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    Among the Ten Thousand Things: A Novel
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    Among the Ten Thousand Things: A Novel
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    Among the Ten Thousand Things: A Novel
    Audiobook9 hours

    Among the Ten Thousand Things: A Novel

    Written by Julia Pierpont

    Narrated by Hillary Huber

    3/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE AND THE HUFFINGTON POST • For fans of Jennifer Egan, Jonathan Franzen, Lorrie Moore, and Curtis Sittenfeld, Among the Ten Thousand Things is a dazzling first novel, a portrait of an American family on the cusp of irrevocable change, and a startlingly original story of love and time lost.

    Jack Shanley is a well-known New York artist, charming and vain, who doesn't mean to plunge his family into crisis. His wife, Deb, gladly left behind a difficult career as a dancer to raise the two children she adores. In the ensuing years, she has mostly avoided coming face-to-face with the weaknesses of the man she married. But then an anonymously sent package arrives in the mail: a cardboard box containing sheaves of printed emails chronicling Jack's secret life. The package is addressed to Deb, but it's delivered into the wrong hands: her children's.

    With this vertiginous opening begins a debut that is by turns funny, wise, and indescribably moving. As the Shanleys spin apart into separate orbits, leaving New York in an attempt to regain their bearings, fifteen-year-old Simon feels the allure of adult freedoms for the first time, while eleven-year-old Kay wanders precariously into a grown-up world she can't possibly understand. Writing with extraordinary precision, humor, and beauty, Julia Pierpont has crafted a timeless, hugely enjoyable novel about the bonds of family life-their brittleness, and their resilience.

    Praise for Among the Ten Thousand Things

    "A luscious, smart summer novel . . . by a blazingly talented young author."-The New York Times Book Review
     
    "This book is one of the funniest, and most emotionally honest, I've read in a long time."-Jonathan Safran Foer
     
    "Obsessively compelling . . . emotionally sophisticated . . . Among the Ten Thousand Things rises above [other novels] for its imagined structure, sentence-by-sentence punch, and pure humanity."-Vanity Fair
     
    "Gripping . . . Pierpont brings this family of four to life in sharply observed detail. . . . An acute observer of social comedy, Ms. Pierpont has a keen eye for the absurd."-The Wall Street Journal
     
    "Pierpont's language is heart-stopping. . . . Between Pierpont's literary finesse and her captivating characters, [Among the Ten Thousand Things] reads like a page-turner."-Entertainment Weekly (grade: A)
     
    "A twisty, gripping story-that packs an emotional wallop."-O: The Oprah Magazine

    "There are going to be as many ingenious twists and turns in this literary novel as there are in a top-notch work of suspense like Gone Girl."-Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air

    "Tender, delicately perceptive . . . Pierpont's voice is wry and confident, and she is a fine anthropologist of New York life."-The Washington Post

    "Pierpont displays a precocious gift for language and observation. . . . She captures the minutiae of loneliness that pushes us away from each other and sometimes brings us back."-San Francisco Chronicle


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJul 7, 2015
    ISBN9781101912881
    Unavailable
    Among the Ten Thousand Things: A Novel

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    Reviews for Among the Ten Thousand Things

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    • 4/5
      Loved the authors metaphors and observations of what would otherwise be mundane details, however the narrative was disappointing to me.
    • 3/5
      If it were a movie, it would be one of those nuanced independent films that not everyone particularly likes. What I loved about Among the Ten Thousand Things was the writing, which I found to be unique, strong, brilliant, alive. Real.But I had high expectations for this, after all the hyped reviews on the back cover. I thought it would be funny. It apparently was meant to be, but I laughed only once, really, about 255 pages in. It is third person, but we get the perspective of each member of the family. Deb, Jack, and the kids, Simon and Kay. The characters were all well developed, the most real characters I ever met. They could be my neighbors. But it was eleven year old Kay who I really cared about. She was the one I rooted for, the one I wanted to reach out to. She was the best thing about the book. Jack I found to be a typical screw up, a lost man. Deb I fet sorry for. She seemed to want to do the right thing, but she seemed never to know what the right thing was. In the middle of the book is a fast forward into the future. We find out in short paragraphs what happens to everyone. I did not like this, had to put the book down a few days while I decided if I cared enough to even finish it. I finally picked it back up, because I missed Kay. It was worth it to finish, ending with a bittersweet moment between the kids. It felt right.
    • 3/5
      This novel has an immediately gripping introductory scene: a man's spurned mistress (we never learn her name) has decided not to burn the evidence of her former lover's indiscretions: the notes, the emails, the printed-out late-night chats. Instead, she sends them to the wife.

