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Midnight in a Perfect Life
Karl is a troubled writer standing on the precipice of forty. After a degree of success in his early career he is now battling with what he terms his 'opus', his legacy to the world. But his partner Lori, the main breadwinner, is also thinking about her destiny and wants a child. As they embark on fertility treatment, Karl is forced to confront his deepest fear - that he will turn out to be like his father, a travelling salesman who was found dead after apparently committing murder when Karl was just thirteen. Unbeknown to Lori, Karl has already taken loans out against their house to pay for his mother's care home, and his freelance work, ghosting for a crime writer called Perry Fennimore, has dried up. As the treatment progresses, Karl feels increasingly distanced from his relationship and the safety of home, and attracted to the shadowlands of Chicago's backstreets. When Fennimore re-emerges with a proposal, Karl begins to tap this new source of creativity - but just how far will he go in his pursuit of the ultimate story?
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
2 people are currently reading
31 people want to read
About the author
Michael Collins
442 books52 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
(1)Irish Novelist
Michael Collins was born in 1964. He was educated in Belfast, Dublin and Chicago. His short stories have been awarded the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Award in Ireland and the Pushcart Prize in America.
(1)Irish Novelist
Michael Collins was born in 1964. He was educated in Belfast, Dublin and Chicago. His short stories have been awarded the Hennessy/Sunday Tribune Award in Ireland and the Pushcart Prize in America.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
November 4, 2014
I frequent the BooksFirst section at Nakumatt here in Kenya, and so this past Sunday the attendant pulled me aside and told me she saw this book and thought I'd love to read it.
I looked at it, read the blurb and said I'd give it my attention.
First things first; the story follows Karl wherever he goes, whatever he does, says and thinks is all here- and he is a selfish, arrogant, inconsiderate jerk given the whole scheme of life and humane ratings.
But, the story starts well This all began at the precipice of forty, in a childless marriage, where I was left confronting the statistical fact that I had fewer years ahead of me than behind me
And it had me thinking okay, there's a crisis here and I wonder how Karl would resolve it? But as I continued reading, it dawned on me that Karl is strictly living in his mind where he yearns to attain literal acclaim for his exemplary writing, but the sad thing is he's not written anything! In fact he's not writing, so how can he expect some attention or respect when he's not written anything?
He also comes off as inconsiderate because his wife Lori who is 43, wants a baby and they have resorted to fertility clinics and he is against the idea.
So, before you hang me here's what I liked about this book.
Yes, I liked it.
1. It has short chapters. It made it easy for me to read and focus on which chapters added to the story and which ones just left me looking to slap the characters with their own words!
2. The story is told by Karl, and it's his views, thoughts and reactions to what is happening around him that bring out his flaws as well as reconciliation of his past. I liked this.
3. I have read some books where repulsive characters are overshadowed by other characters or different events in the story but in this book, the author has cast the spotlight on Karl- so much so that he is a reflection of what we do not want to become yet we exhibit in life.
For example he is inconsiderate when it comes to Lori and her desire to have a baby, but in real life if you had to go through the process of visiting fertility clinics and answering endless questions about your life it'd piss you off, especially if you are against the idea.
He also is selfish and lies to Lori about their finances and the work he does, all in the name of being in-between books- but listen...lies have been told to save face more than once!
So inasmuch as I wanted to slap Karl repeatedly while reading this book, I will admit that the author succeeded in making him so repulsive that it made me question why I disliked him so?
He's a Writer, but he's in a dump at the moment and instead of him writing he still believes that he can write the perfect piece of work. It's the idea in his head that he wants to live up to, but fails because he does not notice everything that is happening around him, he's lost touch with the world and his anger and denial do not help.
I'd recommend this to any Writer who knows what it means to write only to read your work and feel as though it's trash.
I'd also recommend it to anyone who is looking for a book that'd repel him/her or so much :-)
I looked at it, read the blurb and said I'd give it my attention.
First things first; the story follows Karl wherever he goes, whatever he does, says and thinks is all here- and he is a selfish, arrogant, inconsiderate jerk given the whole scheme of life and humane ratings.
But, the story starts well This all began at the precipice of forty, in a childless marriage, where I was left confronting the statistical fact that I had fewer years ahead of me than behind me
And it had me thinking okay, there's a crisis here and I wonder how Karl would resolve it? But as I continued reading, it dawned on me that Karl is strictly living in his mind where he yearns to attain literal acclaim for his exemplary writing, but the sad thing is he's not written anything! In fact he's not writing, so how can he expect some attention or respect when he's not written anything?
