A Stranger on the Planet

By Adam Schwartz

In the summer of 1969, twelve-year-old Seth lives with his unstable mother, Ruth, and his brother and sister in a two-bedroom apartment in New Jersey. His father lives with his new wife in a ten-room house and has no interest in Seth and his siblings. Seth is dying to escape from his mother’s craziness and suffocating love, her marriage to a man she’s known for two weeks, and his father’s cold disregard.
 
Over the next four decades, Seth becomes the keeper of his family’s memories and secrets. At the same time, he emotionally isolates himself from all those who love him, especially his mother. But Ruth is also Seth’s muse, and this enables him to ultimately find redemption, for both himself and his family.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jan 25, 2011
• ISBN: 9781569478707

Reviews for A Stranger on the Planet

[micahmom2002 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It barely held my interest enough to finish it, but I kept waiting for "it" to happen for me and it didnt. The main character seemed rather dull to me. The story follows the childhood and adulthood of Seth, who has trouble connecting with anyone in a meaningful way. He longs for his estranged fathers attention throughout his life and pushes his mother and younger brother away while pining for people like his father and exes.

[ijustgetbored · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Seth Shapiro's family is a little dysfunctional. Please read the preceding statement as the understatement of the century. Ruth, his mother, is unpredictable, and possesses a mouth that is likely to fire off inappropriate remarks at the most inopportune times. His father is cold, distant, and married to a witchy French stepmother. His brother Seamus becomes increasingly alienated from the family. Only his twin sister, Sarah, seems to provide some stability, though even she keeps her secrets. Seth himself cobbles his life out of Bellow, Woody Allen, and his own half-formed fantasies. He often deflects introspection with a sardonic remark. He has difficulty sustaining relationships, and if we were to call this a coming of age novel, then this is one of the most protracted comings of age in the history of literature-- and one of the most painful. Yet it is also very funny; while reading this, I constantly disturbed those around me by my spontaneous eruptions into laughter.One of the great strengths of this novel is that while we have something of an unstable anti-hero as our main character, he is also held up by a really terrific supporting cast that's very well-developed. There really aren't any throwaway characters in this book. Schwartz does a great job of developing secondary characters, injecting them with life and purpose, making you interested in the trajectory of their lives as well as in the trajectory of Seth's. They're not mere props; they're genuniely interesting people.This novel spans numerous time periods, and it captures something of each time period-- the mood of that time-- in each setting, in each time and place. No mere stage dressing, each time period and locale gives flavor and meaning to what Seth is going through at that point and inflects his responses to the events in his life. Schwartz juggles these multiple settings deftly.Seth's literary career, such as it is, is interesting. The novel's title, A Stranger on the Planet, comes from a short story that Seth wrote. Supposedly, as we are told secondhand throughout the novel, this story has a great deal of bearing on Seth's relationships with several main characters and relates directly to his ability to be original and honest with himself. Yet when the story is presented at the end of the novel, it's a bit of a letdown. I think the novel would have ended on a stronger note had the story not been appended.Rest assured, this is a funny book with much to say about how we grow up-- and how we don't grow up, with much to say about families, friends, and relationships. It's a bittersweet little morsel, though; beneath the wit lie moments that will cut you to the core. A highly recommended debut.

[elvisettey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Seth Shapiro's family is a little dysfunctional. Please read the preceding statement as the understatement of the century. Ruth, his mother, is unpredictable, and possesses a mouth that is likely to fire off inappropriate remarks at the most inopportune times. His father is cold, distant, and married to a witchy French stepmother. His brother Seamus becomes increasingly alienated from the family. Only his twin sister, Sarah, seems to provide some stability, though even she keeps her secrets. Seth himself cobbles his life out of Bellow, Woody Allen, and his own half-formed fantasies. He often deflects introspection with a sardonic remark. He has difficulty sustaining relationships, and if we were to call this a coming of age novel, then this is one of the most protracted comings of age in the history of literature-- and one of the most painful. Yet it is also very funny; while reading this, I constantly disturbed those around me by my spontaneous eruptions into laughter.One of the great strengths of this novel is that while we have something of an unstable anti-hero as our main character, he is also held up by a really terrific supporting cast that's very well-developed. There really aren't any throwaway characters in this book. Schwartz does a great job of developing secondary characters, injecting them with life and purpose, making you interested in the trajectory of their lives as well as in the trajectory of Seth's. They're not mere props; they're genuniely interesting people.This novel spans numerous time periods, and it captures something of each time period-- the mood of that time-- in each setting, in each time and place. No mere stage dressing, each time period and locale gives flavor and meaning to what Seth is going through at that point and inflects his responses to the events in his life. Schwartz juggles these multiple settings deftly.Seth's literary career, such as it is, is interesting. The novel's title, A Stranger on the Planet, comes from a short story that Seth wrote. Supposedly, as we are told secondhand throughout the novel, this story has a great deal of bearing on Seth's relationships with several main characters and relates directly to his ability to be original and honest with himself. Yet when the story is presented at the end of the novel, it's a bit of a letdown. I think the novel would have ended on a stronger note had the story not been appended.Rest assured, this is a funny book with much to say about how we grow up-- and how we don't grow up, with much to say about families, friends, and relationships. It's a bittersweet little morsel, though; beneath the wit lie moments that will cut you to the core. A highly recommended debut.

[samsattler · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Seth Shapiro is blessed, some would say cursed, with the ability to remember all the little things that have ever happened to him. His estranged father tells Seth that he remembers “everything that’s not important.” Perhaps what Seth remembers is unimportant to everyone else, but each specific incident he recounts in Adam Schwartz’s debut novel, A Stranger on the Planet, marks him deeply and helps make him into the man he becomes.It is 1969 and the Shapiro family, having been abandoned by Seth’s father, is down to four: twins, Seth and Sarah; little brother Seamus; and Ruth, their 35-year-old mother. Dr. Shapiro has moved out of state to start a family with his new, French wife and Ruth is overly anxious about finding a new father-figure for the children. Unfortunately for all of them, Ruth is the kind of woman willing to accept just about anyone she can plug into that slot.The kindest thing one can say about Ruth’s relationship with her three children is that she means well. She wants the best for them but, deep down inside, it is really all about Ruth. Hers is such a fragile ego that she relies on her children for the kind of emotional support she should be offering them. That their father seems oblivious to their existence (despite the financial support he provides), compounds their emotional instability.Seth, Sarah, and Seamus respond quite differently to their dysfunctional upbringing. Seamus, too young to remember much about his father, looks to a strict adherence to his Jewish faith for the stability and structure he needs in his life. Sarah and Seth turn to each other for that kind of stability, but react differently to their father’s indifference toward them. On the one hand, Sarah accepts her father for what he is: a man too cowardly to confront his new wife’s feelings about his first family. On the other, Seth never stops yearning for his father’s respect and love, but does not recognize how much alike he and his father are. Each of them, to his detriment, finds it impossible to express his emotions. Much of this coming-of-age novel is funny, some of it even laugh-out-loud funny – especially when Seth, in his refusal to compromise his beliefs or feelings, uses his wit and biting tongue to deflate the pretentiousness he often encounters. But, as the years pass, and Seth continues his struggle to understand himself and his family, the serious tone of the novel becomes more and more evident. The tragedy of a young man who cannot relate to the mother who raised him, but pines for the love of a father who wants as little to do with him as possible, can be hard to watch. There is a lot to take from this one.Rated at: 4.0