      What results is less predictable than you might think. For starters, the wife isn't the one who actually opens the package.

      All of this is to say that I was pretty intrigued at the start, but the book overall gradually sloped downhill for me. I never did find anything out about the wife that made me root for her (or care much about her at all, to be honest) and while I dutifully feel some distaste for the husband, I think I was also supposed to sympathize with him a little bit, or at least find him pitiful -- and I guess I did, but more as a detached observation than an emotional response. I don't feel sorry for him, or for her, because I don't really feel anything.

      But this book gets three stars because the teenage characters are much more interesting. They handle the threat to their nuclear family in very different ways, and we get brief glimpses of the people they will become as adults.

      An easy read, but full of twilight (dark-ish, but not quite dark) subject matter. Could be a beach read but isn't breezy or uplifting, so if that's what you're after, look elsewhere.



      Disclosure: I received a free copy of this ebook in exchange for my unbiased review.
    • 3/5
      I didn't love this book but I enjoyed it and I appreciated the different voices and actual character differences the author was able to develop. It wasn't slow, but simultaneously nothing much happened, and there wasn't any real resolution to what did happen. Which, frankly, was pretty realistic. Every decision or moment of confusion was legitimately complex, feelings grey, actions grey. Every character wanted conflicting things. Everyone was a little alone, and a little tired. A little too much like real life, in the end.
    • 3/5
      Full disclosure: I got a copy of this book as part of the Early Reviewer program.You know how sometimes you read a blurb on the back of the book and you think, "Okay, I'll probably really like this book if so-and-so has that to say about it," and then you read the book yourself and think, "I'm pretty sure the blurber (is that a word?) didn't actually read the same book I did." That feeling is exactly the one I had about this book. The top blurb is from Jonathan Safran Foer and it says, "This book is one of the funniest, and most emotionally honest, I've read in a long time." The WSJ review says "An acute observer of social comedy..."Well, I feel misled. I did not find the book the least bit funny. What's funny about adultery? What's funny about divorce? What's funny about damaging your kids? I didn't laugh, I didn't snicker, I didn't even archly raise an eyebrow when reading this book. That said, I did not hate it. It was an interesting read. I didn't connect with any of the characters. And I didn't really understand the structure. Inventive, I guess, but I just found it confusing. And I'm not normally bothered by unusual structure (Matthew Kneale's English Passengers is one of my favorite books ever). I just felt like it didn't work in this one. But it's a plausible story of how infidelity can damage everyone in its orbit. And I would probably agree with the "emotionally honest" part of the blurb. And, you know, the New York Times, Vanity Fair, and Oprah's magazine all gave it glowing reviews. So, maybe it's worth your time and you'll love it more than I did.
    • 3/5
      Review on my blog here.

      Jack Shanley is a fairly well-known New York artist. He's a married father of two. He's also an adulterer, who carries on affairs in his New York studio. This comes back to bite him, so to speak, when one of his exes sends his wife a large box chronicling their entire relationship - emails, texts, sexts - all printed and contained in this one box. The box is delivered to Jack's apartment and opened by his eleven-year-old daughter, Kay, and fifteen-year-old son, Simon. They show the box to their mother, Deb, forcing her to confront the many flaws of her husband. Meanwhile, Kay and Simon are (justifiably) traumatized by the box's contents and the possible dissolution of their parents' marriage.