He also comes off as inconsiderate because his wife Lori who is 43, wants a baby and they have resorted to fertility clinics and he is against the idea.
So, before you
Yes, I liked it.
1. It has short chapters. It made it easy for me to read and focus on which chapters added to the story and which ones just left me looking to slap the characters with their own words!
2. The story is told by Karl, and it's his views, thoughts and reactions to what is happening around him that bring out his flaws as well as reconciliation of his past. I liked this.
3. I have read some books where repulsive characters are overshadowed by other characters or different events in the story but in this book, the author has cast the spotlight on Karl- so much so that he is a reflection of what we do not want to become yet we exhibit in life.
For example he is inconsiderate when it comes to Lori and her desire to have a baby, but in real life if you had to go through the process of visiting fertility clinics and answering endless questions about your life it'd piss you off, especially if you are against the idea.
He also is selfish and lies to Lori about their finances and the work he does, all in the name of being in-between books- but listen...lies have been told to save face more than once!
So inasmuch as I wanted to slap Karl repeatedly while reading this book, I will admit that the author succeeded in making him so repulsive that it made me question why I disliked him so?
He's a Writer, but he's in a dump at the moment and instead of him writing he still believes that he can write the perfect piece of work. It's the idea in his head that he wants to live up to, but fails because he does not notice everything that is happening around him, he's lost touch with the world and his anger and denial do not help.
I'd recommend this to any Writer who knows what it means to write only to read your work and feel as though it's trash.
I'd also recommend it to anyone who is looking for a book that'd repel him/her or so much :-)
July 23, 2010
I have loved the last two Michael Collins books that I have read- Death of a Writer and the Keepers of Truth.Both drawing graphic images of life in Middle America and the desloation in small towns in the Midwest where industry has closed and jobs have gone and the future is bleak. This one did not have characters I could empathise with and I found the ending unsatifactory.
Set in Chicago, 'Midnight in a Perfect Life',tells the story of Karl, an author of two successful books who is struggling to find inspiration while suffering writers block.It is hard to like Karl and his wife Lori, who undergo unsuccessful IVF treatment. It is a dark book and shows a dark side of life that perhaps I could have done without!Read his earlier books.
Set in Chicago, 'Midnight in a Perfect Life',tells the story of Karl, an author of two successful books who is struggling to find inspiration while suffering writers block.It is hard to like Karl and his wife Lori, who undergo unsuccessful IVF treatment. It is a dark book and shows a dark side of life that perhaps I could have done without!Read his earlier books.
Read
September 9, 2013Didn't finish it. Too much self-involved bullshit
June 2, 2013
The set-up was promising. I have a weak spot for novels about writers, and this one seemed intriguing. Karl, while struggling with his great unpublishable novel, is also planning a fictional murder as a ghostwriter, hanging around the seedier neighbourhoods of Chicago mooning over a Russian performance artist who is brutally murdered. Also, his wife is trying to get pregnant (Karl can't understand why anyone would willingly procreate), his mother is dying and his father may have been a killer. It is surprising, then, that Collins fails to develop any of these themes and produces something so dull and unengaging.
March 20, 2016
I jumped on getting any book by Michael Collins after reading The Resurrectionists. But this one was a letdown. I couldn't warm to any character and thought the couple deserved each other. Basically it is the story of a struggling writer who ghost writes as well as taking various odd writing jobs. His finances are grim while his wife is struggling with expensive failed IVF cycles, which he only supports superficially. A study in deliberate miscommunication as nearly everything he says to her is untrue. not his best book.
June 20, 2017
Such a strange novel, and if it weren't by Michael Collins I'm not sure I would have kept trying to see the positives in it.
Objectively, in terms of plot, the novel seems a bit disjointed and aimless, as though Collins kept changing his mind about what sort of novel he wanted to write. There is an element to this plotting structure that might be purposive, as though it mimics the protagonists's attempt to decide on what his next writing project will be, but the experience of reading the novel is frustrating in that interesting plots are shunted aside, while the overall arch (the desire to get pregnant) that remains is the most boring plot. Some of my criticism has more to do with taste - I will never find stories about pregnancy/infertility struggles interesting. I apologize if that comes off as callous or insensitive, but it's just something that I will never find compelling as a storyline. I especially find "middle-aged woman regrets not having children" plots tedious. So any sections of the novel that involved that plot, even though they may have been well-written and humorous (the doctor's office decorated with ridiculous decor because, the author notes, he's obscenely wealthy and can), come off as tedious because of my personal taste. I also thought that other subplots could have benefited from more development, though my desire to hear more perhaps indicates that what was there was well done.
