$24.95
HARDCOVER, NEW
Ships in 1 to 3 days
| Qty | Store | Section |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Airport | Literature- General |
| 1 | Beaverton | Literature- G |
| 6 | Burnside | Literature- G |
| 5 | Burnside | Literature- Debut Fiction |
| 63 | Catacombs Warehouse | Featured Titles- Staff Favorites |
| 3 | Hawthorne | Literature- G |
| 4 | Hawthorne | Featured Titles- General |
| 25 | Quimby Warehouse | Literature- General |
| 25 | Quimby Warehouse | Literature- General |
| Hide store locations | ||
Used Book Alerts 
The Monsters of Templeton
by Lauren Groff
|
|
|
About This Book
ISBN13: 9781401322250 |
Powells.com Staff Pick
Read it in hardcover. Honest. You're surfing the website of an independent bookseller in Portland, Oregon — undoubtedly, you care about books, and likely you appreciate discovering the best ones before the masses catch on. Do yourself the favor of reading Lauren Groff's debut before the buzz and eventual bestseller status obscure how remarkable a literary achievement it truly is. By the time you finish, you'll add Templeton, New York, to the map of contemporary northeast literature, alongside hamlets made famous by such luminaries as John Irving and Richard Russo. Here's one strong, early favorite for the 2008 Book Sense Fiction of the Year Award.
Recommended by Dave, Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
In the wake of a disastrous affair with her older, married archeology professor at Stanford, brilliant Wilhelmina Cooper arrives back at the doorstep of her hippie mother-turned born-again-Christian's house in Templeton, NY, a storybook town her ancestors founded that sits on the shores of Lake Glimmerglass.
Upon her arrival, a prehistoric monster surfaces in the lake bringing a feeding frenzy to the quiet town, and Willie learns she has a mystery father her mother kept secret Willie's entire life. The beautiful, broody Willie is told that the key to her biological father's identity lies somewhere in her family's history, so she buries herself in the research of her twisted family tree and finds more than she bargained for as a chorus of voices from the town's past— some sinister, all fascinating — rise up around her to tell their side of the story. In the end, dark secrets come to light, past and present day are blurred, and old mysteries are finally put to rest.
A fresh, virtuoso performance that will surely place Groff among the best young writers of today.
Review:
"At the start of Groff's lyrical debut, 28-year-old Wilhelmina 'Willie' Upton returns to her picturesque hometown of Templeton, N.Y., after a disastrous affair with her graduate school professor during an archeological dig in Alaska. In Templeton, Willie's shocked to find that her once-bohemian mother, Vi, has found religion. Vi also reveals to Willie that her father wasn't a nameless hippie from Vi's commune days, but a man living in Templeton. With only the scantiest of clues from Vi, Willie is determined to untangle the roots of the town's greatest families and discover her father's identity. Brilliantly incorporating accounts from generations of Templetonians — as well as characters 'borrowed' from the works of James Fenimore Cooper, who named an upstate New York town 'Templeton' in The Pioneers — Groff paints a rich picture of Willie's current predicaments and those of her ancestors. Readers will delight in Willie's sharp wit and Groff's creation of an entire world, complete with a lake monster and illegitimate children. (Feb.)" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:
"The sense of sadness I feel at the approaching end of The Monsters of Templeton isn't just because the story's going to be over; when you read a good one — and this is a very good one — those feelings are deepened by the realization that you probably won't tie into anything that much fun again for a long time." Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly
Review:
"A fantastically fun read, a kind of wild pastiche that is part historical novel and part mystery, with a touch of the supernatural thrown in for good measure." Booklist
Review:
"Lauren Groff hits a home run in her first at-bat, with a novel that is intriguingly constructed and compulsively readable....Groff casts an ambitious net, and it absolutely works....And the elements do finally come together to a surprisingly satisfying end." The Denver Post
Review:
"The Monsters of Templeton, a fascinating first novel by Lauren Groff, is a book with joy in its marrow....Reading this exquisite book is like swimming through warm water filled with wondrous things...floating in a kind of timelessness." San Francisco Chronicle
Review:
"Liberally peppered with old photographs, diary entries, letters, and a family tree constantly in need of revision as Willie eliminates one possibility after another spanning more than two centuries of shocking Templeton history, this is an irresistible adventure. Highly recommended." Library Journal
Review:
"Lauren Groff's multilayered saga...both thrills and delights with its poignant, breathtaking prose. (Grade: A)" Entertainment Weekly
Review:
"[T]here seem to be two novels here, and they don't fit together terribly well. Flawed, but commendably ambitious and stuffed with ideas — many of them not well developed, but inspiring hope for a more disciplined second effort from this talented newcomer." Kirkus Reviews
Review:
