Our Short History

A Novel

By: Lauren Grodstein

Narrated by: Karen White

Karen Neulander, a successful New York political consultant, has always been fiercely protective of her son, Jacob, now six. She's had to be; when Jacob's father, Dave, found out Karen was pregnant and made it clear that fatherhood wasn't in his plans, Karen walked out of the relationship, never telling Dave her intention was to raise their child alone.

But now Jake is asking to meet his dad, and with good reason: Karen is dying. Worried that he'll break Jake's heart, Karen finally makes the call and is shocked to find Dave ecstatic about the news. First, he can't meet Jake fast enough, and then he can't seem to leave him alone. As she tries to play out her last days in the "right" way, Karen struggles with knowing that the only thing she cannot bring herself to do for her son - let his father become a permanent part of his life - is the thing he needs from her the most.

With heart-wrenching poignancy, unexpected wit, and mordant humor, Lauren Grodstein has created an unforgettable story about parenthood, sacrifice, and life itself.

©2017 Lauren Grodstein (P)2017 Tantor

Well done.

This is not the type of book that I normally read. It's a story about revelation, acceptance, and forgiveness. Well done.

Not A Great Read

Like another reviewer on Amazon, I bought this because of a great review I'd heard of it on NPR. I found the narrator (the mother) to be rather maudlin and her son somewhat spoiled. After a while it became difficult to really care about either of them.

Unreasonable single mother

I found out that Lauren Grodstein was going to be speaking nearby next week. I wasn't familiar with her work so I thought I'd read her most recent book in anticipation of going to see her speak. I really wanted to like this book since I was planning to go to the author's talk. I was very disappointed. The main character is Karen Neulander who has been diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer with 4 years to live. I think we all know that cancer sucks and no one wants to have it. Unfortunately, Karen is such an unreasonable character that it was difficult to even feel sympathy for her. The premise of this book is that she is writing it for her 6 year old Jacob to have when he is grown up as a combination of advice and stories of their time together. She is a miserable person. She finds fault with everyone everywhere. She is convinced her son's father Dave is trying to take her son from her when it's clear that he just wants to get to know Jacob and do anything to help Karen who is really not well. She is equally convinced that her partner in the political consulting firm Chuck is trying to take the company from her when it's clear he needs to hire people in order to keep the company viable while Karen is going through treatments and dying. When her final client Ace's opponent dies leaving him unopposed for the City Council race, Karen leaks rumors of infidelity about Ace to a reporter just so that she can do damage control and keep her job. There was nothing I liked about this woman. When her sister Allison tries to help her, Karen again finds fault with how she is taking care of her son. Early in the book, Karen and Jacob witness a kid having a total meltdown at a breakfast place because he wanted a jetpack. Karen is very smug about how Jacob has totally outgrown temper tantrums and they both laugh at the family as they struggle in the restaurant. I found this particularly annoying because Jacob is a total whiny brat. Karen would tell him something - time to leave, eat, stop playing video games, you can't see your dad, I can't swim with you - then Jacob would whine and beg and have a tantrum. Yuck. I would not recommend this book to anyone. It left me with an overwhelming feeling of sadness and anger - it literally put me in a bad mood.