The Astral

Name: The Astral
Brand: Dreamscape Media
Availability: InStock
Author: Kate Christensen
ISBN: 9781611201055

Author: Kate Christensen

Narrator: Donald Corren

Unabridged: 9 hr 43 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Dreamscape Media, LLC

Published: 06/14/2011

Categories: Fiction, Literary Fiction

Synopsis

The Astral is a huge rose-colored old pile of an apartment building in the gentrifying neighborhood of Greenpoint, Brooklyn. For decades it was the happy home (or so he thought) of poet Harry Quirk and his wife, Luz, a nurse, and of their two children: Karina, now a fervent Freegan, and Hector, now in the clutches of a cultish Christian community. But Luz has found (and destroyed) some poems of Harry's that ignite her long-simmering suspicions of infidelity, and he's been summarily kicked out. He now has to reckon with the consequences of his literary, marital, financial, and parental failures, (and perhaps others) and find his way forward - and back into Luz's good graces.

About Kate Christensen

KATE CHRISTENSEN is the author of seven novels, most recently The Last Cruise. Her fourth novel, The Great Man, won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. She has also published two food-centric memoirs, Blue Plate Special and How to Cook a Moose, which won the 2016 Maine Literary Award for Memoir. Her essays, reviews, and short pieces have appeared in a wide variety of publications and anthologies. She lives with her husband and their two dogs in Taos, New Mexico.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Elyse on November 03, 2011

Quite frankly, this book left me thinking, "Who cares?" Harry is a 57-year-old man who has just been kicked out by his wife. He spends the next 300 pages documenting how he hangs out around the city, gets a job, gets fired, gets another job, and hangs out around the city some more. His wife comes of......more

Goodreads review by Ron on December 04, 2013

It doesn’t matter if the story is about 12th-century nuns or lizard-people from the planet Zerlock: During the question-and-answer portion of the author reading at your local bookstore, some loyal fan will stand up and ask, “How much of this novel is autobiographical?” I like to look closely at autho......more

Goodreads review by Nancy on May 29, 2012

I guess I just don't have any empathy for poets and their shitty marriages.......more

Goodreads review by Edan on June 14, 2011

I interviewed Kate Christensen for The Millions: [URL not allowed]......more

Goodreads review by christa on August 06, 2011

In 1975, the world was overrun with infants named Christine or Kiersten or Kristen. At least this is how my mom imagined it. My dad, in a fit of divine improvisation, plucked a variation out of the sky. He invented the name Christa. He just made it up. Took two syllables, rammed them together and ba......more