Among the Ten Thousand Things

By Julia Pierpont

Longlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize 2016

An anonymous package arrives in the post: a cardboard box containing sheaves of printed emails chronicling New York-artist Jack’s secret life. The package is addressed to his wife Deb, but it’s delivered into the wrong hands: her children’s. With this vertiginous opening begins a heart-stopping debut about a family blown apart by an affair, yet still painfully tethered together.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Release date: Aug 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781780747644

Reviews for Among the Ten Thousand Things

[eye_gee-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Loved the authors metaphors and observations of what would otherwise be mundane details, however the narrative was disappointing to me.

[berly_4 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An honest look at a failing marriage. I enjoyed the kids more than the adults in this novel. A good read, but not a standout.

[brangwinn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I looked forward to reading this book with anticipation because of all the pre-release hype about it. Perhaps I just wasn’t in the mood for a book about a marriage falling apart because of the husband’s infidelities. Yes, it was interesting reading about the interactions between family members including the kids, and to see what a dysfunctional family he had grown up in, but I did not find it compelling reading.

[libsue · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Uneven in places but I did finish - that's something these days. I didn't love this but would give Pierpont another look. Maybe her sophomore novel will be a bit better.

[writestuff_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Julia Pierpont’s debut novel opens with a package sent to Deb Shanley from the woman who is having an affair with Deb’s husband, Jack. But instead of Deb, the box is opened by her child, 11-year-old Kate. Filled with hundreds of printed emails chronicling the affair, the box sets in motion the destruction of a family. Tense, occasionally funny, and starring the fictional world’s biggest narcissist (Jack), Peirpont’s novel is mostly successful if not a bit uneven.

[l4mo · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book shoves you straight into the world of a family where the children have just discovered that their father has been having an affair. The reader is given no back story, except for bits and pieces that come as the story goes along, and for that reason you don't know who these characters are. Because the reader, or at least me, doesn't know who the characters are, it's impossible to care about them. Some of the writing is inventive and interesting, which I unfortunately cannot also say about the plot. Overrated.

[mahsdad · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Got this book from LibraryThing's Early Review program, in exchange for an honest review. This is Pierpont's first novel, and I guess you can say that its a domestic drama.Husband, wife, 2 kids, seemingly ideal life. Husband's ex-mistress sends a box of all of their raunchy correspondence to the wife. The the proverbial kaka hits the proverbial fan. This is the opening of the book and the rest is the fallout. Its written in 4 sections. Sections 1 and 3 are "current time". Two and 4 represent the future and tells what happens after the end of the book. I normally like multiple timelines, but the 2nd section coming so early and detailing/telegraphing so much, it took me out of the story a bit. Still an enjoyable read with interesting writing and characters. The author has promise.A quote that struck me..."For 18 days the apartment sat empty. Fine dusts and pollen collected on the window panes and the mirrors stood with no one in them. Nothing in or out of the closed-circuit space. Only the wireless went on, invisibly complicating the air."6/10S: 6/21/15 F: 6/28/15 (8 Days)

[meganelizabeth-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I haven't read a lot of books where I don't really like/sympathize with any of the characters, but I still want to keep reading. Overall an intriguing book, although domestic dramas are not always my thing.

[paperbackpropensity · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

If it were a movie, it would be one of those nuanced independent films that not everyone particularly likes. What I loved about Among the Ten Thousand Things was the writing, which I found to be unique, strong, brilliant, alive. Real.But I had high expectations for this, after all the hyped reviews on the back cover. I thought it would be funny. It apparently was meant to be, but I laughed only once, really, about 255 pages in. It is third person, but we get the perspective of each member of the family. Deb, Jack, and the kids, Simon and Kay. The characters were all well developed, the most real characters I ever met. They could be my neighbors. But it was eleven year old Kay who I really cared about. She was the one I rooted for, the one I wanted to reach out to. She was the best thing about the book. Jack I found to be a typical screw up, a lost man. Deb I fet sorry for. She seemed to want to do the right thing, but she seemed never to know what the right thing was. In the middle of the book is a fast forward into the future. We find out in short paragraphs what happens to everyone. I did not like this, had to put the book down a few days while I decided if I cared enough to even finish it. I finally picked it back up, because I missed Kay. It was worth it to finish, ending with a bittersweet moment between the kids. It felt right.

