The Imagined Life
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- £9.99
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- £9.99
Publisher 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 recognise, 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 and the homophobia of the 1980s—and masterfully weaves a tale of trauma, generational secrets, forbidden love, and shame.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the satisfying if muted latest from Porter (The Disappeared), a middle-aged writer sets out to discover why his father abandoned him and his mother four decades earlier. Steve has recently begun a trial separation from his wife and young son, and his quest unfolds on two tracks: by road, as he travels up the California coast to visit his disgraced English professor father's friends and relatives, and via memories, as he works through his last year with his father, beginning in summer 1983 when he was 11. He remembers his father's boisterous backyard pool parties at their home in Fullerton, Calif., and the days his father would spend in the cabana with close friend and colleague Deryck Evanson. Looking back, Steve recognizes that his mother had caught onto his father's affair with Deryck. His road trip includes a stop in Ojai to see his uncle Julian, with whom he discusses his father's failed bid for tenure shortly before his disappearance. "He was railroaded," Julian claims, defending his brother's merit and referencing an obscure controversy. Further up the road, Steve uncovers a few secrets as he tries to make sense of his own life in relation to his father's. Though there aren't many surprises, there's a comforting quality to Steve's insights about fathers and sons. This therapeutic novel is worth a look.
