Imagine Me Gone

By: Adam Haslett

Narrated by: Ellen Archer, Robert Fass

Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

From a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, a ferociously intimate story of a family facing the ultimate question: How far will we go to save the people we love the most?

When Margaret's fiancé, John, is hospitalized for depression in 1960s London, she faces a choice: carry on with their plans despite what she now knows of his condition, or back away from the suffering it may bring her. She decides to marry him. Imagine Me Gone is the unforgettable story of what unfolds from this act of love and faith. At the heart of it is their eldest son, Michael, a brilliant, anxious music fanatic who makes sense of the world through parody. Over the span of decades, his younger siblings - the savvy and responsible Celia and the ambitious and tightly controlled Alec - struggle along with their mother to care for Michael's increasingly troubled and precarious existence.

Told in alternating points of view by all five members of the family, this searing, gut-wrenching, yet frequently hilarious novel brings alive with remarkable depth and poignancy the love of a mother for her children, the often inescapable devotion siblings feel toward one another, and the legacy of a father's pain in the life of a family.

With his striking emotional precision and lively, inventive language, Adam Haslett has given us something rare: a novel with the power to change how we see the most important people in our lives.

©2016 Hachette Audio (P)2016 Adam Haslett

Critic reviews

"Spectacular.... You should buy this book, you should read it, and you should admire it.... [It] is the herald of a phenomenal career." ( The New York Times Book Review)

"Exceedingly well written...a high-spirited, slyly astute exploration of our great bottoming out." ( The Boston Globe)

"Haslett possesses a rich assortment of literary gifts: an instinctive empathy for his characters and an ability to map their inner lives in startling detail; a knack for graceful, evocative prose; and a determination to trace the hidden arithmetic of relationships." ( New York Times)

Great performances, good story.

Great performances by the readers. Though finishing too quickly and tidily, the story is still nonetheless touching with great character development. Trigger warning: mental illness.

Imagine you depressed...

I have experienced depression as two of the characters in the book. And I had a father who was bipolar, so much of the feelings in the book from the depressed to the children of the depressed was familiar to me. I appreciated the desperation of the father and son, and the frustration of the other members of the family. I did not doubt the reasons the mother married the father--I saw those reasons in my own mother.

The biggest complaint I have, honestly, is with both the narrators. I had to constantly figure out who was "talking" as every character sounded exactly the same! Why didn't the father have an English accent? Why did the mother and daughter and all three male characters sound exactly the same? After 13 years, I have come to expect more from the actors who portray the first-person narrators.

The story is good, but be prepared to be confused as to the narrator when stopping and re-starting this book.

deeply moving

enjoyed this on my long drives- cars are boring and this novel was deeply moved me exploring mental illness and how it effects those closest

Disappointing

What did you like best about Imagine Me Gone? What did you like least?

Narrator was excellent. Some of the characters were boring. Sexual descriptions unnecessary.

Has Imagine Me Gone turned you off from other books in this genre?

Not necessarily.

Have you listened to any of Ellen Archer and Robert Fass ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No.

Not my cup of tea

I thought narration saved this dark, miserable story. It may mirror someone's real life, but there are always better choices top be made. I wish I had not listened as I saw little victory in the story, and no redemption. It's fatalistic in its approach. My suggestion is to find other, better stories.

Bipolar

fascinating patient-centered multi-generational description of bipolar symptoms and response to medication in a family setting

Intensely sad but important

This book is very sad and depressing but it reflects the life that some people lead and it deserves to be known about. Mental health is a most serious issue and the way it impacts families can be devastating. A great story.

A melancholic foray into the world of mental illness

Excellent narrators. They did a great job of conveying the current mindset of the characters, which changes throughout the book (example: Michael on meds and off meds). The narrators didn't sound like they were reading at all.

A sense of melancholy and foreboding pervades this book, which is primarily what held my interest—the knowledge that something bad will happen, but having yet to discover what, when, how, and why. The writing is strong. I especially liked that the story is told through the alternating points of view of the different family members; an interesting and effective approach, particularly in this case, as it enables the reader to see how the circumstances affect each family member, in turn. I'm not sure I can say I "enjoyed" it per se—this book addresses mental illness and the toll it takes on the victim and everyone close to that person, so although enlightening, it's also quite depressing. Well done, but unless someone is seeking to understand what people suffering from mental illness go through, to "walk a mile in their shoes," I don't know that I would go out of my way to recommend it.

Too grim!

Too much dysfunction. Enjoyed the writer's use of language. I didn't really care much about the characters and their anguish.

a disjointed story

I felt that we never really got to know any one of the characters very well and then therefore didn't really care about them a whole lot. but that's just my opinion