[staciele · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

First of all, I need to preface this review with the statement that I did not finish this book. I got to 67% of the way through and just couldn't go any farther. That is very rare for me. I typically give books 100 pages and if I don't feel like finishing I just don't. But, this one had so many great reviews that I felt like I was maybe not "getting it". Finally, I decided to bail and I'm glad I did.I think which turned me off of this novel right away was the husband was having an affair. That isn't necessarily a turn off in a story, but the way this one was handled just turned me off immediately. Jack is an sculpture artist and his wife is a one-time dancer who gave it up to teach dance and raise their children. One day as the 11-year-old daughter comes home from school, there is a package delivered. It's addressed to her mom, but because she sees pink packaging she believes it must be for her upcoming birthday and opens it. In it is no present, but graphic letters between Jack and his mistress that have been printed off and sent to share with Jack's wife. The mistress is upset with Jack's lack of attention and is hoping to "get back at him" by sending these letters, never expecting for the children to see them. The daughter then shares this package with her 15-year-old brother who then shows it to their mother.I think this story was so repulsive to me because our children are the same age and I would have a hard time dealing with them reading the vulgar and graphic sexual material that was in the letters. I took this story personally and had a hard time getting past the husband's callous "sorry, sorry, sorry" and the wife's indifference. Because of this situation, the kids were spiraling out of control and no one seemed to be interested in their well-being.Since I read this as an eBook, I can't totally speak to the format of the book, because it could have been different in a print version. Since I wasn't reading a PDF, but instead the actual eBook, I feel like the format would be the same. I must be mostly a traditionalist in how books are formatted because I didn't care for this style. There were sections, but this book had no chapters.. They were listed in the front of the book, like you thought you were going to have chapters, but there were no chapter headings or page breaks. So, again, it could have been a format issue, but if not one, I didn't care for the style. I need those chapter breaks, I guess. If it is a format issue, it needs to be corrected!Finally, the book takes you from the present, to the past, to the future and back to the present and then...since I didn't read all the way to the end...I'm not sure....but traveling to the future in the middle of the story was very confusing and frankly, made me not care about what happened in the rest of the story since I knew how their story ended. I didn't care how the couple got there, what happened to the kids, or their marriage.The only positive I can say is that Pierpont is a talented WRITER. She definitely has a way with words and storytelling, but needs to maybe make her characters more likable and her book more readable with chapter breaks. You can see an example of a well-written piece from the book below.So, for me, I was extremely disappointed in a book that has received much praise and "buzz". But, that's why every book isn't for every person. If you like a more traditional style of writing format and don't like crude sexual material, then I would definitely pass on this one.Favorite Quote: "Not that it was a thing she'd consider - it would be too obvious a distraction from what was wrong, like making a window out of the mirror they were standing in, just so they wouldn't have to look at their own reflections."

[froxgirl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm not agreeing with the blurbers who thought this novel was "funny". An artist husband's mistress, post affair, prints out all their salacious emails and leaves them at his apartment for his eleven year old daughter to find. OH GREAT. It's all pretty pitiful to me. Most characters are sad and lost. The cheating husband is a scheming liar and his wife is too weak to get rid of him. Interesting structural move, though, to move into the future mid-saga and letting the reader know, in broad strokes, how it all ends. I've seen this done effectively once before, but if every fiction writer takes it up, it'll be just as boring as the alternating chapter strategy.Bright spots are one loving grandmother, two horrible Evangelical grandparents, and son Simon's luminous first love encounter.

[drewsof · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What begins as a somewhat ordinary, if convincingly drawn, portrait of an explosion within a family unit becomes so much more thanks to a Woolfian twist in the middle of the telling. Suddenly, despite or even perhaps because of the family's futures being known, we are drawn all the more closely to them over the course of 18 days in the summer. They are still a pretty ordinary group of people - nothing makes any of them any different from the many people who go through similar things throughout their lives - but Pierpont presents them so beautifully that the back half of the novel earns the raves she's been receiving. Hers is a talent to keep an eye on.

