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The Cradle
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Marissa is expecting her first child and fixated on securing the same cradle she was once rocked in for her own baby. But her mother, Caroline, disappeared when Marissa was a teenager, and the treasured cradle mysteriously vanished shortly thereafter. Marissa's husband, Matthew, kindly agrees to try to track down the cradle, which naturally means finding Caroline as well.
In another family, Adam has just joined the Marines and is off to Iraq. His mother, Renee, is terrified of losing him, and furious at both Adam for enlisting and her husband for being so mild-mannered about it all. To further complicate matters, Renee is troubled by the resurfacing of secrets she buried long ago: the memory of her first love, killed in Vietnam, and the son she gave up at birth.
Matt's search for the cradle takes him through the Midwest, and provides an introduction to a host of oddball characters who've been part of Caroline's life in the intervening years. When he finds the cradle, he also
finds an unloved little boy, who will one day reunite a family adrift. A lovely debut novel, The Cradle is an astonishingly spare tale of feeling lost in the world, and the simple, momentous acts of love that bring people home. (Summer 2009 Selection)
Marissa is expecting her first child and fixated on securing the same cradle she was once rocked in for her own baby. But her mother, Caroline, disappeared when Marissa was a teenager, and the treasured cradle mysteriously vanished shortly thereafter. Marissa's husband, Matthew, kindly agrees to try to track down the cradle, which naturally means finding Caroline as well.
In another family, Adam has just joined the Marines and is off to Iraq. His mother, Renee, is terrified of losing him, and furious at both Adam for enlisting and her husband for being so mild-mannered about it all. To further complicate matters, Renee is troubled by the resurfacing of secrets she buried long ago: the memory of her first love, killed in Vietnam, and the son she gave up at birth.
Matt's search for the cradle takes him through the Midwest, and provides an introduction to a host of oddball characters who've been part of Caroline's life in the intervening years. When he finds the cradle, he also
finds an unloved little boy, who will one day reunite a family adrift. A lovely debut novel, The Cradle is an astonishingly spare tale of feeling lost in the world, and the simple, momentous acts of love that bring people home. (Summer 2009 Selection)
200 pages, Hardcover
First published March 9, 2009
14 people are currently reading
1228 people want to read
About the author
Patrick Somerville
15 books109 followersI'm a fiction writer from Wisconsin, living in Chicago.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 366 reviews
December 1, 2009
The Cradle is full of surprises. On the surface, it doesn’t have a lot to recommend it. It’s a shaggy dog tale that is essentially a glorified road trip. And if you take a look at the pieces of the story it does all kinds of things that go against the grain. I took a craft class with Mary Akers this summer and she presented examples of fiction that break the rules of the established order. Somerville’s The Cradle would make a great case study:
1) Road trip: A series of scenes takes the place of a plot
2) Roving eyeball: Multiple perspectives, multiple locations, multiple time periods, i.e. the reader is always asking Who is this? Where are we? When are we?
3) Orphans: It’s easy to flesh out a character’s background when they don’t have one.
4) Writers: Whether it’s a case of self-love or loathing, writers love to hate on books about writers, (yet we keep reading and writing them…).
These aren’t really examples of “breaking the rules” but of a writer taking steps that so many writers have already taken and stumbled over (and stumbled badly) that it becomes something of a high wire act.
What makes The Cradle so remarkable is that Somerville doesn’t stumble or stagger, he soars. He’ll hook you with the premise and then make you fall in love with his characters so that by the time you reach the end you’ll want to read it again just to see how the hell he pulled it off.
And he does it in exactly 200 pages.
Bastard.
1) Road trip: A series of scenes takes the place of a plot
2) Roving eyeball: Multiple perspectives, multiple locations, multiple time periods, i.e. the reader is always asking Who is this? Where are we? When are we?
3) Orphans: It’s easy to flesh out a character’s background when they don’t have one.
4) Writers: Whether it’s a case of self-love or loathing, writers love to hate on books about writers, (yet we keep reading and writing them…).