      This was an odd book. As a child of divorce, a lot of this book hit home, and I felt myself feeling a great deal of sympathy for Deb, Kay, and Simon - especially as they disappear off to their vacation home, of sorts, to recover. (Alas, no vacation home when I was a child.) Julia Pierpoint is certainly a strong writer and her prose is lovely and well-crafted. Still, the book often just seems a little flat.

      The strangest part of this book, to me, as many other reviewers have pointed out - is that is constructed in four parts - parts one and three basically deal with the immediate aftermath of the box's delivery and how the family reacts. Parts two and four tell us what happen to Jack, Deb, Kay, and Simon for their entire lives. It's an odd author tool, and I'm not sure it entirely works. For me, I was caught up enough in Part One's tale and then found Part Two incredibly jarring - even more so to be dumped back into the current story at Part Three. Part Four repeats Two a bit and tells a bit more about what happens to the characters. It's an odd device, and I really would have preferred not to have had Part Two stuck in there at all. I suppose it's an artistic overreach that appeals to critics but not most actual readers.

      Overall, I found the book an intriguing look at a family dealing with a father's betrayal. Not a ton happens - it's not that sort of book - but Pierpont's writing is strong, and I liked Simon and Kay. I am not sure the book is one that will leave a lasting impression with me, though.
    • 4/5
      I haven't read a lot of books where I don't really like/sympathize with any of the characters, but I still want to keep reading. Overall an intriguing book, although domestic dramas are not always my thing.
    • 2/5
      I liked this book at first, it felt similar to a J. Courtney Sullivan book, but then it got too graphic and disturbing and I had to put it down.
    • 2/5
      Just couldn't do it. Reduced to skimming. The premise seemed alright, but the actual characters didn't grab me.
    • 3/5
      I received an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley. I liked this book but I didn't love it. It was an interesting family story that did not have a perfect happy ending but it was sad and depressing either. I liked part one and wish it just would have continued with part three instead of having a part two that summarizes the rest of the characters' lives before going back to the story. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a realistic family narrative with strong characters.
    • 4/5
      I'm not agreeing with the blurbers who thought this novel was "funny". An artist husband's mistress, post affair, prints out all their salacious emails and leaves them at his apartment for his eleven year old daughter to find. OH GREAT. It's all pretty pitiful to me. Most characters are sad and lost. The cheating husband is a scheming liar and his wife is too weak to get rid of him. Interesting structural move, though, to move into the future mid-saga and letting the reader know, in broad strokes, how it all ends. I've seen this done effectively once before, but if every fiction writer takes it up, it'll be just as boring as the alternating chapter strategy.Bright spots are one loving grandmother, two horrible Evangelical grandparents, and son Simon's luminous first love encounter.
    • 2/5
      This book shoves you straight into the world of a family where the children have just discovered that their father has been having an affair. The reader is given no back story, except for bits and pieces that come as the story goes along, and for that reason you don't know who these characters are. Because the reader, or at least me, doesn't know who the characters are, it's impossible to care about them. Some of the writing is inventive and interesting, which I unfortunately cannot also say about the plot. Overrated.
    • 4/5
      [This review is of the Advance Reader's Edition]The beginning of Among the Ten Thousand Things is gut wrenching, as is the end of Part 1. In between, Pierpont lets you off the hook a bit, but not much. If you don't care about these people by the end of Part 1, you should just quit. But I don't see how that could happen.I rate this debut quite high (4/5) because of Pierpont's exceptional writing and because the inner lives of the main characters are just too real - remarkably well-formed for a writer so young. But Pierpont resists the temptation to make the whole book a series of gut-wrenching 'events', and, instead, takes us through a much more realistic presentation of the lives of this family as they seem to pull apart from each other to deal with the shock and fallout of infidelity; each cast adrift and grasping for a handle on what life is going to be like now. Near the halfway point in the book, Part 2 is a brief summary of the rest of their lives - some trivial events and some major. But this seems to be only a possible way that their lives will play out, and Part 3 (most of the remainder of the book) provides some hope for sanity and survival, in some form, for