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Lily King's 'Father of the Rain,' reviewed by Ron Charles

In a voice even more damning for its refusal to judge him, King describes Gardiner streaking naked through a children's party, reading Penthouse Letters to the family and telling racist jokes in his Uncle Tom accent. Young Daley struggles to see him as silly and fun, while adults -- enablers every one -- stand around laughing nervously. If he were a little more violent, if his sexual transgressions were just an iota more predatory, we could peg him as a monster and Daley could be free of him forever, but that's the treacherous skill of the functional alcoholic that King captures here so well: Gardiner swaggers between normal life and chaos, just good enough to maintain a semblance of sobriety, civility, humanity.

Daley is torn between the fear of losing her father and remaining in his company, never knowing when she might be the victim of his sudden callousness but desperate "to receive the full glow of that face. This would be so easy to get wrong, to let slip into a slow-moving thriller or a pathetic tale of abuse. But the raw sincerity of their love for each other makes his behavior and her devotion all the more tragic.

Another aspect of "Father of the Rain" that deepens the story and broadens it beyond the dimensions of one family's disintegration is how effectively King lets us see the national drama playing out in the news. While Gardiner is stomping around bullying his wife and children, President Nixon is snarling at his enemies and reassuring the nation, struggling to maintain the illusion of normality before his house collapses, too.

This natural resonance between foreground and background makes for an affecting portrait of a little girl losing all the pillars of respect and stability in her life. The novel's next part, 18 years later, is just as successful and even more absorbing, the narrator's voice having aged into a more analytical and self-conscious tone.

Lily King's 'Father of the Rain,' reviewed by Ron Charles

Is it a courageous book? Francine Prose, in Reading Like a Writer talks about being "heartened by all the brave and original works that have been written without the slightest regard for how strange or risky they were, or for what the author's mother might have thought when she read them.

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When she is away, Daley misses her mother, her spirit and values. Daley calls her the ballast in her life.

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Award-winning author Lily King's Father of the Rain: spans three decades in a riveting psychological portrait of a wildly charismatic patriarch as seen through the. Lily King's "Father of the Rain" is a worthy companion of recent novels on the theme of surviving alcoholism, by a writer who understands the.

Does she actually miss her father when she is absent from him? It takes Gardiner two weeks to call her when her mother has decamped with her to New Hampshire. Is that call just legal strategy? How does Daley react? How is this issue of accountability woven through the novel? Is there a sense of a lost Eden, however spurious? What does her mother's rose garden signify to her? Despite the family dysfunctions, in Daley's mind certain things have connected the Amorys as a family.

What are those things? Perhaps "I don't like you, I don't like Pinky, and I'm not having a good time" page 61?

I have seen the rain by pink and her dad, james moore

Or the silly back-to-school song? How does Daley deal with these codes when she returns to Ashing? What does she mean by "those two smashed sides of me fusing briefly" page 61? Which of the minor characters move us to love or pity?

Lily King - Wikipedia

For instance, is it Neal's mother with her bipolar mania that we feel sympathy for? Or her son Neal who always has to conceal and protect her and pick up the pieces after McLean's? The sisters Vance in their hidden garden world? Daley's is a rich and capacious spirit. Whatever her pain, she has a great heart, and her sense of humor is often her salvation. Talk about that shrewd, funny quality in Daley.

Even though her father's humor is often crude and reductive, has she sharpened her wit on him? They do have each other's measure.

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After an AA meeting Gardiner has jotted down that "'Thank you is all you need to say to get God's attention. I thought that was pretty good.

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When else are they able to share that connecting wire of humor? Who are the people in Daley's life that she truly cares about? Which ones does she dismiss without mercy? Is regret part of Daley's nature? What would she like to change about herself if she could? What are the most terrible choices she has to make? Or did he truly never develop to that extent? Was he only ever capable of feeling his own needs, his own pain?

Was there any way to have had a good relationship with him? Much of Daley's growth comes with disillusion. Talk about these times in her life. How is it that the scorn and neglect of her father does not create a hard shell of a girl? For the American swimmer, see Lilly King. This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification.

Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately , especially if potentially libelous or harmful. March Learn how and when to remove this template message. Euphoria, by Lily King". The New York Times.