---
product_id: 31893441
title: "A Friend of the Family"
brand: "lauren grodstein"
price: "€ 15.20"
currency: EUR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 7
url: https://www.desertcart.ie/products/31893441-a-friend-of-the-family
store_origin: IE
region: Ireland
---

# A Friend of the Family

**Brand:** lauren grodstein
**Price:** € 15.20
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** A Friend of the Family by lauren grodstein
- **How much does it cost?** € 15.20 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.ie](https://www.desertcart.ie/products/31893441-a-friend-of-the-family)

## Best For

- lauren grodstein enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted lauren grodstein brand quality
- Free international shipping included
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## Description

Full description not available

## Images

![A Friend of the Family - Image 1](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41Xf37pUc0L.jpg)
![A Friend of the Family - Image 2](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51JHf+Cu32L.jpg)
![A Friend of the Family - Image 3](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/31vCZlYpEOL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Great
  

*by J***Y on Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2017*

Although I usually prefer novels which tell one particular story, often along with a few subplots, the voice of the narrator is so strong and engaging that I stayed interested from beginning to end.  This novel, instead, tells a few compelling stories and eventually gets back to what's presented at the beginning.  The author does a great job in writing from a man's perspective and it's very convincing--unlike a novel I read a few months ago in which it was very clear from the first two pages that the man who wrote it couldn't make his female narrator believable.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Good... but Strange
  

*by M***S on Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2013*

This book was good, but... strange. While there was a general theme to the story, and a few twists at the end, it was almost like it didn't have that much of a plot. But that actually kind of worked. It read like a guy was personally telling you the story of his life, so it meandered a little bit and didn't always seem like it was leading anywhere. Even though it didn't seem like it was going anywhere at times, the ending definitely shows that there was a point to it all.Something I loved about this book is the amazing characterization. The characters seemed very real. Honestly, I didn't even really like any of them that much, because they each had many flaws, but the beauty of that is that the characters come off as so much more human. This story could have been real life and I wouldn't have known the difference, that's how real they seemed to me. I even actively disliked the main character, but I don't think we were really supposed to like him, so seeing the story from his perspective was a really neat stylistic choice that was interesting and different.I gave this book four stars instead of five is because I felt that the ending was kind of strange. It seemed oddly unfinished, but again I think it was a stylistic choice to make the characters seem more human -- real people's lives continue on after the story ends, while most novel characters' stories just sort of stop. There was also a key part of the story that was revealed in the end that was just not as shocking as it could've been, it just seemed kind of arbitrary at that point. And the other big moment at the end had been hinted to so much throughout the entire thing that it wasn't surprising at all. I also wish that the main character's marriage got resolved a little bit more. Their marital troubles are confusing and the ending didn't really clear it up at all, although again that's possibly a stylistic choice because that's the way real life goes. But I don't think that you can just blame all bad parts of a novel on "stylistic choices" -- at some point, you have to make the reader happy, and I wish that there had been a bit more resolution to it all in general.One last thing that I want to mention is that this book was very difficult to read for me. The story takes place in so many different points in time all at once (which does accurately represent the human brain, but it damn confusing) and I found myself getting lost and not understanding when certain events were taking place. By the end, I had gotten used to it and figured it all out, but I was still getting confused up until at least halfway through the book, and it wasn't confused in a good way, I just think that the connections between the main story and the flashbacks were poorly written.Even though I did have a few problems with this novel, over all it was a great read. I thought that the narration was very interesting, and that the story covered topics I'd never read about before, especially from that perspective.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Fabulous look at the dangers of "helicopter" parenting
  

*by J***Z on Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2010*

I absolutely loved this book. It's a struggle for every parent -- how far should you intervene in your children's lives, especially when you fear they're making choices that will destroy their futures. The central character, Dr. Pete, is a family practice doctor with a son who dropped out of college to pursue a career as an artist and who then becomes involved with the 30-year-old daughter of Dr. Pete's best friend, who as teenager killed her prematurely delivered baby in a bathroom stall. And by the way, Dr. Pete has also never gotten over the crush he's had on his best friend's wife since they all met in college. To make matters worse, he's facing a medical malpractice suit because a young woman under his care died. That's quite a dramatic stew -- and Grodstein explores it all with wonderful sophistication and not the least bit of melodrama. She does an amazing job examining all the issues -- whether someone who's made a horrible mistake can ever redeem their lives and how much parents should interfere in their children's lives without running the risk of just making everything worse. I loved her earlier novel, 

  
Reproduction is the Flaw of Love (Delta Fiction)









  
  
    
  , which is also told from a man's perspective. She does a great job of getting inside men's heads. (There was only minor detail she got wrong, which I think most men would know. While shooting around a basketball, Dr. Pete -- who I think is supposed to be about 6 feet 2 -- dunks. That's not something most guys of that height, and especially those in their early 50s as Dr. Pete is, could do.)

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---

*Product available on Desertcart Ireland*
*Store origin: IE*
*Last updated: 2026-03-08*