The Good Father: A Novel

It felt very sad to familiarize myself with the families' pain and guilt in this read. While the initial love for Daniel is palpable, the longing for what should have been insinuates itself throughout the book. All through the story, I found myself building compassion for the characters because people never really know the "why" nor could they be prepared for a tragedy of this magnitude. Having met the recipients of such unexpected maladies, I found it interesting walking with the father through the mental calisthenics of acceptance.

*Possible spoiler!! This book was an enjoyable read but I kept waiting for something to happen to change the direction of the plot. There are no surprises or twists or mis-expectation. It's just a story about a guy and what he did. It is however, very well told and well crafted.

This is the most heartbreaking and the most infuriating book I've ever read. I was crying at the father's disbelief and diligence to help his son but so angered at the son for his attitude I was up and down all through this book. You have to have some sympathy for the son but it still hurts that he's so hell bent on self destruction and refuses help from anyone. One of the best books I've ever read.

I loved this book about Dr. Paul Allen exploring facts and feelings after learning his son is arrested for the assassination of a beloved political figure. The book alternates between back stories from the son's perspective and current investigations from the perspective of the father. Mixed in is stories cobbled together from some of the most famous assassins of our time. I was eager to know what really happened but also what would happen. I was moved to tears by the end from the father's revelations. I enjoyed this book and look forward to more from this author.

The main character searches for meaning after his son assassinates a Senator and is ultimately disappointed. Similarly, the reader maintains a sense of disappointment in this heavy, narcissistic book. Hawley is certainly a good writer. However, we don’t need a “guns are evil” sermon from someone who obviously knows very little about them.

I found this book on my kindle, downloaded sometime in the recent past, but I can't remember why or when. I have been searching for a good read, and it is that. The writing is very good, the story is heartbreaking. As a physician I was very engaged by the diagnostic parallels, and I understood when diagnostic limits leave the answer out of reach. I am fascinated by infamous shooters and political assassinations. I am fascinated by the prelude established by fact or fiction. In a bizarre Way i savor the dread of the coming catastrophe often apparent in retrospect but in fact so unpredictable.

This story made me think back to my own parenting skills or lack of them as I too was a mother of divorce with two boys. I keep saying to myself "you can't go back".
My boys grew to be good fathers, good husbands and good providers with a full and happy life.
But for the grace of God go I.

This book just got more and more depressing. Given that the topic is violence, don't attempt unless you are really fascinated by the psychology of shooters. I got to the half-way point, then jumped to the end to answer "did he do it or not" solely out of a desire to end my misery.

This book captures your attention from the moment you pick it up and and when you have finished it, you realise you have been guided through one of the many possible outcomes of life as a result of decisions taken and things not done early on in ones life.

I really enjoyed this book. Storyline was unusual as you knew from the start of the book the terrible deed that had been done but you then got sucked into finding out why and the final outcome.

A sad and enlightening story well written.

This book captures your attention from the moment you pick it up and and when you have finished it, you realise you have been guided through one of the many possible outcomes of life as a result of decisions taken and things not done early on in ones life.

I really enjoyed this book. Storyline was unusual as you knew from the start of the book the terrible deed that had been done but you then got sucked into finding out why and the final outcome.

A sad and enlightening story well written.

Can't think of anything positive to say about this book. IT WAS TERRIBLE and not worth the time to read it. Probably the worst book I have read in a long time. It dragged on and was depressing, and I am not interested in reading about serial killers and their disturbing lives.

This was a difficult book to read, because of the subject matter. I enjoyed how the author deftly developed the characters in the book. I immediately felt sorry for Daniel; my heart broke for him. I wanted so much for him to find love, happiness. It left me sad that he didn't. I felt differently about his physician-father. He came across as arrogant, demanding and distant. How could a father of a 7-YO up and move from the west coast to the east coast after he divorces his wife, and just dump his son??? Sure, in the story, there are cross-country visits, but the father himself admits he settled into his new family...wife #2 and their two young sons and summarily dismissed his first son, except for cursory visits a few times a year.