each of them. Among the Ten Thousand Things ends with a brief Part 4, which is an alternative to the Part 2 future. Pierpont stays in the realm of the realistic - no tidy happy endings...no definite ending at all, just like life. For some, Part 2 just causes confusion (and, perhaps, it confused me and I just don't realize it). But if you consider it a tangent and not a definitive summary of the rest of the story, you should find hope in the alternatives ultimately playing out for the characters by the end.So, would I recommend this book? Sure, for those who don't need near-constant action, and are willing to spend time in other people's heads; for those who don't have to have a tidy wrap-up for the characters, but are happy with simple realism. I found myself empathetic, if not sympathetic, towards each of the four main family members long before the end, though empathy came much sooner and easier for some. And now I find that they still live in my head, and I wonder how things are turning out for them.Os.
    • 4/5
      I loved Jean Thompson's novel "The Year We Left Home," and on some level "Among the Ten Thousand Things" reminded me of that book. Both books were exceptionally well-written and by the end you find that you don't really like the characters, instead they are like relatives that you don't like, but you do love because of the emotional and genetic bond that you share.The book opens as Jack Shanley's children intercept some text messages and emails meant for their mother. They are from their father's former mistress. The fallout from this incident is as can be expected - traumatic. From there, the book spends a great deal of time following the family as they deal with Jack's infidelity. There is one interesting plot twist which I won''t give away here, but it certainly adds to the story.Readers will either love or hate this book. If you appreciate excellent writing and an intimate family portrait that shows everyone as they are without any sugar coating, then you will love this book. If you like a story that reads like a tabloid, it isn't for you.
    • 3/5
      Uneven in places but I did finish - that's something these days. I didn't love this but would give Pierpont another look. Maybe her sophomore novel will be a bit better.
    • 4/5
      This book is hard for me to review. I liked what the author was doing with it most of the time, but sometimes, it confused me. She uses a stylized and creative format to tell a story that some people obviously didn't enjoy. I thought her style worked for this particular piece and even created mini-cliff hangers that drew out the drama, but perhaps it just made sense to my distractable brain.The biggest problem I had with this book was the ending. The author draws out the story line until the final few pages then succinctly in the epilogue reveals an overview many years in advance when the children were mature adults. I couldn't decide if I was happy to know the future or disappointed at the almost post-script lives of the people that I had grown to know. It did seem to diminish the story some, but I would probably have equally disliked not knowing at least the results of several of the story's threads. I wonder if anyone else felt the same? I'll have to read some more of the reviews.I enjoyed the vast majority of this story, and I think that there is an audience for this book, I'm just not sure who I would actually recommend it to. It gives a good perspective of the effect of marital infidelity and separation on children's lives within this particular family. It uses a dramatic and creative style to draw the reader in, but may be off putting to certain readers. However, I think it was the intimate look at so many random moments in the lives of the characters that most appealed to me. Each of them had good and bad traits that made them seem real and believable. I think it was that intimacy that kept me attracted to the story and will either draw or detach a reader's interest.I thank the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.
    • 3/5
      Got this book from LibraryThing's Early Review program, in exchange for an honest review. This is Pierpont's first novel, and I guess you can say that its a domestic drama.Husband, wife, 2 kids, seemingly ideal life. Husband's ex-mistress sends a box of all of their raunchy correspondence to the wife. The the proverbial kaka hits the proverbial fan. This is the opening of the book and the rest is the fallout. Its written in 4 sections. Sections 1 and 3 are "current time". Two and 4 represent the future and tells what happens after the end of the book. I normally like multiple timelines, but the 2nd section coming so early and detailing/telegraphing so much, it took me out of the story a bit. Still an enjoyable read with interesting writing and characters. The author has promise.A quote that struck me..."For 18 days the apartment sat empty. Fine dusts and pollen collected on the window panes and the mirrors stood with no one in them. Nothing in or out of the closed-circuit space. Only the wireless went on, invisibly complicating the air."6/10S: 6/21/15 F: 6/28/15 (8 Days)
