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    A Weekend in New York
    A Weekend in New York
    A Weekend in New York
    Audiobook8 hours

    A Weekend in New York

    Written by Benjamin Markovits

    Narrated by Benjamin Markovits

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    'What are you feeling so anxious about? I'm the guy who has to go out there and lose.' 'That's what I don't like. That's what you don't realise. It's harder on the rest of us.' 'I'm sure it must be,' he said. Tolstoy claimed: 'All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way'. But what if the happy families are actually the most unusual of all? Paul Essinger is a mid-ranking tennis professional on the ATP tour. His girlfriend Dana is an ex-model and photographer, and the mother of their two-year-old son, Cal. Together they form a tableau of the contented upper-middle-class New York family. But summer storms are blowing through Manhattan, and Paul's parents have come to stay in the build-up to the US Open. Over the course of the weekend, several generations of domestic tension are brought to boiling point . . . What does it mean to be a family? To be an individual? And how do we deal with the responsibilities these roles impose upon us? A Weekend In New York intertwines the politics of the household and the state to forge a luminous national portrait on a deceptively local scale. Recalling some of America's most celebrated novelists - this is John Updike's Rabbit for a new generation - Benjamin Markovits' writing reminds us of the heights that social realism can reach
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateFeb 19, 2019
    ISBN9781980017813
    A Weekend in New York
    Author

    Benjamin Markovits

    Benjamin Markovits grew up mostly in Texas and London. He has published eight award-winning adult novels. He lives with his family in London, where he teaches creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London.

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    Reviews for A Weekend in New York

    3.5/5

    23 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This book felt like what it is to be in a family: the fierce love that binds children to parents and to each other, the inability to really know that other person. The narrative spans just a few days, so the description is slow and detailed, yet never felt tedious. I was left wanting to know more about the choices each of these family members would make. I can’t say I really liked them, but I cared about them because the author had given me a window into each one’s interior world.

      I listened to the audio version, and enjoyed the author’s narration. I’m looking forward to listening to the sequel.
    • 4/5
      A novel that focuses on character relationships over plot, A Weekend in New York is about the Essinger family as they come together in New York City for their youngest son/brother's tennis tournament. I enjoyed navigating the complex relationships throughout, and trying to better understand the characters and their motivations. The characters were realistic and complex to the point that the reader does not feel they can fully understand any of them by the end. Speaking of the end, the sudden ending left me dissatisfied. It resolved nothing and left me with a lot of questions about what was next for this family. With a more satisfying ending, I would have given it four stars, because I found it otherwise engaging and interesting.
    • 3/5
      A Weekend in New York by Benjamin MarkovitsAn upper middle class family gets together in NYC to support Paul who is competing in the USTA Open Tennis Championships. As he contemplates retiring from tennis as he nears the end of his competitive years, aged 33, married with a baby son , Paul and his wife interact with 3 generations of his family.The Essingers are well educated and employed, consisting of 4 siblings, 2 brothers and 2 sisters. The book is written in a breezy style, easy to read yet also revealing as it captures the rivalries and pecking orders of the family dynamics. Much of what is described and depicted ring true. Both parents and siblings are drawn with a variety of self-doubts and neurotic characteristics; only the younger generation, 4 grandchildren appear untainted as they either ignore or critique the adults in this family.An enjoyable read yet in the end of little substance. Reminds me of a TV series or light adult comedy of errors. I do commend Markovitz on his easy writing style and nailing the cultural and concrete landscape of the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
    • 4/5
      Paul Essinger is a tennis player who almost achieved greatness once upon a time and now continues to play in the lower levels of the professional circuit. He is successful enough to provide a comfortable life in New York City (no easy feat) for his girlfriend. Dana, and her young son. Paul’s family has come to New York to watch him play in the U.S. Open. This reunion is the subject of the book. This is a book about family and the struggles they face even when they are (mostly) happy.Paul’s father feels a mixture of pride and disappointment in his son. This is especially poignant on this weekend which will likely be the last of Paul’s professional career.The story follows the events of this weekend with a focus on the relationships amongst Paul, his parents, and his siblings, as well as with Paula (his girlfriend). Paul is planning to retire to his home town of Austin, Texas (a plan of which Paula knows nothing). The siblings have the typical resentments that siblings and children of a family have. The novel presents each of them (as it does with all the characters) both as individuals but also (and maybe more importantly) as members of a unit that has a life of its own. The characters all struggle with the balance of how to be themselves both outside and within this loving family.One thing I missed in this book was a more detailed picture of the New York of the title. One of the reasons I chose this book was that, as a New Yorker, I am always interested in stories that take place here but there was no real sense of the city, which I found disappointing.The writing itself is excellent, comfortable, easy to read, clear and insightful. The author’s intelligence and compassion for his characters are evident. The book beautifully presents the family drama that is both common to most families and unique to this one. I loved (and identified with) each individual’s struggle to define themselves both within and outside of their family. I identified with their struggles. Even if the details are specific to these characters, the balancing act of individuality and family roles was familiar and one I’m always interested in exploring. By the end, I cared about the members of this family and their futures. It is a satisfying family saga.My thanks to LibraryThing.com for providing me with a free copy of this book.
    • 2/5
      This novel spans four days and focuses on the Essinger Family. Paul is competing in the US Open, and as usual, his parents and siblings gather in New York to watch him. The book is about the relationships and problems between each of the family members.I did not particularly enjoy this novel. The characters were fairly uninteresting and unlikeable. None of their problems had any resolution by the end of the story, because their interactions did not change them in any meaningful way. The best parts of the book were the descriptions of the New York Neighborhoods.
    • 4/5
      “Whenever Paul qualified for the US Open, his parents, his big brother, his two sisters, their various kids, traveled to New York to watch him play.” From this very first sentence of A Weekend in New York you know there’s family history and drama in store. It’s that “whenever” that is so fraught with significance. Clearly Paul has qualified before, maybe often, but he never wins.Benjamin Markowits’s new book is the kind of novel I love, a talky book about a family with a plot that is contained in some way. In this case, the “set piece” is the family gathering for a long weekend to watch Paul play tennis. I know nothing about the world of professional tennis, and that is another thing I like about this book, because I read fiction to let me visit worlds I don’t want to live in all the time.
    • 3/5
      This novel is getting a ton of advance praise. The author has several titles under his belt already and as I was going over my TBR list I noticed I had written down Markovits' books as ones to seek out. That was many years ago and so this book is the first of his I have ever read.From the summary the subject ("happy families/unhappy families" in the Tolstoy tradition) is exactly the sort of story I like to read. But for whatever reason this book bored me. I found myself uninterested in this family of two elderly-ish parents and four adult children (some with children of their own) spending a weekend in New York together to watch one of the sons compete in a tennis match. They do other things while they are together (restaurants, walks, parks, general catching-up that exposes the hierarchy and inner workings of sibling relationships) and the perspective shifts between each character during the activities did not work for me. It took me a long time to read because of those two criticisms. I may have to read it a second time to appreciate it. But with a TBR list miles long with newer or better options I probably won't give it a second glance.
    • 4/5
      Tennis, professional sport, families, New York, siblings