And Daniel's mother is no better. Depressed and angry, it was clear she became the child and Daniel the parent. So essentially Daniel got lost, feeling unloved and lonely. Heartbreaking! Doesn't excuse what he did...at all...but makes the story of why he did what he did a bit more plausible.

I didn't understand what happened in Montana. The author chose not to develop that part of the story. I didn't like that...left guessing. I felt that needed to be flushed out more, to give us more insight into Daniel's emerging break from reality.

Overall, though, I enjoyed the read. It will be a story that I'll think about for days or weeks to come.

I was very excited to read this book after reading the store's description. The idea of a novel exploring the reaction of a parent who discovers his child may have been responsible for something terrible was very intriguing. Before I'd finished the first chapter I began having doubts. I forced myself to about the halfway mark before finally throwing in the towel.

The constant references to the protagonist being a diagnostician felt like a crutch for an author who didn't really know how to develop a character. It's one of the first things the author tells you about his character, and he comes back to it constantly - no chapter was complete without the narrator reminding us that he was a scientist who had to review all the facts.

I might have been able to overcome that annoyance, but then the author kept interrupting the flow of his own story to provide historical information about other assassins. Every time I'd start to engage with the novel, the story I was following would get cut off, and I'd have to read about something totally unrelated. Some authors have made similar techniques work (e.g., Gillian Flynn swaps perspective in every chapter of Gone Girl), but it doesn't work if the content interrupting the story has no connection to the story.

The real problem with this book, though, comes down to the character of the protagonist. The premise of exploring a person's reaction to a life-changing event only works if the author can make you believe in and care about that character. I never believed in this character, so I couldn't engage in the story.

Having really enjoyed Before the Fall, I was happy to find another book by Noah Hawley. I enjoyed The Good Father, though, perhaps, not as much. The books are similar in that a seemingly random murder is perpetrated and the pre-history of the event, and hopefully the root of its cause, are explored as time unwinds. Unlike Before the Fall, the story is told from only two perspectives, that of the shooter, Daniel Allen and that of his father, Dr. Paul Allen. Lives are explained and perspectives examined. Was Dr. Allen a "good father" to Daniel? What exactly does that even mean? In light of the lone wolf shooter violence that continues to plague our times, this exploration is very timely and painful. It is never easy to try and understand what would motivate someone to commit such a heinous act. Perhaps, that is what separates the sane from the dangerously detached. I would recommend the Good Father as a thoughtful read. If you are really interested in this topic, I would also recommend We Need to Talk About Kevin which is an absolutely haunting novel.

3.5 stars

A popular U.S Senator running for President is shot at a rally and a college dropout named Daniel Allen (who calls himself Carter Allen Cash) is arrested for murder. Daniel's father, a successful and respected rheumatologist named Dr. Paul Allen, believes his son is innocent and develops a compulsion to prove that fact. Underlying Paul's obsession, in part, are feelings of guilt. He and Daniel's mother divorced many years ago and little Daniel had to fly back and forth across the country for infrequent visits with Paul and his new family. Could this have damaged the boy?

The story jumps back and forth between Daniel's memories of his past - including parts of his childhood and what he's been up to during the last couple of years - and Paul's activities. Paul acquires a library worth of information about mass murderers and would-be presidential assassins, looking for clues to the mind-set of these individuals. He also hires a private detective, who helps him find out where Daniel has been recently, who he's met, and so on.

Daniel pleads guilty but even this doesn't persuade Paul of his son's guilt. Paul's obsession gets to the point where he neglects (and lies to) his new wife and family to work on Daniel's case.

I found the book engaging with a well-constructed plot. The main characters are three-dimensional and the reader can (mostly) believe they'd behave in the fashion described. The story is rather disturbing but I'd recommend the book.

