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There are currently 29 member reviews
for The Fortunate Ones
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Henry W. (Lake Barrington, IL)
Under the rocks
An interesting read. What is it like to be "adopted" by a family of significantly greater resources. What is it like to be on the fringes of your new societal circle. How many of us have tried to fill in gaps in our personal histories. I believe we all have shared journeys similar to those set forth by the author. I was a little surprised by some of the issues resolved in the end that I had not even identified. An interesting read worth your time as at stirs you to find out more about your history.
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Carrie M. (Rahway, NJ)
The Fortunate Ones
In Ed Tarkington's The Fortunate Ones, take a journey through the formative years and beyond from the perspective of Archer Creigh, from a privileged family, and Charlie Boykin, from an underprivileged one, and discover how their lives become intertwined and depend on each other. In this engaging thoughtful book, the reader explores the dynamics and interconnections between the wealthy and underprivileged families, who they depend upon, and for what and how they handle their differences and similarities.
Throughout the novel many questions are raised for the reader to ponder. One question not answered: yes, the reader the sees the fortunate ones, but what about the unfortunate ones who do not receive the advantages that Charlie and his mother Bonnie received? The author does provide a full array of life decisions made by the two main characters, including Charlie deciding he must escape from this life to head to Mexico and be with other friends and pursue his art career, but devotion to his mother causes him to come home and return to his former life and support Archer and his aspirations to seek political office because of the lifeline he gave to Charlie.
The Fortunate Ones will provide the reader much thought with a wide array of characters and how they interact with one another, and how their thought processes and consequent emotional reactions add to interactions with the other characters, all of whom have contributions and indiscretions but support how the plot evolves.
Despite not looking enough at the unfortunate ones, The Fortunate Ones is a recommended and thoughtful read, because the author's focus in The Fortunate Ones was to look those who were given the opportunity to be fortunate.
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Darra W. (Mendocino, CA)
A mixed bag ... and missed opportunity
Perhaps Tarkington's novel would have worked better as a series of interconnected short stories, a la Elizabeth Strout's "Olive Kitteridge." Instead, this cautionary tale reads as a rather bloated, disconnected, and at times highly unlikely single narrative that fails to live up to its promising prologue. That's not to say it's without merit given its crisp dialog, timely themes, and intriguing cast of intrinsically flawed characters. Instead, it's a missed opportunity to tell a basically familiar story in a fresh new way.
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Analise A. (Richmond, VA)
Interesting, but didn't fully satisfy.
"The Fortunate Ones" interested me with the themes of Southern cities, privilege, and complicated relationships. While I found the characters interesting, I felt that their choices were at times unbelievable and pulled on too many different threads, without delivering enough substance. The writing is clear, and I felt invested enough to finish the story to see where the characters ended up. This novel hints at some interesting themes, including sexuality, race, and private school culture, but I didn't feel like any of these were thoroughly explored. I would recommend this book if you want an easy read, have an interest in the intersection of Nashville/southern cities and privilege in a coming of age novel.
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Marcia H. (Sarasota, FL)
The Fortunate Ones by Ed Tarkington
While I was happy to read The Fortunate Ones by Ed Tarkington, I found the story disappointing. As the story went on, I found the choices the main character makes disappointing. He is completely taken in by life among the wealthy and his wealthy upperclassman friend, Archer. After the suggestion of a homosexual encounter between the two, I kind of lost sympathy for Charlie. The only time he shows strength of character is when he runs away but then he comes back. I was glad to find out his absent father knew about him. I would be interested to hear what others say but this book is not one I would recommend.
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Kathrin C. (Corona, CA)
Seeing What We Want to See
I enjoyed the first half of the novel, "Princes in the Tower", where Charlie Boykin narrates his own coming-of-age story. Through the connections and designs of his single working mother, he is transported from a poor neighborhood in East Nashville and dropped off into a private school world for offspring of the Tennessee rich. And friendships do develop with his assigned big brother Arch Creigh and girlfriend Vanessa Haltom. Charlie begins to learn and embrace upper class ways of the world and finds that "most of the time, we see what we want to see", so he can let the rest of reality conveniently fall out of sight. Until it comes back and bites him. All this sets the stage for part two, "Vaulting Ambition" that follows their adult years forward. And here my interest flagged a bit, as characters seemed to become more like chess pieces moving around the plot.
So final thoughts – The Fortunate Ones is an easy to read novel and the writing is above average. But I think the characters could use some more in-depth development that would rationalize their later sudden and manic movements that challenged believability.
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Eileen F. (Media, PA)
Class and secrets
Class, race and homosexuality are some of the topics that come up in this book. This book would appeal to book groups because of the many crises that occur in this story. Southerners may recognize many situations in The Fortunate Ones.
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