These aren’t really examples of “breaking the rules” but of a writer taking steps that so many writers have already taken and stumbled over (and stumbled badly) that it becomes something of a high wire act.
What makes The Cradle so remarkable is that Somerville doesn’t stumble or stagger, he soars. He’ll hook you with the premise and then make you fall in love with his characters so that by the time you reach the end you’ll want to read it again just to see how the hell he pulled it off.
And he does it in exactly 200 pages.
Bastard.
April 19, 2009
A slim book in terms of length and depth. Too many coincidences and deliberately quirky characters. Avoids some of the deeper emotions to which it alludes. Reads like a literary version of a weepy movie-of-the-week. A kernel of the real exists here, but it's swamped by sentimentality.
September 16, 2016
I loved this short and bittersweet novel. A young man, Matthew, and his wife, Marissa, are expecting their first child. I knew I was going to like Matthew when he thinks that he knows his wife is a little bit crazy but he loves her anyway.
Marissa is the daughter of a mother who took off. Matt is virtually an orphan because his mother gave him up at birth. Something about all this makes it understandable that Marissa asks him to find the cradle in which she slept as a baby and that Matt agrees to try.
Off he goes on a quest for said cradle with only an address for the aunt Marissa doesn't know she has. Her dad, Glen, a guy who hangs out with them and is prone to tearing up, gave that address to Matt.
The Cradle is a first novel filled with that wonderful innocence a first novel sometimes has. Patrick Somerville shows himself already a master of character and of the odd detail that places the reader right in the location and action of the story.
Most of the characters are quirky, some in humorous ways and some who are clearly insane. Then there is the female children's author who writes poetry on the side and has a near breakdown when her son enlists to go fight in Iraq. She turns out to be Matt's birth mother.
As Matthew continues his search he meets all of Marissa's missing relatives including a half brother she also never knew of. Not one of these people is even remotely normal. Every time he decides he is done and can go home again, he finds another loose end he feels he must tie up. I truly began to worry something awful was going to prevent him from ever making it back to Marissa.
There is however a happy ending, though not without its own sorrows. That is why I call the novel bittersweet.
In my Bookie Babes reading group, we take turns compiling a list of books to be voted on for our next read. On my last turn, I decided to make a list composed of novels set in the hometowns of each member. One of those towns was Milwaukee where The Cradle is set. I discovered it while searching for novels set in Milwaukee, learning that not many are. Otherwise we may have never heard of this gem. Patrick Somerville has three other novels. I will be reading them.
Marissa is the daughter of a mother who took off. Matt is virtually an orphan because his mother gave him up at birth. Something about all this makes it understandable that Marissa asks him to find the cradle in which she slept as a baby and that Matt agrees to try.
Off he goes on a quest for said cradle with only an address for the aunt Marissa doesn't know she has. Her dad, Glen, a guy who hangs out with them and is prone to tearing up, gave that address to Matt.
The Cradle is a first novel filled with that wonderful innocence a first novel sometimes has. Patrick Somerville shows himself already a master of character and of the odd detail that places the reader right in the location and action of the story.
Most of the characters are quirky, some in humorous ways and some who are clearly insane. Then there is the female children's author who writes poetry on the side and has a near breakdown when her son enlists to go fight in Iraq. She turns out to be Matt's birth mother.
As Matthew continues his search he meets all of Marissa's missing relatives including a half brother she also never knew of. Not one of these people is even remotely normal. Every time he decides he is done and can go home again, he finds another loose end he feels he must tie up. I truly began to worry something awful was going to prevent him from ever making it back to Marissa.
There is however a happy ending, though not without its own sorrows. That is why I call the novel bittersweet.
In my Bookie Babes reading group, we take turns compiling a list of books to be voted on for our next read. On my last turn, I decided to make a list composed of novels set in the hometowns of each member. One of those towns was Milwaukee where The Cradle is set. I discovered it while searching for novels set in Milwaukee, learning that not many are. Otherwise we may have never heard of this gem. Patrick Somerville has three other novels. I will be reading them.
