Dear Kate: A Novel

by Gerard Thomas Straub

At forty-three, Hollywood television producer and writer Christopher Ryan has lost the will to live. Listless, depressed, and suicidal, he withdraws into his study where, immobilized by confusion and self-doubt, he can do little more than reflect on his past and wonder what went wrong with his life. The one thing that keeps him from ending it all immediately is the thought of his ten-year-old daughter, Kate. She lives with Ryan's ex-wife on the East Coast and has never had the chance to get to know her father. Ryan begins a series of long letters in which he attempts to tell Kate everything about himself. At first, the task is difficult, but soon the letters begin to take on a life of their own. Following his own stream of conscious, Ryan's letters go in all sorts of unexpected directions, as they explore his inner thoughts, beliefs, and fears. His plan is to entrust the completed letters to a friend who will deliver them to Kate when she is twenty-one, long after Ryan has killed himself.
Described by author Gerard Thomas Straub as a fictional memoir in the form of an epistolary novel, Dear Kate takes the reader on an intense introspective journey that probes fundamental questions about the meaning of individual existence in late twentieth-century America. Much of Christopher Ryan's malaise is ascribed to his strict Catholic upbringing and the guilt and fear instilled in him by the Church. In the process of critiquing himself, Ryan throws a cold light on the oppressive religious, social, and cultural forces in contemporary life that undermine personal self-worth and identity. Dear Kate ends with a shocking revelation of a secret part of Christopher Ryan's life, which he hid from everyone, including Kate.

479 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1992

Reviews

[Emily Kestrel · Rating 1 out of 5]

A long, rambling epistolary novel, in which the author tries to explain his despair to his daughter, Kate. By the middle, the book has become nothing more than a rabid diatribe against the Catholic church. I found it extremely pointless and offensive, and I'm not even Catholic.