    • 3/5
      This was a book I read because of the positive reviews. It was a well written first novel and I would probably give Pierpont another shot with her next book. This book was okay and it did do a good job dealing with infidelity and its consequences. It created an interesting event in the beginning of the book that moved the action forward. I did find the style and the use of alternating times interesting but it might not work for everyone. Not a very long book so if you read it and it doesn't work, it won't be a big investment. I do find that the hype over the book was not justified.
    • 3/5
      This one is deceiving. It's got lots of nice author quotes on the cover, and the book description sounds like something you just can't help but want to read. Basically, the story begins when a husband's infidelity is discovered after his children intercept a box of sexually explicit notes & emails. The majority of the novel is about the aftermath of this revelation and how the family as a unit, and as individuals, slowly begin to deal with various emotions associated with this knowledge. I feel bad for rating this one so low, but in all honesty, I really just didn't enjoy the book all that much. It was rather dull -- it took me a long time to get through because I wasn't too motivated to pick it back up once I put it down. The format was odd -- written in four parts, but in a seemingly incorrect order, which just didn't seem to work for me. Several descriptions of the book describe it as funny, but I didn't see it. And the ending....just ended. This book has received some high praise from some readers, but ultimately, it was a disappointment for me.
    • 4/5
      I found Among the Ten Thousand Things a quick read, and I generally liked the author's writing style. Unfortunately, I did not find it to be a satisfying read, and the subject matter was quite depressing. Although the characters came alive and seemed realistic, I didn't particularly like or relate to any of them. I also found it strange that the author reveals the future of the characters in the middle of the book. It made me feel like the rest of the book didn't really matter. I'm not sorry that I read it, but I would have liked more to the plot.
    • 3/5
      An honest look at a failing marriage. I enjoyed the kids more than the adults in this novel. A good read, but not a standout.
    • 3/5
      If it were a movie, it would be one of those nuanced independent films that not everyone particularly likes. What I loved about Among the Ten Thousand Things was the writing, which I found to be unique, strong, brilliant, alive. Real.But I had high expectations for this, after all the hyped reviews on the back cover. I thought it would be funny. It apparently was meant to be, but I laughed only once, really, about 255 pages in. It is third person, but we get the perspective of each member of the family. Deb, Jack, and the kids, Simon and Kay. The characters were all well developed, the most real characters I ever met. They could be my neighbors. But it was eleven year old Kay who I really cared about. She was the one I rooted for, the one I wanted to reach out to. She was the best thing about the book. Jack I found to be a typical screw up, a lost man. Deb I fet sorry for. She seemed to want to do the right thing, but she seemed never to know what the right thing was. In the middle of the book is a fast forward into the future. We find out in short paragraphs what happens to everyone. I did not like this, had to put the book down a few days while I decided if I cared enough to even finish it. I finally picked it back up, because I missed Kay. It was worth it to finish, ending with a bittersweet moment between the kids. It felt right.
    • 3/5
      There were things in this book that did not make sense for me. The spurned lover sends an anonymous box of all written remnants of her affair with Mrs. Shanley's husband. The box is intercepted, opened and read through by one of the family's children. We later find out that the mystery lover had left her apartment and maybe the town after sending the box. Okay, so why did she unload the contents of her affair to the wife? I think that went unexplained. The kids in this family were the interesting treasures. The wife and husband, not so interesting. Each sibling is tested and tempted with youthful treats and indiscretions, some with hilarious results. It is a humorous and quick read for a lazy summer day. My thanks to Penguin's First to Read program and the author for a complimentary copy.
    • 1/5
      The book starts with a bang: a husband's ex-mistress sends a box of sexually explicit texts and email messages that she and the man shared to the man's wife -- but it is intercepted by his 11-yr-old daughter who shows it to her high school brother. Surely there will be fireworks after this start.Sorry, but no.This strives to be a story about how a man's infidelity affects him and his family. But it's just not very engaging -- the husband has a history of infidelity, the wife has known for years, the children don't understand her reaction (neither does she) and have no guidance in handling the situation. And it goes on this way until -- suddenly -- there's a Part Two which appears to be some sort of epilogue -- ten pages or so, about halfway into the book -- with everyone's futures quickly and neatly summed up. I couldn't imagine what the rest of the pages were going to be -- notes? bibliography?acknowledgements? However! It's not really over -- now there is Part Three and we're back to the story, even though we know what happens to everyone because we've read Part Two. The gimmick might have worked (or at the least wouldn't have been puzzling and annoying) if the characters -- any of them, one of them -- had absorbed my interest. Unfortunately for me, they all remained ciphers.The best I can say is that there is some admirable writing here and there.
    • 3/5
      Have to say I disliked this book. I very much disliked Jack, the husband/father who was having an affair,, and never really got into the heads of the other characters. So much of it was written from the kids' point of view that it almost seemed like a YA book, but not as interesting. Plus the author has irritating stylistic tics, like over-hyphenating..
    • 3/5
      This is Julia Pierpont's first novel and she demonstrates some talent. Among the Ten Thousand Things is the story of Deb and Jack and their two kids Simon and Kay. They live in a high-rise in New York and one day 11-year-old Kay is handed a box by the doorman to give to her mother. Instead, Kay snoops and discovers a series of letters, emails, and messages between Jack and the woman with whom he had an affair. It turns out that Deb knew about the affair six months ago, and that Jack ended the affair when Deb learned about it, but the arrival of these graphic reminders of the sordid details of the affair -- and the fact that both kids actually read the exchanges -- has a whole new devastating effect on the family. Told in turns from each family member's perspective and playing just a wee bit with the notion that one small difference in choice-making can lead to an entirely different destiny, the novel explores the nature of attachment, betrayal, and not so much forgiveness as... moving on. It was a pleasant read and Pierpont's apparent talent shows itself now and then. Her commentary on the absurdity of life is just subtle enough to be compelling and humorous: "The next morning at airport security, Jack drained his coffee, deposited his laptop into a bin, and smiled at the guard, militant but for a French braid running the length of her skull. Taking off your shoes was one thing. Now apparently they could ask for clothes. In terminals people hemorrhage money, on magazines, eight-dollar trail mix, batteries, packs of gum. The confines make them desperate for these things. Glowing amber bottles of duty-free perfume: They slow to look. Flight attendants her past the shops, monitoring the sales. That personal gumball machine, $39.95. Not low enough yet."Cute. Wry. Observant. But also mundane. The overall effort is a nice, round average. If you like this kind of literature, you'll enjoy this book. But I doubt it will go down as one of your more memorable reads.
    • 3/5
      Entertaining but, for me at least, a little too "real" in some places.
    • 4/5
      This book begins with a letter from Jack Shanley's mistress to his wife Deb. The letter accompanies a box of correspondence (texts and instant messages) that Jack's mistress has printed out after Jack broke up with her. The problem is that the box ends up in the hands of Jack's children. The story unfolds from there, as Jack and Deb attempt to figure out how to rebuild their lives. This is Pierpont's first novel, and at times, I was impressed with her beautiful language, the keen observation of details and feelings. She also captured the distinct perspectives in the novel, the reactions of Deb, Jack, and their children. Although I enjoyed the writing, the topic didn't completely resonate with me, but I'll definitely watch for others by Pierpont.
    • 4/5
      What begins as a somewhat ordinary, if convincingly drawn, portrait of an explosion within a family unit becomes so much more thanks to a Woolfian twist in the middle of the telling. Suddenly, despite or even perhaps because of the family's futures being known, we are drawn all the more closely to them over the course of 18 days in the summer. They are still a pretty ordinary group of people - nothing makes any of them any different from the many people who go through similar things throughout their lives - but Pierpont presents them so beautifully that the back half of the novel earns the raves she's been receiving. Hers is a talent to keep an eye on.

      More TK at RB:
    • 4/5
      A very strong first novel. Not exactly what I was expecting (the box of letters plays a surprisingly small part) but the writing made it worth sticking around. I was a big fan of the middle section, it made it clear that the present, and not future of this family, was what the book was dealing with.