The Imagined Life

(Paperback)

---

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

A taut, elegiac and engrossing read, The Imagined Life follows Steven Mills, a man in a struggling marriage who becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth about the father who vanished from his life when he was only twelve.

Driving up the coast of California, Steven seeks out his father's friends, family, and former colleagues, and is transported back to his 1980s childhood: his parents' legendary pool parties, black-and-white films on the backyard projector, his father's male friends in the cabana house... With every revelation his father becomes more difficult to recognize, and, with every insight, Steven must confront truths about his own life.

In cinematic prose, Andrew Porter explores the full nexus of male relationships: fathers and sons, husbands and lovers-set achingly against the US AIDS epidemic in the 1980s-and masterfully weaves a tale of trauma, generational secrets, forbidden love, and shame.

Reviews

"Such an alluring novel, with echoes ofThe Goldfinch.I was completely absorbed."

* Roxy Dunn, author of As Young As This *

"Foremost among Porter's 20th-century forebears might be Richard Yates. Like Yates, Porter writes in a style that is lucid and unadorned... He is less caustic than Yates, and more forgiving; generosity, rather than contempt, is the animating impulse."

* The New York Times Book Review *

"The Imagined Life[is] endowed with sympathy and propelled by the mystery behind the Mills family's undoing. You want to find out what happens."

* The New York Times Book Review *

"The Imagined Lifemoves in both directions, foraying precariously into the future even as it looks back in perplexity, and seeking understanding even as it attempts to salvage love."

* The New York Times Book Review *

"The Imagined Lifetoggles between description andevocative, fine-grained recollections."

* The Wall Street Journal *

"Elegiac, poignant."

* The Wall Street Journal *

"Impressively moving... Andrew Porter confronts with sensitivity and insight [the question] Is it ever possible for us to truly know our parents"

* Harvey Freedenberg, Shelf Awareness *

With its quiet confidence and elegant precision,The Imagined Lifeis a masterpiece of memory, music, and longing. Andrew Porter is one of our finest prose stylists, and everything hes turned his attention to herea troubled adult son struggling to understand his troubled father; the slow disintegration of an American family; a boy coming of age amidst the wine and weed of California in the early 80sshimmers into pure gold.

* Kimberly King Parsons, author of We Were The Universe *

The Imagined Lifedelves into the space between the people we love and who we wish them to be. With unsentimental precision, Andrew Porter examines the flawed relationship between a father and son, approaching it with the grace of a true literary master.

* Jai Chakrabarti, author of A Play for the End of the World *

The Imagined Life is a wise and elegant novel. Andrew Porter bestows so much grace on the confusion of growing up and the relatable anguish of looking back and recognizing our parents as peopletrue peoplewho struggle just as mightily with sorrow and love.

* Manuel Muoz, author of The Consequences *

Author Bio

Andrew Porter is the author of the story collection The Theory of Light and Matter and the novel In Between Days. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, he has received a Pushcart Prize, a James Michener/ Copernicus Fellowship, and the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. Currently, he teaches fiction writing and directs the creative writing program at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.