Schroder: A Novel

Ripped from the headlines of the newspaper, Schroder: A Novel by Amity Gaige, is loosely based on the story of a man who fooled everybody, with a false identity that unraveled when he kidnapped his own child. I remember reading about it vaguely, and wondered how someone could lead a double life and get away with it. How could his wife not know? How could he not slip up somewhere?Gaige reconstructs the unbelievable. Recounting his story in a jail, Schroder explains how he created a false persona, intimating a loose connection to American royalty, the Kennedy's, in order to gain the positive attention he desired.The book is a confession, guilt ridden and horrifying in the notion that we may not know as much as we thing we do about the people around us.Eric Kennedy is a chimera. Disconnected and isolated in his real persona, he adapts an all American facade to hide his foreign self. Living with a stoic and emotionally dead father, he is able to perpetrate his fraud in the laxed end of the last century. Without an Internet, ways to verify information, the world in it's pre 911 innocence accepts people for who they say they are.Schroder disassociates himself from his German father, reinventing himself at college, later falling in love and building a life. He embodies the American Dream, successful at real estate, this couple moves on to the next step of life, parenthood. As disengaged with his childhood as his own father, he rediscovers a brilliant and delightful child when after the economy crashes, he becomes a stay at home dad. While, I found myself repulsed by what I know he ultimately does, I couldn't help liking the character, in spite of himself.Watching him disintegrate, his lies interfere with his divorce, he is cast aside in his daughter's life. Desperate to be with her, he kidnaps her and they share a "vacation", special father daughter time and watch him try to salvage his life. When he is compelled to surrender, I found myself angry at the system and circumstances that forced him to lie about his life. Is he a bad person who lied or a good person forced to live a lie? Can we all say that we live completely transparent or do omit things ourselves to put the patina of acceptability on us.Well written, Gaige is terrific at taking an unlikable person and making him sympathetic without being maudlin. We can't help but like this flawed character, his love for his wife and child superseding his desperate personality.Schroder is a great book. It's the story of the promise of America, dreams of acceptance and comfort destroyed by false foundations. Fast paced, well written. Amity Gaige writes with a keen understanding of human frailty and is a voice that needs to be heard.

I was captured from page one by this lovely, insightful narrative. And it was a true page turner. Not only an homage to fatherhood, but an excellent rendering of the long-term effects of childhood trauma.The novel is the composition of a letter to Eric's estranged wife, and perhaps to the court as well, so we know right up front that hs is in custody, although not sure until the end what has happened. The structure reminded me a bit of Nabokov's Lolita, but this character has no pomposity. I especially enjoyed the occasional footnote explanation of sorts, interesting technique.Eric was abandoned by his mother and escaped east Berlin with his emotionally distant father, so his entire sense of self is fractured. No wonder he perpetuates a myth of identity, a desire to be more than he is, which continues throughout his adult life, without malignant intent, rather a need to literally become someone else.Beyond the psycho-emotional, few novels I've read incorporate the impact of the German partitioning and these reflections were especially interesting and moving. A child that comes from a dual identity world, and is forced to escape one for the other, is almost by definition a dual-identity person. We root for Eric, although we watch with a pit in our stomachs as he makes his own escape, with his daughter in tow, hoping throughout the book that the ending is at best benign. The fact that his daughter is also remarkable in intelligence and sensitivity is an important element in the novel and she makes for a most interesting character on her own.I would only have hoped for a better glimpse into what went wrong with the marriage, as this part of the story is skimpy, although a comment the wife makes late int he book that somehow she felt as if she lived with a stranger is telling. I've not read Amity Gaige before, but I will look into her backlist because she has a novelist's gentle hand and lyrical voice and while there are moments I felt that only a woman would react the way our male protagonist reacts, she certainly gets to a man's gentler side. Once again, the novel reveals how the connection with a child heals an adult. Sadly, for this father, a bit late, but, if one believes his narrative, worth the risk.