"Ms. Groff's inexperience shows in this overcrowding, as it does in overly mellifluous turns of phrase....But it speaks well for her narrative talents that Willie Upton...holds even more interest than the elaborate events that surround her." Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Review:
"The Monsters of Templeton is a bold and beautiful hybrid of a book....Lauren Groff is an exciting young novelist, gifted with an elegant prose style and a narrative ambition as deep and as serious as the human mysteries she sets out to explore." Lorrie Moore
Review:
"Groff breathes new life into her vivid characters, even those on loan from Cooper's novels....The Monsters of Templeton makes readers work, but its rewards are worth it. Groff...is a talent to watch and celebrate." USA Today
Review:
"The historical puzzle satisfies to the end, but in the present day, Groff tries a little too hard to smooth out Willie's future....Still, as a work of imagination, The Monsters of Templeton excels." The Christian Science Monitor
Review:
"In The Monsters of Templeton Lauren Groff has crafted a multilayered story that is boldly inventive and surprising, by turns wistful, elegiac, and sweeping." Lauren Belfer
Synopsis:
Wilhelmina Cooper is told that the key to her biological father's identitylies somewhere in her family's history. She buries herself in the research of her twisted family tree and finds that a chorus of voices from the town's past — some sinister, all fascinating — rises up around her to tell their side of the story.
About the Author
Lauren Groff was born in Cooperstown, New York, which is the model for Templeton, her novel's setting. Groff's short stories have appeared in publications including The Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares and The Best American Short Stories and Pushcart Prize anthologies. She lives in Gainesville, Florida.
What Our Readers Are Saying
Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 3 comments:
-
Tom Scruggs, March 26, 2008 (view all comments by Tom Scruggs)
An outstanding read. I was fascinated from the beginning and could hardly put it down. Groff has managed to craft a novel based on history that is compelling while adding a mystical note that adds an intrigue that completely draws you in. I look forward to Grogg's further efforts.
-
bgelean, March 12, 2008 (view all comments by bgelean)
I liked this book a lot; it is complicated in its own way and yet all laid out for us in a relatively direct manner. The occasional (revised) family trees helped to keep it in order. I loved the first line in the version I read “The day I returned to Templeton steeped in disgrace, the fifty-foot corpse of a monster surfaced in Lake Glimmerglass.” Now, who wouldn’t be interested in a book that begins with the whole outer limits of the story presented in those few words? This book has so much within its pages! There are many stories within the story, some short, some longer, but all pertinent to the whole. There is also a quote from the Author’s Note referring to her final prompt to begin writing that I think gives us a glimpse of Lauren Groff’s own character as to how this story would be written: “That’s about the time his [James Fenimore Cooper] characters knocked on the door and joined the party.” This book is ostensibly about Willie (Wilhelmina) Upton, but it is also about a small town’s occupants, the history of both town and Willie’s heritage and much more. The book is descriptive, the characters are fully formed, and I can picture it all so easily. Willie came home from Alaska where she was working as part of an archaeology team, with a feeling of guilt and uselessness. Through living back in Templeton, Willie comes to an understanding of who she is. Her mother, a descendent of the town’s founding father Marmaduke Temple, challenges her to discover who her father is and tells her only that he lives in the town and is also a descendent of Marmaduke (Duke). An old school friend and an elderly librarian become two unlikely allies in her search. Each new search brings us another story as each descendent is “discovered”, and she learns there were more “monsters” in the town than the one in the lake, but it makes for a very interesting debut book. I am fascinated by Groff’s method and writing. I am certainly looking forward to more books by this author.
-
sonya, March 3, 2008 (view all comments by sonya)
I've liked Groff since I read her in the Best American Short Stories series. When my writer's group decided to study her piece -- about a polio survivor learning to swim during the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic (based loosely on real-life Olympian Ethelda Bleibtrey) -- I was surprised by how I wanted to read her sentences over and over. I eagerly ordered this new book (signed, first edition) and I feel like I'm getting first glance of a major work. Thanks for choosing such complex writers for your interviews.
View all 3 comments
Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9781401322250
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Hyperion
- Author:
- Subject:
- General
- Subject:
- Single women
- Subject:
- Sea monsters
- Subject:
- General Fiction
- Publication Date:
- February 2008
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Grade Level:
- General/trade
- Language:
- English
- Illustrations:
- Y
- Pages:
- 364
- Dimensions:
- 9.58x6.56x1.25 in. 1.47 lbs.
- Age Level:
- from Al to l0