October 11, 2009
With only about 200 pages in its entirety, The Cradle has a rather immediate opening with Matt's very pregnant wife, Marissa, insisting he find her long-lost antique cradle from childhood. We quickly discover, via a series of flashbacks, that both Matt and Marissa have unresolved issues from their youth, stemming from Matt's adoption and foster care experiences and Marissa's mother's unexplained abandonment. In the first of many "coincidences," Marissa's father recalls the last known address of her mother and sets Matt on an adventure toward reclamation. Without divulging too much of the plot, Matt's journey uncovers more than just the cradle.
The story suffers from being too predictable (even with the inclusion of some very quirky characters) and too one-dimensional which subtracts from the suspense. Despite the author's efforts, the lead characters came across as flat and somewhat dull compared to the others. The pacing stalled with elongated passages that did not really promote the plot or develop the characters much. I really wanted to enjoy the story because the description on the back cover piqued my interest; unfortunately, I was left a bit disappointed.
The story suffers from being too predictable (even with the inclusion of some very quirky characters) and too one-dimensional which subtracts from the suspense. Despite the author's efforts, the lead characters came across as flat and somewhat dull compared to the others. The pacing stalled with elongated passages that did not really promote the plot or develop the characters much. I really wanted to enjoy the story because the description on the back cover piqued my interest; unfortunately, I was left a bit disappointed.
December 26, 2009
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)
I had been looking forward to Patrick Somerville's debut novel The Cradle for some time now; after all, he's a Chicago-based author with whom I share several mutual friends, and this slim title of his has picked up lots of local accolades this year, one of what I consider the most talked-about Chicago books of 2009, along with his peer Kyle Beachy's The Slide and others. So it was a disappointment, then, to read through this academic short-story veteran's first full-length project and realize that when all is said and done, there's just not much there; it's on the short side of the format to begin with (200 pages with large type), much more a character study than a three-act narrative tale, and with a kind of twee preciousness throughout that one always seems to find in books loved by those ensconced in the Ivory Tower. It's basically the story of a young couple in Wisconsin in the Clinton 1990s who are about to have a baby, and of the demanding wife who insists that her husband track down the historic Civil War cradle she was reared in by her now-estranged mother, a quest that will lead the genial former orphan all across the upper Midwest and into a whole series of dark family environments; this then runs concurrently in every other chapter with the story of an entirely different family eleven years later (or 2008), a middle-aged couple whose only son is about to ship off to Iraq, and whose connection to the other family is a mystery that is only slowly revealed over the course of the book's second half.
It's okay for what it is, I suppose, but the problem is that "what it is" simply isn't very much; like so much academic fiction, it's primarily a series of quirky vignettes that never quite add up to a satisfying whole, an attempt to make a grand statement about family by pushing together a series of seemingly unrelated subplots in clever ways, but that remains mostly a muddled mess until the underwhelming, easily guessed ending. Plus, as someone particularly knowledgeable on the subject, I have to admit how much it irked me to see Somerville take so many liberties with 1997 technology in order to make his overly precocious plotline hold together; specifically, I'm referring to a scene where crucial information is learned via a real-time online video chat with a woman in Antarctica using home consumer equipment, which Somerville adequately rationalizes on one end (the woman in Antarctica is at a military installation, which really did have such capabilities in the mid-'90s), but which utterly fails to account for the fact that home broadband connections simply didn't exist back then, the absolute minimum requirement for having a real-time video chat over the internet using consumer equipment like the characters here do. It's a small issue only, I know, but that's what makes it so infuriating -- such a glaring factual problem simply makes me obsessively focus on it when I'm instead trying to lose myself in the actual story, one of those errors that simply highlights the inherent artificiality of written characters on a page being cognitively interpreted by the brain into images and concepts, when the goal of an author is to do the exact opposite as much as possible. It's but one of many details that left me by the end of The Cradle shrugging and muttering, "Meh." Buyer beware.
Out of 10: 7.1
I had been looking forward to Patrick Somerville's debut novel The Cradle for some time now; after all, he's a Chicago-based author with whom I share several mutual friends, and this slim title of his has picked up lots of local accolades this year, one of what I consider the most talked-about Chicago books of 2009, along with his peer Kyle Beachy's The Slide and others. So it was a disappointment, then, to read through this academic short-story veteran's first full-length project and realize that when all is said and done, there's just not much there; it's on the short side of the format to begin with (200 pages with large type), much more a character study than a three-act narrative tale, and with a kind of twee preciousness throughout that one always seems to find in books loved by those ensconced in the Ivory Tower. It's basically the story of a young couple in Wisconsin in the Clinton 1990s who are about to have a baby, and of the demanding wife who insists that her husband track down the historic Civil War cradle she was reared in by her now-estranged mother, a quest that will lead the genial former orphan all across the upper Midwest and into a whole series of dark family environments; this then runs concurrently in every other chapter with the story of an entirely different family eleven years later (or 2008), a middle-aged couple whose only son is about to ship off to Iraq, and whose connection to the other family is a mystery that is only slowly revealed over the course of the book's second half.
It's okay for what it is, I suppose, but the problem is that "what it is" simply isn't very much; like so much academic fiction, it's primarily a series of quirky vignettes that never quite add up to a satisfying whole, an attempt to make a grand statement about family by pushing together a series of seemingly unrelated subplots in clever ways, but that remains mostly a muddled mess until the underwhelming, easily guessed ending. Plus, as someone particularly knowledgeable on the subject, I have to admit how much it irked me to see Somerville take so many liberties with 1997 technology in order to make his overly precocious plotline hold together; specifically, I'm referring to a scene where crucial information is learned via a real-time online video chat with a woman in Antarctica using home consumer equipment, which Somerville adequately rationalizes on one end (the woman in Antarctica is at a military installation, which really did have such capabilities in the mid-'90s), but which utterly fails to account for the fact that home broadband connections simply didn't exist back then, the absolute minimum requirement for having a real-time video chat over the internet using consumer equipment like the characters here do. It's a small issue only, I know, but that's what makes it so infuriating -- such a glaring factual problem simply makes me obsessively focus on it when I'm instead trying to lose myself in the actual story, one of those errors that simply highlights the inherent artificiality of written characters on a page being cognitively interpreted by the brain into images and concepts, when the goal of an author is to do the exact opposite as much as possible. It's but one of many details that left me by the end of The Cradle shrugging and muttering, "Meh." Buyer beware.
Out of 10: 7.1
October 9, 2017
My initial response to the first 20 pages of this book was "schmultz". I braced myself for fluffy, movie-of-the-week, sentimental cotton candy. To it's credit, once the plot got rolling, the histories of the two main characters created resonantly human voices.
The story divides itself between two timelines. One centers on Matt Bishop in the late 90's on a quest to retrieve his wife's cradle from her childhood. The other a decade further on in the late 2000's anchored by Renee Owens. A beloved children's author learning to cope with her son's departure to Iraq; and the secrets of her past that decision exhumes.
The way the authored weaved the two narratives together made me anxious to see how it would come together. I could see opaque threads throughout the story begin to become more solid near the end in a touching climax. I finished this book in a day because I was invested to give it the attention it deserved.
The story divides itself between two timelines. One centers on Matt Bishop in the late 90's on a quest to retrieve his wife's cradle from her childhood. The other a decade further on in the late 2000's anchored by Renee Owens. A beloved children's author learning to cope with her son's departure to Iraq; and the secrets of her past that decision exhumes.
The way the authored weaved the two narratives together made me anxious to see how it would come together. I could see opaque threads throughout the story begin to become more solid near the end in a touching climax. I finished this book in a day because I was invested to give it the attention it deserved.
August 15, 2010
Really enjoyed this book for various reasons. The Upper Midwest setting not only was familiar to me, but the author nailed the attitudes and speech patterns of the area. Most of all, I appreciated the protagonist. Matt could have been portrayed as a person whose difficult childhood made him a mess as an adult, but instead, apart from a moment or two, he had a full, competent grasp on life. I also liked seeing a young, lower-middle class family portrayed, a socio-economic group that is woefully lacking from contemporary literature. The author's economy of words (and pages) was important in making this a successful novel, too. In fact, this was the rare case which I might have liked a few more pages than were allotted to this book... usually I feel there are extraneous concepts and length to novels. I would definitely recommend this book to people who enjoyed books like Per Petterson's Out Stealing Horses.
July 8, 2012
This is a great story. The protagonist, Matt, goes on a journey in search of a cradle his wife had when she was young. This journey becomes so much more. Matt travels all over the Midwest (I liked this since I am from the Midwest) meeting some very selfish individuals and learns of a secret, he now has to decide if he should share this with his wife. I really felt a connection to Matt and his overwhelming feeling of gratitude toward life.
There was a second story told also of Renee and a secret that she kept from her husband for a very long time. It's about her life and her struggles with the pain of her past.
My main reason for buying this book was the road trip across the Midwest. I love road trips and like in this book, they're never what you expect!
There was a second story told also of Renee and a secret that she kept from her husband for a very long time. It's about her life and her struggles with the pain of her past.
My main reason for buying this book was the road trip across the Midwest. I love road trips and like in this book, they're never what you expect!
December 7, 2009
This very short book is about a man who is sent to retrieve a cradle that belonged to his wife's mother. Both the main characters in this novel have been abandoned by their mothers and through the course of the book the characters are made to confront their past. I felt indifferent about this book. I finished the book relatively quickly, so obviously it wasn’t horrible, but I felt that there were a lot of crazy situations and coincidences. The unresolved ending is thought provoking, but I was surprised to see a fluffy novel as a New York Times best book pick (usually their picks are arties and weird).
August 28, 2009
This is a powerful and haunting novel that snuck up on me. It seems like a simple story at first but around page 81 it really picks up steam and I felt myself almost obsessed with the story. It became a propulsive reading experience after that, one in which I felt close to the characters--maybe I even cried a little at some point. I think this book might get pretty huge once it's out in paperback and if a movie is actually made of it (it was optioned recently). A superb piece of work from Mr. Sommerville.
February 14, 2010
Premise seemed so absurd--pregnant wife asks husband to find Civil-War-era cradle she was once rocked in--that I thought, okay, this has got to be good. Turned out: I was wrong. Some momentum generated in the beginning, and yeah, the two plot lines are able to summon a bit of mystery, but the fact that this is a quest lends itself to the sort of pitfalls you'd expect, mainly that what we get is a number of flat, stereotypical characters. Doesn't help that the writing itself is dull masquerading as "spare." And talk about unrealistic endings. Wow.
June 30, 2009
The writing is lovely and engaging, and I was with the author till the final quarter of the book. Then I wanted more resolution, or at least more of a resolution that worked for me. I felt as though I'd spent a lot of energy investing in and caring about the characters, but with a leap in time, they were given short shrift and I felt a bit cheated by getting to see what made them change the way they did. I'm the author of commercial fiction, and that may be the problem: I like closure.
September 5, 2017
The timeline of this story had me quite confused throughout the whole book.
Our main character Matt, who's wife is due with their first child, and she sends him on a mission to find her childhood baby cradle. She insists that this cradle will be a instrumental part of her new baby's beginning. He agrees and embarks on a more than 6 wk search. This brings him all over the US searching for the Cradle.
Meanwhile our author jumps us back? forth? in time to another character. We watched her story unfold in what seems parallel time, but this is where I was most lost. I tried to tie these stories together, but couldn't figure out how that heck they even overlapped.
The last chapter brings clarity, but I found this too late in the game for me.
Our main character Matt, who's wife is due with their first child, and she sends him on a mission to find her childhood baby cradle. She insists that this cradle will be a instrumental part of her new baby's beginning. He agrees and embarks on a more than 6 wk search. This brings him all over the US searching for the Cradle.