This is very specific, but it is so incredibly irritating. I also thought that the sudden falling out with Fennimore near the end was poorly executed. The protagonist screws up his opportunity to ghost-write by pissing off the writer or agent during lunch, then contacts Fennimore behind his agent's back to show him his work. Fennimore is intrigued, and they have this back-and-forth. Over the course of this, the protagonist loses his motivation and his writing suffers. We gradually discover that he is no longer in contact with Fennimore, who is not speaking with him anymore. It makes complete sense if we consider that Fennimore has become disappointed in Karl's writing, but then the fall-out is blamed on the lunch. Maybe I missed something, but it just seems so abrupt (and uncharacteristic for Fennimore, or unusual considering their relationship) and for such a weird reason that this plot seems hastily closed off rather than actually resolved (or left unresolved in a more skillful way).
The saving grace of this novel, and the reason I enjoyed it, is that Karl is so delightfully unsympathetic, and so convinced in his own virtue. It's hilarious that he passes off his partner's anger over his taking a loan out against her apartment as some situation in which he's the hapless victim of her misplaced anger. His exploits while researching are humorous, and perversely credible (like he's trying to escape the tedium of his life with absurd behaviour). I also found his job-related frustrations endearing and incredibly convincing, with his cynical rejection of workplace culture and obligations concomitant with the necessity that he play along because he needs to. And his engagement with the memory of his father is skillfully handles by Collins. What could be sentimental or melodramatic- a writer coming to terms with the gravity of what he experienced as a child - is instead dealt with in a more genuine or authentic way as we learn about Karl's character. He wrestles with the paradoxes of his youth as someone who isn't going to reduce his experience to some profound truth. The way that memories are brought up, and then later modified, embellished, or stripped bare, is a thoughtful rendering of one's experience with trauma, and I think Collins shines in this negotiation of what Karl is going through. That thread, actually, is so strong - at least in my opinion - that it supports the rest of the novel, or compensates for the weaker (or, in my case, just boring because of taste) components.
In total, I enjoyed this novel. The dark humour, self-aggrandizing pretentiousness of Karl, and the occasional luminous insights into what the lies we tell ourselves say about us as people compelled me to keep reading it and stay interested. However, I'm left sort of unsatisfied, and as though I read something unfinished or something I can't decide my opinions on.
Objectively, in terms of plot, the novel seems a bit disjointed and aimless, as though Collins kept changing his mind about what sort of novel he wanted to write. There is an element to this plotting structure that might be purposive, as though it mimics the protagonists's attempt to decide on what his next writing project will be, but the experience of reading the novel is frustrating in that interesting plots are shunted aside, while the overall arch (the desire to get pregnant) that remains is the most boring plot. Some of my criticism has more to do with taste - I will never find stories about pregnancy/infertility struggles interesting. I apologize if that comes off as callous or insensitive, but it's just something that I will never find compelling as a storyline. I especially find "middle-aged woman regrets not having children" plots tedious. So any sections of the novel that involved that plot, even though they may have been well-written and humorous (the doctor's office decorated with ridiculous decor because, the author notes, he's obscenely wealthy and can), come off as tedious because of my personal taste. I also thought that other subplots could have benefited from more development, though my desire to hear more perhaps indicates that what was there was well done.
This is very specific, but it is so incredibly irritating. I also thought that the sudden falling out with Fennimore near the end was poorly executed. The protagonist screws up his opportunity to ghost-write by pissing off the writer or agent during lunch, then contacts Fennimore behind his agent's back to show him his work. Fennimore is intrigued, and they have this back-and-forth. Over the course of this, the protagonist loses his motivation and his writing suffers. We gradually discover that he is no longer in contact with Fennimore, who is not speaking with him anymore. It makes complete sense if we consider that Fennimore has become disappointed in Karl's writing, but then the fall-out is blamed on the lunch. Maybe I missed something, but it just seems so abrupt (and uncharacteristic for Fennimore, or unusual considering their relationship) and for such a weird reason that this plot seems hastily closed off rather than actually resolved (or left unresolved in a more skillful way).
