Groundskeeping
Books | Fiction / Coming of Age
3.8
Lee Cole
A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK • An indelible love story about two very different people navigating the entanglements of class and identity and coming of age in an America coming apart at the seams—this is "an extraordinary debut about the ties that bind families together and tear them apart across generations" (Ann Patchett, best-selling author of The Dutch House).In the run-up to the 2016 election, Owen Callahan, an aspiring writer, moves back to Kentucky to live with his Trump-supporting uncle and grandfather. Eager to clean up his act after wasting time and potential in his early twenties, he takes a job as a groundskeeper at a small local college, in exchange for which he is permitted to take a writing course.Here he meets Alma Hazdic, a writer in residence who seems to have everything that Owen lacks—a prestigious position, an Ivy League education, success as a writer. They begin a secret relationship, and as they grow closer, Alma—who comes from a liberal family of Bosnian immigrants—struggles to understand Owen’s fraught relationship with family and home. Exquisitely written; expertly crafted; dazzling in its precision, restraint, and depth of feeling, Groundskeeping is a novel of haunting power and grace from a prodigiously gifted young writer.
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More Details:
Author
Lee Cole
Pages
336
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published Date
2022-03-01
ISBN
0593320506 9780593320501
Community ReviewsSee all
"Loved this! The characters are charming and the story really resonated with me. The dialogue can be laugh-out-loud funny, then shocking and sad. It accurately describes what it’s like to feel like an outsider due to class. Also what it’s like to study the humanities when you’re poor - the skepticism from family and wondering if you’re making a bad decision - will you ever pull yourself out of poverty?"