Meanwhile our author jumps us back? forth? in time to another character. We watched her story unfold in what seems parallel time, but this is where I was most lost. I tried to tie these stories together, but couldn't figure out how that heck they even overlapped.
The last chapter brings clarity, but I found this too late in the game for me.
November 15, 2024
I think I have been spoiled in reading some great books lately and most of the year, so this one disappointed. The depth of story and characters was missing, and the story arc felt disjointed several times. IIt'sa short and quick read so that was nice!
July 23, 2024
Multiple storylines that jumped around, with dialogue that seemed stilted or even disjointed, made this a not entirely pleasant read. I did enjoy the adoption storylines connecting, but everything else was just not it for me.
September 5, 2011
**Warning: May contain spoilers.**
It’s 1997 and Matt and Marissa are a young married couple expecting their first baby in a month or so. Marissa’s mother left her family when Marissa was 15 and Matt is an orphan. When Marissa is 8 months pregnant she decides the baby must have the cradle she slept in as a child and wants Matt to get it for her. The problem is that Marissa’s mother took the cradle with her when she left. The only lead Matt has is an address for Marissa’s aunt (her mother’s sister). After driving miles and visiting several people besides Marissa’s aunt, Matt finds the cradle, but he also finds a little boy who no one wants and discovers he’s Marissa’s half-brother.
It’s 2008 and Bill and Renee’s son, Adam, has decided to enlist in the Army so that he can fight in Iraq. This is devastating to Renee because her first love died in Vietnam. Bill knows about her first love, but not about the fact that she had a baby by him that she gave up for adoption.
The Cradle by Partick Somerville melds these two stories together. It took me a little while to figure out how the two stories are related, but once I had an idea, I couldn’t put the book down. My only complaint about the book is that the end of the story isn’t developed enough. I enjoyed all of the detail at the beginning of the book. Once Matt found the cradle and Marissa’s half-brother, the detail ended and the story was wrapped up quickly. The ending is satisfactory, though. This is Patrick Somerville’s first novel and if it’s any indication, I think he has great potential as a writer.
It’s 1997 and Matt and Marissa are a young married couple expecting their first baby in a month or so. Marissa’s mother left her family when Marissa was 15 and Matt is an orphan. When Marissa is 8 months pregnant she decides the baby must have the cradle she slept in as a child and wants Matt to get it for her. The problem is that Marissa’s mother took the cradle with her when she left. The only lead Matt has is an address for Marissa’s aunt (her mother’s sister). After driving miles and visiting several people besides Marissa’s aunt, Matt finds the cradle, but he also finds a little boy who no one wants and discovers he’s Marissa’s half-brother.
It’s 2008 and Bill and Renee’s son, Adam, has decided to enlist in the Army so that he can fight in Iraq. This is devastating to Renee because her first love died in Vietnam. Bill knows about her first love, but not about the fact that she had a baby by him that she gave up for adoption.
The Cradle by Partick Somerville melds these two stories together. It took me a little while to figure out how the two stories are related, but once I had an idea, I couldn’t put the book down. My only complaint about the book is that the end of the story isn’t developed enough. I enjoyed all of the detail at the beginning of the book. Once Matt found the cradle and Marissa’s half-brother, the detail ended and the story was wrapped up quickly. The ending is satisfactory, though. This is Patrick Somerville’s first novel and if it’s any indication, I think he has great potential as a writer.
December 10, 2012
Short, powerful, well-written and so touchingly sad but not maudlin, sweetly hopeful, wonderful characterization. All so impressive in a debut that I could finish in a few hours. Just .. wow. Sometimes you find these tender little jewels of books and are stunned at how good they are. Like Amy Bloom and Kent Haruf, I wonder where have you been and why aren't you winning prizes and making millions on slim beautiful books and why don't you write more. And then I remember I live in a world that idolizes Kardashians and teen vampire books and reality shows about trashy, tawdry idiots. Then I am thankful that such small goodness is there to take me away from popular American "culture."
