The Condition

By: Jennifer Haigh

Narrated by: Jennifer Van Dyck

The Condition tells the story of the McKotches, a proper New England family that comes apart during one fateful summer. The year is 1976, and the family has embarked on their annual vacation to Cape Cod. One day, Frank is struck by his thirteen-year-old daughter, Gwen, standing a full head shorter than her younger cousin. At that moment he knows something is terribly wrong with his only daughter.

Twenty years after Gwen's diagnosis with Turner's Syndrome—a genetic condition that traps her forever in the body of a child—all five family members are still dealing with the fallout. Frank and Paulette are acrimoniously divorced. Billy is dutiful but distant. His brother, Scott, awakens from a pot-addled adolescence to a soul-killing job and a regrettable marriage. And Gwen is silent and emotionally aloof, until she falls in love for the first time. And suddenly, once again, the family's world is tilted on its axis.

Compassionate yet unflinchingly honest, witty and almost painfully astute, The Condition explores the power of family mythologies.

And then it ended!!!!

I was enthralled from the first word.. an amazingly honest and poignant story. The characters were painfully true, with all their day to day worries and insecurities. A family that unravels drifts apart and then comes together again in the most fragile way.

A story we can all relate to on some level.

Good Contemporary Fiction

I agree with the person above, contemporary literature can take many forms, it doesn't have to be just the bestseller thrillers. This book does a great job with some real "Today" issues, while being entertaining, touching and ironic and downright funny in parts. Loved it!

By the way, the previous reviewer may enjoy books by Don Delillo, Richard Russo, the book "Return to Wando Passo," and the book "The Abstinence Teacher" if they are looking for good, "alternative" contemporary choices. There's lots of others, check out Oprah's list. I haven't been disappointed yet.

Poor recommendation....

Like another reviewer, I chose this book based on the Audible recommendation, and I, too, was very disappointed. The author continually presented situations where the characters could make a choice and change their lives, but instead they consistently made bad choices. There were so many opportunities to give the characters some depth; it's too bad the author kept her characters so one-dimensional.

We each have to live our own truth

If you like stories about self-acceptance and families, you will like this book. It is an interesrteing story that reminded me that we each have to be true to ourselves, no matter is it means certain relationships run the risk of being forfeited.

One of the best...

I loved this book. The genre of "flawed family dynamics" can be really good or really bad...and this was a really good one. The characters of the family were well developed and believable, and the addition of a daughter with an unusual medical condition was accurately described with empathy. I could have listened to this one straight through, if my life hadn't interfered...