More TK at RB:

[c.archer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is hard for me to review. I liked what the author was doing with it most of the time, but sometimes, it confused me. She uses a stylized and creative format to tell a story that some people obviously didn't enjoy. I thought her style worked for this particular piece and even created mini-cliff hangers that drew out the drama, but perhaps it just made sense to my distractable brain.The biggest problem I had with this book was the ending. The author draws out the story line until the final few pages then succinctly in the epilogue reveals an overview many years in advance when the children were mature adults. I couldn't decide if I was happy to know the future or disappointed at the almost post-script lives of the people that I had grown to know. It did seem to diminish the story some, but I would probably have equally disliked not knowing at least the results of several of the story's threads. I wonder if anyone else felt the same? I'll have to read some more of the reviews.I enjoyed the vast majority of this story, and I think that there is an audience for this book, I'm just not sure who I would actually recommend it to. It gives a good perspective of the effect of marital infidelity and separation on children's lives within this particular family. It uses a dramatic and creative style to draw the reader in, but may be off putting to certain readers. However, I think it was the intimate look at so many random moments in the lives of the characters that most appealed to me. Each of them had good and bad traits that made them seem real and believable. I think it was that intimacy that kept me attracted to the story and will either draw or detach a reader's interest.I thank the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

[dablackwood · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a "pretty good" book. I liked some things about it. The premise - that a box of graphic emails from a jilted lover falls into the hands of children 11 and 16 - is a good one. It seemed horrifying to think that a woman would send such a box to the home of her lover's family. And, of course, the children were shocked and disappointed in their father and as events progressed the family just sort of fell apart. The best part was the very believable way that events took over and a family was torn apart. If any one thing had happened differently, perhaps the marriage would have been saved and the children's lives would not have been so altered. It seemed so believable that the husband, Jack, would want to be forgiven and that his wife, Debby, might have wanted to forgive him. But events and pride and the childrens' hurt stand in the way and there is no reconciliation.I guess what I didn't like was that I thought the author was trying to be funny sometimes and it just didn't ring true. Also, the way the story jumped around from character to character and also jumped around in time was an annoyance and I couldn't figure out the reason for it. Many books I've read recently use this gimmick and for most there is no reason for it - it just confuses the reader.

