Title: Inside the O'Briens
Author: Lisa Genova, narrated by Skipp Sudduth
Published: April 7, 2015 by Simon and Schuster Audio
Pages: Audio...11 hours 13 minutes
Source: Library (Overdrive)
Rating: 5/5
Goodreads
Joe O’Brien is a forty-four-year-old police officer from the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Charlestown, Massachusetts. A devoted husband, proud father of four children in their twenties, and respected officer, Joe begins experiencing bouts of disorganized thinking, uncharacteristic temper outbursts, and strange, involuntary movements. He initially attributes these episodes to the stress of his job, but as these symptoms worsen, he agrees to see a neurologist and is handed a diagnosis that will change his and his family’s lives forever: Huntington’s Disease.
Huntington’s is a lethal neurodegenerative disease with no treatment and no cure. Each of Joe’s four children has a 50 percent chance of inheriting their father’s disease, and a simple blood test can reveal their genetic fate. While watching her potential future in her father’s escalating symptoms, twenty-one-year-old daughter Katie struggles with the questions this test imposes on her young adult life. Does she want to know? What if she’s gene positive? Can she live with the constant anxiety of not knowing?
As Joe’s symptoms worsen and he’s eventually stripped of his badge and more, Joe struggles to maintain hope and a sense of purpose, while Katie and her siblings must find the courage to either live a life “at risk” or learn their fate.
My review:
This one had everything I love in a novel!! Family dynamics, funny parts, sad parts, things that made you question what would you do, along with some medical jargon and sports thrown in for good measure. I absolutely fell in love with this family, and my heart ached for them. The interactions between the family members was so real to me, it was like I was there with them watching all the scenes play out. The majority of the book focuses on Joe and his daughter Katie, but all the secondary characters were so well done. I adored Rosie! The ending bothered me, but after reflecting back on the book, I feel that it ended in the best possible way under the circumstances.
I listened to this on audio, and the narrator was fabulous. He had the Boston accent, which I think added to my overall enjoyment even more than if I had read it.
While this book does deal with a very emotional and sad situation, Lisa Genova writes it in the best possible way. It will make you have hope for the future, whatever life hands to you, and take time to make the most of every day. You will fall in love with this family!
Yikes this sounds like a book with a very difficult issue. You've given it a great review so it makes it enticing to me to read though. Family always is a great part of a book.
It was a really tough subject, but I loved the way that Genova also wove in humorous situations and family dynamics.
Oooh - a little sports in the one?! I love that! I've heard good things about this book before...but definitely never heard there was a sports angle.
It's not really about sports, but the main character is a huge Red Sox fan and that is a recurring part of the book. At one point we learn that the number of people with Huntington's disease would fill up Fenway Park in Boston 🙁