February 6, 2010
Is this a likely story? No. But it is a very beautiful, very hopeful story. It's about a man who goes in search of a simple piece of his wife's past--the antique cradle she herself was rocked in--that ends up changing the future for many, many people. It's about taking chances, getting second chances, and creating families in the most unlikely of ways. It begins as many stories, but ends as one. The smile you will have on your face as you finish the last page of this book is more than worth the price of spending an afternoon with this slim volume.
July 13, 2012
This book was a complete surprise and such a good one. I loved it.
I am glad that Patrick Somerville got a bad review in the New York Tims for his newest novel, which led to a fine article in Salon.com about a strange experience he had with the fact checkers at the Times who wrote to the email address of one of his characters, which led me to pick up his first novel in the English book section of a German bookstore.
I am glad that Patrick Somerville got a bad review in the New York Tims for his newest novel, which led to a fine article in Salon.com about a strange experience he had with the fact checkers at the Times who wrote to the email address of one of his characters, which led me to pick up his first novel in the English book section of a German bookstore.
June 15, 2009
"How often do voices in your head talk to you?" Darren asked.
"Never."
"Not even your own voice?"
"I do think, if that's what you mean." (98)
"Okay, then," Matt said. "And also, we'll be needing one nice pair of Spider-Man underpants. Wouldn't you know it?" (154)
"Never."
"Not even your own voice?"
"I do think, if that's what you mean." (98)
"Okay, then," Matt said. "And also, we'll be needing one nice pair of Spider-Man underpants. Wouldn't you know it?" (154)
December 11, 2009
A story of family - what it means to build a family when you have grown up without one or with a fractured one. I liked the main thread of the story much better than the secondary thread and thought they were tied together rather artificially.
January 12, 2010
What an intriguing book! When Marissa sends her husband Matt out to recover her childhood cradle, he has no idea where the request will take him or what he will find at the end. It's very much an allegory for life - Matt seeks one thing, but finds another.
September 25, 2010
Picking up this book I expected to have a light piece of entertainment to accompany a long plane ride. What I got was a surprisingly good story. This is Somerville's first novel. I hope it is not his last.
July 27, 2014
Boring. This guy is not a great writer. The story was dull and predictable. The characters were uninteresting. I gave it two stars because it was short enough to give me something to do while I waited for my car to get fixed.
January 2, 2016
This is an unusual interlocking tale . All three of the main characters in this story were abandoned by their Mothers. Matthew, Marissa and Joe come together and make a family in a sad and unexpected way. The ending was one of hope for resolution. Only 200 pages , quick read.....solid 3 stars.
September 30, 2014
A wonderful book about parenthood... powerful, moving, not pretentious in any way. The best book I read that year. Best!
July 6, 2019
I liked it well enough. Probably not one that'll stick with me through the ages as a favorite but it was interesting enough.
October 5, 2018
It’s 1997. Matt and Marissa Bishop are expecting their first child. In her eighth month of pregnancy, Marissa suddenly asks Matt to find her something. Not a certain brand of pickles or obscure flavor of ice cream, but a cradle. Her cradle. The one that she used when she was a baby and that was stolen from her home many years ago. Flash forward ten years and Renee Owen, a former children’s author, is preparing to send her son off to serve in the military in Iraq. She counts down the days to his departure as she counts the white notecards on her bulletin board—cards that represent a book of poetry that longs for completion. Both Matt and Renee are on a path where they will discover that secrets are powerful things and have the ability to either rip a family apart or make the shared fabric even stronger.
I’ve found that when books have two central characters with alternating story lines, there is always one that stands apart and tends to be more interesting and compelling. The Cradle is no exception. We follow the individual stories of Matt and Renee and from early on, Matt’s story is definitively the deeper and more developed of the two (out of fourteen chapters in the book, Matt is featured in ten). Renee’s inclusion in the book seemed superfluous and the parts featuring her were a needless drag on the story’s pace. Deciding to give Renee equal billing (or close to it) in this story was unfortunate. Her inclusion didn’t add much to the story line and her contribution was more of a weak supporting character rather than a central, standalone figure.