[thewanderingjew_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Among the ten thousand things, Julia Pierpont, author, Hillary Huber, narratorWhen the book began, I was stunned by the extent of filthy language and graphic sexual descriptions used. I almost stopped listening, but instead, I decided to look up some of the reviews to see if there was a warning about language or if the book had been received well, so far. There were no warnings, and the reviews seemed to indicate that the book was a worthwhile read, so I soldiered on. Perhaps without the crude language, I would have been able to appreciate the book more, but in the end, I still believe the trashy vocabulary diminished the literary quality of the novel and was way of the top.The story is about the Shanleys, a family that was coming apart at the seams because of a husband’s serial infidelity. When Jack’s spurned lover sent a box of erotic emails to his home, with his wife Deb’s name scrawled across the top, the emails, unfortunately, fell into the hands of 11-year old Kay and 15-year old Simon before she got to it. Utter chaos developed. Deb was totally surprised and shocked by the content, and Jack tried, unsuccessfully, to explain the whole mess away without the appropriate seriousness. Now that the children were aware of his behavior, which was previously known to his wife, the situation was far worse than it was when his “sin” was originally uncovered.As the marriage began to disintegrate, the author explored the thoughts and responses of each of them. Deb Shanley, 41-years old, was completely thrown and wanted to run away. Jack Shanley, 55-years old was totally off balance and couldn’t believe the way his life was falling apart. He begged Deb to forgive him, but she was no longer in a forgiving mood. Kay was too young to understand what the emails meant, but she knew enough to know that they did not have a good message. She was sad and confused. Simon understood too well; he was angry and became disrespectful. I was left with this thought, what kind of a person would send a box of smut to a home, knowing full well that it might get into the hands of children? I don’t believe the question was thoroughly examined; it felt glossed over.The main part of the story takes place over a few days, after which the author summarizes the rest of their lives, very quickly, and when it ends, the New York condo is being sold, Jack is no longer in the picture, and the children are independent. The book was a disappointment. It was difficult to take it too seriously because of the crude language. I think the story would have been more interesting and less distracting, if the author had simply concentrated on showing how infidelity and a lack of judgment could cause the dissolution of a marriage and harm the children irrevocably. The characters, rather than the dirty sex talk, should have been better developed. The betrayal affected all of them with devastating consequences.I found Deb’s holier than thou reaction a bit disingenuous. When she had dated Jack, he had been married. She broke up his marriage. Why then would she expect a man who had already been disloyal once, to remain loyal to her? Her rush to judgment and her complete disappointment in him seemed extreme since not only did she steal another woman’s husband, but she became pregnant, and that pregnancy worked as a further inducement for him to leave his wife. She behaved as if she was the only injured party and pretty much ignored the needs of the children. On the spur of the moment, leaving Jack behind, she decided to go to their country cabin, a place that had been unoccupied for some time. They owned it with Jack’s friend Gary, and he came up and stayed with them. Why was that appropriate to her? Meanwhile, Jack could not believe that she had left. He didn’t seem to really understand the gravity of the situation.I thought it was incongruous for a woman who stole another woman’s husband to be shocked when someone steals hers. Both Deb and Jack defied the rules and didn’t think there would be consequences. Deb was headstrong and exhibited the same kind of poor judgment as Jack did. She tended to act without thinking first. They were both self serving, immature and irresponsible. I did not feel that the conclusion was well drawn. It left a lot of unanswered questions about more than a decade of intervening years. Deb’s relationship with Eli was sloughed over; Jack’s illness was not explained well, Simon’s future seemed up in the air and I was not sure what Kay was going to do with the rest of her life. It felt like the incident tore the family asunder and they could not be put back together again, ever. The book seemed to imply that a mistake could, irreversibly, take on a life of its own.The crude use of terms to describe the husband’s emails with his lover, were over the top. Perhaps in print form, it would not so objectionable because you can simply turn the page, but in an audio, you are assaulted, forced to listen to it, without any warning. I was left wondering why so many authors were lately finding it necessary to include lurid details of sex which neither enhance nor enrich their novels. There are many novels out there that hint at the same behavior without assailing the reader with it. At the end of the book I began to wonder if novels would not soon need a rating system in the same way that movies do.The narrator read clearly but the voices of both of the male main characters and both of the female main characters seemed to be the same, regardless of the age of the character, so it became hard to differentiate between Kay and Deb and Jack and Simon. I was never sure which one was speaking. In addition, as the thoughts of each character were bared, it sometimes felt as if the story was jumping all over the place without an appropriate segueway. If you must read it, I strongly recommend the printed version of the book, so you can skip pages.

[musichick52 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There were things in this book that did not make sense for me. The spurned lover sends an anonymous box of all written remnants of her affair with Mrs. Shanley's husband. The box is intercepted, opened and read through by one of the family's children. We later find out that the mystery lover had left her apartment and maybe the town after sending the box. Okay, so why did she unload the contents of her affair to the wife? I think that went unexplained. The kids in this family were the interesting treasures. The wife and husband, not so interesting. Each sibling is tested and tempted with youthful treats and indiscretions, some with hilarious results. It is a humorous and quick read for a lazy summer day. My thanks to Penguin's First to Read program and the author for a complimentary copy.

[nivramkoorb · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a book I read because of the positive reviews. It was a well written first novel and I would probably give Pierpont another shot with her next book. This book was okay and it did do a good job dealing with infidelity and its consequences. It created an interesting event in the beginning of the book that moved the action forward. I did find the style and the use of alternating times interesting but it might not work for everyone. Not a very long book so if you read it and it doesn't work, it won't be a big investment. I do find that the hype over the book was not justified.

