Review: Us by David Nicholls

Long listed for the Man-Booker prize, this novel turns the “coming of age” story on its head by telling it from the point of view of the father.  Douglas, strait-laced scientist, is happily married to Connie, adventurous artist, until the night she wakes him at 3:00 am to tell him she might want to leave him.  Let the anxiety attacks begin.  Their seventeen-year-old son, Albie, will be going off to college and Connie thinks she may be departing the family home as well.  The trouble is that the Petersen family had planned a grand tour of Europe as a part of Albie’s leave taking.  Douglas has scheduled museums, hotels, trains, everything.  Connie says she sees no reason to cancel the trip and Douglas plans to make the grand tour so wonderfully happy that Connie will decide to stay.  Have you ever planned the perfect family outing only to be foiled by circumstances beyond your control? Poor Douglas and his perfectly laid plans.  As the story of the Petersen family is revealed through Douglas’s flashbacks and narration, the reader gets to know and appreciate him. He is logical, imminently witty, and caring—though he seems to have some difficulty communicating this last quality to those about whom he cares.  There is a particularly poignant lego story, which I refuse to spoil, and what it tells us about Douglas is priceless. The story of the Petersens is the story of many families.  Part love, part dysfunction, part chance:  they are all lovable, but sometimes not likable.  They are Us.

This book is set to be published on October 28, 2014.