The Cradle is clearly Matt’s story and the struggles he faces when dealing with his past while trying to understand his future. Throughout the book, Matt is all about what matters. Family matters. Things matter. His quest for his wife’s childhood heirloom not only puts him in direct contact with several strange and unforgettable people, but it also allows him the opportunity to begin realizing what a family is and what having a family really means. And in the end, to Matt, those are the things that matter most.
I’ve found that when books have two central characters with alternating story lines, there is always one that stands apart and tends to be more interesting and compelling. The Cradle is no exception. We follow the individual stories of Matt and Renee and from early on, Matt’s story is definitively the deeper and more developed of the two (out of fourteen chapters in the book, Matt is featured in ten). Renee’s inclusion in the book seemed superfluous and the parts featuring her were a needless drag on the story’s pace. Deciding to give Renee equal billing (or close to it) in this story was unfortunate. Her inclusion didn’t add much to the story line and her contribution was more of a weak supporting character rather than a central, standalone figure.
The Cradle is clearly Matt’s story and the struggles he faces when dealing with his past while trying to understand his future. Throughout the book, Matt is all about what matters. Family matters. Things matter. His quest for his wife’s childhood heirloom not only puts him in direct contact with several strange and unforgettable people, but it also allows him the opportunity to begin realizing what a family is and what having a family really means. And in the end, to Matt, those are the things that matter most.
July 4, 2022
Vision Quest. The adventure to find the cradle is (I guess obviously) a symbol for appreciating the journey more than the outcome. It’s never important that Matt finds and returns with the cradle as much as it’s important that he attempts the recovery. The important stuff happens along the way. I don’t know how the story would have changed had the cradle not been stolen and don’t think it changes much at all. The cradle becomes irrelevant while the outcome of the adventure (Joe) impacts their life and many other lives daily.
Nihilism. It was ambitious to create a character like Darren the human and attempt to explain his life’s philosophy in just a few interactions. I’m also struggling to understand why being a nihilist and believing that nothing in the world is real or has meaning therefore means you have to be a horrible person and parent. The belief that all values are baseless doesn’t seem to me to mean you have absolutely no concern for fellow humans. I guess I would have appreciated a more nuanced view from Darren the human.
Joe watching Renee read the letter. I thought this scene was extremely well done. The picture of Renee in the snow and Joe spying on her but ultimately revealing himself and waving was excellent and I felt a real connection to that scene.
“Do more than only watch.”
Nihilism. It was ambitious to create a character like Darren the human and attempt to explain his life’s philosophy in just a few interactions. I’m also struggling to understand why being a nihilist and believing that nothing in the world is real or has meaning therefore means you have to be a horrible person and parent. The belief that all values are baseless doesn’t seem to me to mean you have absolutely no concern for fellow humans. I guess I would have appreciated a more nuanced view from Darren the human.
Joe watching Renee read the letter. I thought this scene was extremely well done. The picture of Renee in the snow and Joe spying on her but ultimately revealing himself and waving was excellent and I felt a real connection to that scene.
“Do more than only watch.”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 27, 2019
This is a strange little book with an unrealistic premise and too many oddball characters that were not relatable. The book begins when a very pregnant Marissa asks her husband, Matt to go on a wild goose chase and find a Civil War-era cradle for their unborn baby--ostensibly her childhood cradle (how it relates to the Civil War or if it even does is never explained). He never questions her demand and sets out to find the cradle. This in itself was unrealistic. The family is clearly struggling financially and he drops everything and gets his shifts covered to go on this fool's errand. How many 20-something men would do that and WHY would they do it? The search takes him through several states and he meets eccentric (but not in an interesting way) characters along the way and discovers that Marissa's family history is more complicated than he thought (but not really that interesting). There are a few plot twists that are equally unrealistic and strange, and none of the characters are developed in any depth. The book is a quick read, as it's so short, but that's about the only good thing about it. I won't be reading future books by this author.
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