[ebt1002 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is Julia Pierpont's first novel and she demonstrates some talent. Among the Ten Thousand Things is the story of Deb and Jack and their two kids Simon and Kay. They live in a high-rise in New York and one day 11-year-old Kay is handed a box by the doorman to give to her mother. Instead, Kay snoops and discovers a series of letters, emails, and messages between Jack and the woman with whom he had an affair. It turns out that Deb knew about the affair six months ago, and that Jack ended the affair when Deb learned about it, but the arrival of these graphic reminders of the sordid details of the affair -- and the fact that both kids actually read the exchanges -- has a whole new devastating effect on the family. Told in turns from each family member's perspective and playing just a wee bit with the notion that one small difference in choice-making can lead to an entirely different destiny, the novel explores the nature of attachment, betrayal, and not so much forgiveness as... moving on. It was a pleasant read and Pierpont's apparent talent shows itself now and then. Her commentary on the absurdity of life is just subtle enough to be compelling and humorous: "The next morning at airport security, Jack drained his coffee, deposited his laptop into a bin, and smiled at the guard, militant but for a French braid running the length of her skull. Taking off your shoes was one thing. Now apparently they could ask for clothes. In terminals people hemorrhage money, on magazines, eight-dollar trail mix, batteries, packs of gum. The confines make them desperate for these things. Glowing amber bottles of duty-free perfume: They slow to look. Flight attendants her past the shops, monitoring the sales. That personal gumball machine, $39.95. Not low enough yet."Cute. Wry. Observant. But also mundane. The overall effort is a nice, round average. If you like this kind of literature, you'll enjoy this book. But I doubt it will go down as one of your more memorable reads.

[w.mdo · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

New York City creative types have nuclear family that is disrupted by the father's infidelity. You would think there would be more fireworks that follow (yes, there is an explosion, but it's not the same thing) but what really happens is a lot of a little. A little running away to the beach here, a little midlife crisis there, a little tween breakdown here, a little coming-of-age there. And a few 9-11 references thrown in for good measure. I don't mean that to sound callous, only that part felt a little forced. Actually, many things felt forced, for what little happened in this book. I usually read at the end of the night, and although the book was ok, it was never something that kept me up past my bedtime. It was easy to put down, and I don't know that that is ever what an author is going for.

[susan.h.schofield · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley. I liked this book but I didn't love it. It was an interesting family story that did not have a perfect happy ending but it was sad and depressing either. I liked part one and wish it just would have continued with part three instead of having a part two that summarizes the rest of the characters' lives before going back to the story. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a realistic family narrative with strong characters.

[pinklady60 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A well-known New York artist has an affair, and his mistress sends a box of their sexually provocative e-mails to his wife. Although his wife has suspected his unfaithfulness for years, she now has to acknowledge the infidelity. This story is about how she and her children deal with it.I have to say that nothing much happened in this story. Although there was some angst when the e-mails were first revealed, that seemed to quickly dissipate and daily life went on, for the most part, in a ho-hum manner. Character development was minimal, and I really never connected with them. Also, like other readers before me, I didn’t understand the point of having an “epilogue” in the middle of the book. For me, it didn’t enhance the story in any way.On the good side, there were a few moments of brilliant prose which I enjoyed, such as this description of Jack boarding a plane. “A lifetime later, his section called, Jack walked the connecting hallway of large accordion-like segments, feeling like lint pushed through a vacuum cleaner. A quick glimpse of ergonomic chairs and entertainment consoles and private islands and on to the narrower aisle in coach. Then they were lifted up, as though seized by the hand of some giant. Always a miracle when it worked, every time a breakthrough in physics.”

[mhgatti · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very strong first novel. Not exactly what I was expecting (the box of letters plays a surprisingly small part) but the writing made it worth sticking around. I was a big fan of the middle section, it made it clear that the present, and not future of this family, was what the book was dealing with.

[2lz · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Many thanks to librarything.com for sending me an advanced copy of Among Ten Thousand Things by Julia Pierpont in exchange for my honest review.This novel was an uncomfortable read for me. The subject matter of the husband's email conversation with his mistress was pornographic and crude. Although that may have been the author's intent, it ultimately didn't work for this reader as I was completely turned off to the story, and lacked compassion for the hard to like characters. Further, an essential component of the story seemed to be that the children, instead of the wife, intercepted this package of salacious emails; however, the parcel was handed over almost immediately to their mother. Once that happened the story went in an unexpected direction and not in a particularly good way. There were some interesting revelations that made the reader stop and reevaluate the novel, but it never became memorable for me.On the positive side, the book was well-written, moved quickly and the chapters were short making it a fast read. This was not a favorite selection of mine.