The saving grace of this novel, and the reason I enjoyed it, is that Karl is so delightfully unsympathetic, and so convinced in his own virtue. It's hilarious that he passes off his partner's anger over his taking a loan out against her apartment as some situation in which he's the hapless victim of her misplaced anger. His exploits while researching are humorous, and perversely credible (like he's trying to escape the tedium of his life with absurd behaviour). I also found his job-related frustrations endearing and incredibly convincing, with his cynical rejection of workplace culture and obligations concomitant with the necessity that he play along because he needs to. And his engagement with the memory of his father is skillfully handles by Collins. What could be sentimental or melodramatic- a writer coming to terms with the gravity of what he experienced as a child - is instead dealt with in a more genuine or authentic way as we learn about Karl's character. He wrestles with the paradoxes of his youth as someone who isn't going to reduce his experience to some profound truth. The way that memories are brought up, and then later modified, embellished, or stripped bare, is a thoughtful rendering of one's experience with trauma, and I think Collins shines in this negotiation of what Karl is going through. That thread, actually, is so strong - at least in my opinion - that it supports the rest of the novel, or compensates for the weaker (or, in my case, just boring because of taste) components.
In total, I enjoyed this novel. The dark humour, self-aggrandizing pretentiousness of Karl, and the occasional luminous insights into what the lies we tell ourselves say about us as people compelled me to keep reading it and stay interested. However, I'm left sort of unsatisfied, and as though I read something unfinished or something I can't decide my opinions on.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 23, 2021
This really drew me in and I ran through it.however I thought his other books like Lost Would and the Keepers of Truth were more satisfying on their plotting.It dawns on you tgat the protagonist is wounded and in many ways a git-defrauding his wife, prone to tantrums, mooching. There were some major plot twists dropped at the end then it stopped leaving many questions unanswered. Imo maybe 50 pages more to deal with the crime he's accused of, his sinister former boss and what's been going on with his neighbour would have been better.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 4, 2018
Found it a struggle
December 19, 2025
The author needed to spend less time ultra distance running & more time on deciding on how to fix this mess of a book. One of the most pointless stories I have ever read.
February 5, 2017
What a mess of a book. I know Michael Collins can do better because his book, The Resurrectionists, is on my Top-100 List. Midnight In a Perfect Life though...yikes.
*SPOILERS*
It seems like the author didn't even have a plan; like he just started typing and whatever came out came out. Characters are introduced then abandoned; murder mystery subplots are set up then abandoned...What the heck? The married couple has absolutely no connection between them: Karl all but loathes Lori, and yet he's going along with a very expensive in-vitro plan? It makes no sense.
In the end, the "hero" concludes, what, that other people are "real." What the heck is that supposed to mean? He didn't get that before? My only hope is that maybe I missed something.
*SPOILERS*
It seems like the author didn't even have a plan; like he just started typing and whatever came out came out. Characters are introduced then abandoned; murder mystery subplots are set up then abandoned...What the heck? The married couple has absolutely no connection between them: Karl all but loathes Lori, and yet he's going along with a very expensive in-vitro plan? It makes no sense.
In the end, the "hero" concludes, what, that other people are "real." What the heck is that supposed to mean? He didn't get that before? My only hope is that maybe I missed something.
August 30, 2010
Didn't finish this one. The narrator's voice was at first engaging, with the scene in a fertility clinic. As the story progressed however, it becomes increasingly cynical and trivial. The narrator is a ghost writer finding it difficult to find employment and the story covers his background in the pornography industry, the sale of his and his girlfriend's condo and their shift to cheaper accommodation, a brief assignment covering performance art, and what looks as if it will become his infidelity with a member of the troupe. Hard to take.
August 25, 2012
I received this book as a gift, and was not sure if I'd enjoy it. But surprisingly, I found myself really wanting to know, at a certain point, what will happen in the end. Not a magnificent read, and one I would necessarily recommend, but accessible, enjoyable... And at some point it inspired me to start writing again, too.
August 13, 2012
Repellent characters acting in a repellent manner in an un-engaging story - a massive disappointment after The Secret Life Of E. Robert Pendleton.
September 29, 2012
I'm not really sure what Collins was attempting to do with this novel. It is a departure from his previous novels and not a successful one. The characters were uninteresting, and the prose awkward (usually such a treat in Collin's work).
March 18, 2014
Somewhat self indulgent but he does write well.
October 28, 2014
Unlikeable protagonist, and not entirely sure what the point of the novel was other than 'this guy is a jerk'.
December 31, 2014
Nothing positive to say about this book. Don't waste you time like I did!
January 3, 2015
A la 100° page, je n'avais pas encore saisi l'aspect polar de ce roman: un écrivain qui n'écrit pas et une femme stérile, voilà toute l'histoire!
February 2, 2017
I thought the writing was good and there were some great ideas, but too much going on. Pick a topic and go with it!
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews