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Literary Fiction For You
The Alchemist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The House in the Cerulean Sea Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hunger Games Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remarkably Bright Creatures: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of The Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flowers for Algernon Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: A Hunger Games Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yellowface: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Name of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tom Lake: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stardust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Picture of Dorian Gray: Classic Tales Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Parable of the Sower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Measure: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lady Tan's Circle of Women Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dutch House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kindred Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for What You Have Left
Rating: 3.3854165875 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
48 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This book is a story of family, loss and (a little maybe) redemption.
The story is primarily about Holly, who's mother dies in a freak accident when Holly is young. Holly is then raised by her grandfather after her father disappears.
The book goes backward and forward in time, telling the story of Holly's parents, her own marriage and child, and a little of her grandparents' story.
This might have been a charming book, except I found none of the characters to be likeable or relatable. The book ends on a somewhat happy note, but is a bit abrupt. And I'm not sure there was any actual story arc. - Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The story of a daughter's determination to find a father who abandoned her over thirty years ago and her struggle to find her own identity told in different voices. I enjoyed the first part of the book with the exploration of the life of Holly and her grandfather. Once the grandfather dies, the book falls into despair with gambling, addiction, and loss of purpose. Allison's use of different characters reminds me of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, but will less substance.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5One of my very favorite books. Draws you in immediately.I love it when books are written in different voices, and this is one of those. Not a perfect childhood, adulthood, or parent/child relationship - but who has ever had those anyway.Pick it up. It's intriguing and satisfying.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This short, but satisfying novel of love, loss and amateur race car driving is told from several points of view, in chapters that span 37 years. We meet Holly, left with her grandfather at age five, Wylie, the father who couldn’t cope with the accidental death of his vibrant young wife, and Lyle, the soulful construction worker who falls for Holly and feels the reverberations of her family’s idiosyncrasies. The forward and backward flow of the chapters allows the reader to formulate impressions and emotions about the characters in almost cat and mouse like tidbits. We see Holly adjusting to her beloved grandfather’s decent into Alzheimer’s before we learn of her mother’s and father’s tumultuous beginnings. The cyclical nature of family behavior, the deep and inexplicable effects of love, and the complexities of dealing with loving so deeply are beautifully handled in this creative debut novel.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was an interesting read. It really wasn't at all what I'd expected. Allison set the characters up at the beginning to be somewhat of your typical Southern types - a Southern sorority belle, her rich granddaddy, and the poor handy man who falls in love with the rich gal. Little do we know what they really are later on. I was able to score the advance reader's edition through the New Yorker's online service (oh so rare!!!), and I'm thankful I did. This truly is a great book. The families and characters are real, and live lives that you feel we could touch.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How a family grows both apart and together while dealing with, and hopefully learning from, the blows life deals them.Allison's book reminds me of myself and those around me. Real people, real problems (sex, money, addictions). His book reinvigorates my love of the English language - differing points of view, tenses, times. Forces me to pay attention, making it more enjoyable to read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A broken family in South Carolina finds ways to mark time, move forward and heal in this first time novel by Allison. Some sweet fluid writing marred by a somewhat episodic feel.