The Good Father

By: Noah Hawley

Narrated by: Bruce Turk, Arthur Morey, Ryan Gesell

From the award-winning creator of the TV show Fargo and author of the bestseller Before the Fall, an intense, psychological novel about one doctor's suspense-filled quest to unlock the mind of a suspected political assassin: his twenty-year old son.

As the Chief of Rheumatology at Columbia Presbyterian, Dr. Paul Allen's specialty is diagnosing patients with conflicting symptoms, patients other doctors have given up on. He lives a contented life in Westport with his second wife and their twin sons—hard won after a failed marriage earlier in his career that produced a son named Daniel. In the harrowing opening scene of this provocative and affecting novel, Dr. Allen is home with his family when a televised news report announces that the Democratic candidate for president has been shot at a rally, and Daniel is caught on video as the assassin.

Daniel Allen has always been a good kid—a decent student, popular—but, as a child of divorce, used to shuttling back and forth between parents, he is also something of a drifter. Which may be why, at the age of nineteen, he quietly drops out of Vassar and begins an aimless journey across the United States, during which he sheds his former skin and eventually even changes his name to Carter Allen Cash.

Told alternately from the point of view of the guilt-ridden, determined father and his meandering, ruminative son, The Good Father is a powerfully emotional page-turner that keeps one guessing until the very end. This is an absorbing and honest novel about the responsibilities—and limitations—of being a parent and our capacity to provide our children with unconditional love in the face of an unthinkable situation.

Critic reviews

Praise for THE GOOD FATHER:

“The father of a man who assassinates a presidential candidate tries to make sense of his son’s crime in Hawley’s gripping new novel…With great skill, Hawley renders Dr. Allen’s treacherous emotional geography, from his shock and guilt to his growing sense that he knows far less about his son than he thought…Hawley’s complicated protagonist is a fully fathomed and beautifully realized character whose emotional growth never slows a narrative that races toward a satisfying and touching conclusion.”
--Publishers Weekly, starred review

“The Good Father is hypnotic and haunting and I lost all track of time when I was reading it. Suddenly the day had become night and still I was engrossed in one father’s poignant story and Noah Hawley’s mesmeric tales of a long litany of assassins.”
--Chris Bohjalian, author of The Night Strangers, The Double Bind, and Secrets of Eden

“Brilliant and heartbreaking, The Good Father is a thriller, a mystery and above all else a savagely contemporary, hugely important story about the relationship between a father and the boy he left behind in his first, failed marriage. This is a rare and important book, and it will haunt the reader for a long time. It is impossible to read the final pages without weeping, and hard to read any of it without taking a long hard look at your own life, and the damage we do when we dare to love, or let love slip away.”
--Tony Parsons, author of Man and Boy

"This book pulls off something close to impossible. It's both a thriller and a moving, literary novel. A tender father/son story I couldn't put down, a page-turner with depth."
— Stephen Elliott, author of The Adderall Diaries

What is is

It was a good ending. I felt it was satisfying and wrapped it up nicely.

Almost Really Good

If you could sum up The Good Father in three words, what would they be?

Almost Really Good

Who was your favorite character and why?

The father and his transition from unbeliever to acknowledgment was really done well, as any of us with children can relate.

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

The narrator did a good job of being objective in his performance, and keeping an even keel as the story developed.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Reality Show

Any additional comments?

I listened to this book days after the Aurora, CO theatre shootings. Also, I am from Tucson, AZ, where the Gabby Giffords shooting occurred (contrary to the book naming Phoenix as the place of the shooting), so this type of story was especially personal. In addition to the Phoenix error, there were other blatenly incorrect statements (such as the statement that Montana had no speed limits ((they were put in place in 1999)) that I would have thought any first-year editor would have caught and corrected. These types of errors were jarring, and although I liked the book overall, they diminished my enjoyment of it.

A Gut Punch

Loved this book start to finish. Seldom have I listened to a book that captures what it's like to be a parent -- what it's like to fail as a parent -- as much as this book.

You'll make up reasons to drive

Keeps you thinking and wanting more
Well read and well presented
Recommended
Stayed in the car several times to steal a few more minutes

Great Story Telling

I especially liked the narration by other characters and the historical backdrop.
Vivid descriptions. Grand imagery.