As someone who divorce has hit close to, I was interested in reading Amity Gaige's latest book Schroder about a man named Eric who is recently split up from his wife and is working hard to spend more time with and get closer to his daughter Meadow who lives with his ex-wife. Unfortunately for Eric, the way he goes about doing that is the definition of how someone goes from bad to worse. He takes his daughter on a day trip which becomes a multi-day trip and a week trip and leads to kidnapping charges and a massive manhunt for Eric and Meadow. Along the way, we learn about Eric's broken relationship with his father who he tries to hook up with along his journey with Meadow. What I liked about this book and why I think it was named a NY Times Notable Book of 2013 is that it forced you to think about how far would you go as a father and parent to connect in a meaningful way with your child who is clearly becoming more and more distant. What would you do to bend the rules or the law in order to make that connection. A very good book that I highly recommend.

First, the premise of a novel being a letter from a perpetrator was fascinating, and it worked well. The plot was well-paced and exciting. You never knew what the protagonist was going to do next. Finally, having an unreliable narrator made it exciting and causes you to wonder how the situations would be described by a different POV. I hope there will be a second book written from the POV of the daughter!

I chose this book because it made a change to read about a dad's relationship with his daughter and to some extent it didn't disappoint in this respect. The book is written in the first person by Eric Schroder/Kennedy and the characterisation of Eric is such that you forget that the book is written by a female author. The book raises a lot of interesting ideas about lies; whether solicitors ever actually help in a custody battle; the beauty of silences; what constitutes kidnapping (Eric suggests he didn't kidnap his daughter he just took her on an "adventure". Eric doesn't come across as a great parent (or even a good one) and perhaps that is why I struggled with him. Give it a go and see what you think - its an easy read.

In order to like this book, you probably have to have some sympathy with Schroder, the man who abducts his child, and I had none. I think the author intends him to be in some way appealing, but she did not succeed in making me feel anything for him except annoyance. Amity Gaige did not convince me of his affection for the child whose life he endangered and did not paint a believable portrait of a man with mental health issues. I'm unclear about her intentions; the book does highlight the vulnerability of children at the hands of adults, but I didn't find that her use of Schroder's viewpoint opened up any new understandings.

Improbable story. Boring and slow. Two dimensional characterisation at best. Tediously written.

I enjoyed this book. I felt sympathy and frustration with the narrator and main character Schroder. He behaves like an irresponsible idiot but I couldn't help liking him . Beautiful characterization and a plot that kept me reading. Recommended.

I read this over the summer and didn't like it as much as I thought I would. I didn't find the characters all that convincing, and I felt less and less inclined to follow the main character through his (bad) choices, as the narrative progressed. Wasn't sure in the end what the writer intended; who was I meant to connect with, if anyone?

The heartbreaking story of a marriage gone wrong and a terrible warning for the absent parent not to take matters into their own hands. The protagonist has made some serious mistakes and part of me wanted to shake him for his lack of foresight but nevertheless he is an engaging character and the love that exists between him and his daughter shines out.

A one character book but the character lacked the depth needed to sustain the book.

It's been a while since I read a book this moving and touching. As a father I could not help but sympathise with Eric.

I read the biography about Clark Rockefeller a coupe years ago, so was interested to read a fictional account inspired by his story. It was well written and I enjoyed the story. I liked how the main character is someone I knew I should detest, yet found myself rooting for.

Reading Mags' review above, I can add little to that concise and beautifully put paragraph. This book is a jewel - special in every sentence and idea.I started to read it when a bit tired and when it quickly dawned on me how capable Gaige's writing is, I started again from the beginning but only reading it when fresh and able to fully appreciate it's subtlety.

This was a fabulous book. I first spotted it at the Edinburgh Book Festival and decided to purchase it for my Kindle. It really struck a chord with me. It is about a dad estranged from his wife and daughter who 'kidnaps' the daughter and travels across America. It is written by him looking back on the situation. It is really well written and covers some really profound issues from parenthood to death to sex and much more. The end was a little disappointing but realistic. I learned a lot from this book.

We read this for book club and it provided a good discussion at the end. I can't say I would re-read it though it was OK at the time.

Jeez this book is one long drag of a whinge. I don't think I've come across a more self pitying drone of a lead since Catcher In The Rye. It's begins well enough, interesting premise, but just falls flat with page after page of dead prose. Disappointing.