[xkoqueen · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Julia Pierpont’s Among the Ten Thousand Things is about a marriage in trouble, and how all family members and friends are affected. I was intrigued by the synopsis, but not by the actual book. The story is told in four parts. Parts one and three are set in the present, while parts two and four are quick summaries of what happens to the family members in the future. I usual ly enjoy dual time period books, but this one didn’t work for me. The changing time periods ended up being choppy and disorienting. The bits about Jack’s and Deb’s parents seemed like non sequitors. The story layout wasn’t a slow peeling of an onion that revealed the characters and motives. It was a choppy sea bouncing a small dingy on its white-capped surface.Deb, a ballerina going no where, escapes her lackluster career by marrying an older, well-known artist. She escapes her failed marriage by ignoring her husband’s philandering until hard evidence is thrust into her teenaged children’s hands (quite literally). Until that point, Deb the doormat was just going to shut up and put up.Jack, the cheating husband, was a one-time successful artist, however, since his first big flop following a “9/11” piece, he has been flailing and desperate for a devotee and praise. He finds that in a young woman who happy and knowingly gets involved with this married man.Kay and Simon, their teenaged offspring are stung and hurt by their father’s infidelity. They completely fall apart.The characters sound compelling, but they really weren’t. They were self-absorbed and lost before the incident of the cardboard box of sexy emails between Jack and his lover arrived at their NYC apartment. It was impossible to find any sympathy for any of them.I generally have no issue with “unresolved” stories—after all, life is not tied up in a pretty bow—but I found the ending to Among The Ten Thousand Things to be abrupt and without a path to the future.While I found this book disappointing, I can see that Julia Pierpont could be a successful author and I would be willing to read a future novel by this author.

[indygo88 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This one is deceiving. It's got lots of nice author quotes on the cover, and the book description sounds like something you just can't help but want to read. Basically, the story begins when a husband's infidelity is discovered after his children intercept a box of sexually explicit notes & emails. The majority of the novel is about the aftermath of this revelation and how the family as a unit, and as individuals, slowly begin to deal with various emotions associated with this knowledge. I feel bad for rating this one so low, but in all honesty, I really just didn't enjoy the book all that much. It was rather dull -- it took me a long time to get through because I wasn't too motivated to pick it back up once I put it down. The format was odd -- written in four parts, but in a seemingly incorrect order, which just didn't seem to work for me. Several descriptions of the book describe it as funny, but I didn't see it. And the ending....just ended. This book has received some high praise from some readers, but ultimately, it was a disappointment for me.

[karieh_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

“Among the Ten Thousand Things” grabs the reader right away with a gasp worthy event. A young girl accepts a delivery from the building doorman. The item turns out to be a box of emails, written between her father and her father’s lover – emails that leave nothing to the imagination. Emails that bring what had been hidden out into the light and ones that change the family forever.That’s the story I thought I would be reading about. Instead, that opening event remains at the forefront of the novel for a very short period of time. What this book turned out to be was a story about four people in a family. Four completely separate people – a father, a mother, a son and a daughter. Who they feel themselves to be and how they fit into this family unit – until they no longer do.There is the father, Jack, an artist – whose world view and whose actions seem best summed up like this, “He hummed to himself, to the night. Things would turn out okay. For him, somehow, they always had, and so they always would.”There is Deb, the mother, who has traded much of her own individual life for security and stability. She acknowledges the tradeoffs she’s made – and has accepted them until the letters arrive/until her children are aware of what she has been living with. “Women were the real workers of the family; men got to be allies to their children.”The children, Kay and Simon, are the most fully developed characters in the book. Maybe because of their youth or because of their constantly evolving views on their world – they were the most interesting to get to know.The family breaks apart – and then there is a pause (and a plot device that I did not think added anything but pages to the novel). “For eighteen days the apartment sat empty. Fine dusts and pollen collected on the windowpanes, and the mirrors stood with no one in them. Nothing in or out of the closed-circuit space. Only the wireless went on invisibly complicating the air.”It was very interesting to me how quickly the letters become unimportant in the book. The words and the actions described by them are salacious – and yet – quickly lose their impact as the book focuses far more on the family than on the event that was their introduction to the reader.Instead, this was a novel about people. About four individuals that for a time lived together as a family – until they didn’t.

[kris_anderson-1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Among the Ten Thousand Things by Julia Pierpont was a long and excruciating novel to read! Jack Shanley is an artist (installation artist) who is married to Deborah. They have two children named Simon (a moody teenager) and Kay who is eleven. Kay comes home one day and the doorman gives her a package for her mother. The package is not sealed. Kay opens it up and reads the enclosed letter. The letter is from Jack’s mistress, Jordan Esberg. Along with a letter are printouts of every text or chat they ever had (and they are quite explicit). Kay reads the letter and some of the printouts. She does not know what to do with the box. Kay ends up showing it to her brother, Simon who immediately calls in their mother. Turns out that Deborah knew about the affair since Christmas. Jack was supposed to call it off (which he eventually did), but he turned Jordan into a bitter and vengeful woman.Deborah cannot believe that her children now know about the affair (the latest one). The children are angry and do not want to see or talk to their father. The father is a little bit ashamed (that his kids know about it), but he expects Deborah to make everything better. Jack thinks it will be a rough few days (maybe a week) and then life will return to normal. Jack throws himself into his latest project. He installs a concrete house with furniture, windows, etc. and then lets off explosives. It is called BAYT (which means house). It could be a house in any country. Unfortunately, Jack did not make sure all the explosives were discharged. On the night of the opening there is a kaboom! That is the end of that display and Jack’s career for a while. Deborah takes the kids to their ramshackle cottage in Rhode Island for two weeks so they can get away. Among the Ten Thousand Things is what happens to a family after the affair is exposed. It is written as if someone set down and typed out their story (just rambles on) and it was published without any editing. I found the story boring, bland, and dismal. I really had to work hard to get through this novel. The book abruptly switches between people and scenes (so abrupt that you have no clue). The description really sounded good too (of course, that is the goal of descriptions). The book is also written in an unusual order. You find out what happens to everyone in the middle of the book. Then story goes back and tells about the two weeks at the cottage in Rhode Island (like putting the cart before the horse). The ending felt very incomplete (but I was just so happy that I had finished it). I give Among the Ten Thousand Things just 1 out of 5 stars. This book was definitely not for me.I received a complimentary copy of Among the Ten Thousand Things from NetGalley and First to Read in exchange for an honest review. The review and opinions expressed are my own.

[pmelchior_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Entertaining but, for me at least, a little too "real" in some places.

[thebooklover2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved Jean Thompson's novel "The Year We Left Home," and on some level "Among the Ten Thousand Things" reminded me of that book. Both books were exceptionally well-written and by the end you find that you don't really like the characters, instead they are like relatives that you don't like, but you do love because of the emotional and genetic bond that you share.The book opens as Jack Shanley's children intercept some text messages and emails meant for their mother. They are from their father's former mistress. The fallout from this incident is as can be expected - traumatic. From there, the book spends a great deal of time following the family as they deal with Jack's infidelity. There is one interesting plot twist which I won''t give away here, but it certainly adds to the story.Readers will either love or hate this book. If you appreciate excellent writing and an intimate family portrait that shows everyone as they are without any sugar coating, then you will love this book. If you like a story that reads like a tabloid, it isn't for you.

[porch_reader · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book begins with a letter from Jack Shanley's mistress to his wife Deb. The letter accompanies a box of correspondence (texts and instant messages) that Jack's mistress has printed out after Jack broke up with her. The problem is that the box ends up in the hands of Jack's children. The story unfolds from there, as Jack and Deb attempt to figure out how to rebuild their lives. This is Pierpont's first novel, and at times, I was impressed with her beautiful language, the keen observation of details and feelings. She also captured the distinct perspectives in the novel, the reactions of Deb, Jack, and their children. Although I enjoyed the writing, the topic didn't completely resonate with me, but I'll definitely watch for others by Pierpont.