You’ve followed all the rules: you went to school; built a reliable middle-class profession; got married; bought a nice house; created a family; made a good home; participated in your community—you’ve volunteered; supported charities; given to friends and family members in need; voted at every election—you’ve been a good son, sibling, friend, husband, father—and then one evening after a hard day’s work, you’re home with your wife and children, eating dinner, the television providing background white noise. A news bulletin catches your attention. There has been another assassination: the Democratic nominee for President of the United States, the hope of the nation, the person who is going to turn things around, has been killed, shot by an assassin’s bullet—and you hear your son’s name; your college-student son; the child of your first marriage; the child you left behind, identified as the alleged shooter, branded as a terrorist—and in that flash of mere seconds, your safe, secure, textbook life swirls off of the planet—lost forever in the utter blackness of the unknown.
In the wake of unshakeable evidence of his son’s guilt, including a confession, the father applies the logic of a medical diagnostician, which he is by profession, to uncover possible extenuating circumstances, and in the retracing he tries to justify his own performance as a non-custodial parent to his first-born child. In the retracing, we witness a story known far too well by many of us—one, that despite our good intentions, we have, and will, fail our children. We get caught up in some current event: we divorce and lose daily contact with our children; we are offered the career opportunity of our lives across the country and we become holidays-and-summer-vacations-parents; we get sick; our spouse is unfaithful; one of our children dies; we lose our job. Or, even if we’ve done everything right, something within the nature of the child steers him/her onto the wrong course. We have, and will, fail our children. They have, and will, fail us.
Author Noah Hawley, in his compelling novel The Good Father, has written a father’s agonizing search to prove his son’s innocence—to prove his own innocence, ultimately. But, in the end, this is an intelligent and emotional exploration of one man’s fantasy that he would be the lucky one, the wise one, who would save his child, and in turn, the child would save him. At the dark heart of the novel, this father’s coming to terms with his fallibility as a parent is a sobering lesson to all of us.
The brilliance of Hawley’s The Good Father is that it does not try to solve the enigma of why, in the face of inadequate nurture and/or nature, some children make it and some do not. It respects the integrity of the unexplainable and tells a thought-provoking story that illustrates the impossibility of answering the question: “Who is to blame when a child goes astray?”

Warning: contains a description of occurrences of the very first chapter. If you want to come in not knowing anything, don't read this review!

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"The Good Father" starts just fine, but can't hold a candle to better books on the topic such as "We Need to Talk About Kevin" or the real life book "A Mother's Reckoning" or a few others. The premise is that a man with a second family and a happy second marriage finds out his firstborn from a previous marriage may (or may not) have killed a man running for President. It's a great topic, with lots of emotions and drama to explore, but Noah Hawley can't decide if this is a whodunit, an emotional psychodrama, a thriller, an exploration of parenting and marriage, or something else entirely. For most of the book, he manages to straddle the lines with only minor annoyances, but the last chapter or two jumps the shark-badly. Hawley's a decent writer, so, I hope he finds a better editor next time out.

This novel dealt with a serious, contemporary topic-- violence among our youth. The troubled son of a successful doctor feels that he never fit in with his father's second family even though that group tried to include him. Some readers might find that implausible ,but unfortunately even kids of conscientious parents can go wrong. The father did not make excuses for his inability to sense the disaffection of his son, and the author did a good job of communicating the son's quandary. I will certainly additional books by Noah Hawley.

An excellent study into the mind of a disturbed young man whose fall from "normalcy" was unpredictable and tragic and essentially unexplainable. Hawley writes in a uniquely descriptive style--this effort not as great as Before the Fall, but few are. He can turn a phrase, simile, metaphor with the best of them. He intersperses details from infamous killers/serial killers throughout the book, as a comparison/contrast to his son, with a deft touch. I like how he interlaces a bit of the gun control issue in the background without getting preachy and what I especially liked about the story is how people in society blindly judge the parents of disturbed, troubled 20-somethings as horrible, blaming them for their young adults behaviors and actions. Hawley is quite gifted; I recommend everyone read something by this man.

Spoiler alert: almost everything here assumes you have read the book.

Hawley does something I haven't seen before in fiction. He melds an analysis - slightly sketchy, to be sure - of American assassins and mass murderers with a fictional story. He makes life hard for himself by giving the 20-year-old assassin - Danny - a background and history that would not easily predict his behavior. He imagines how Danny could come to want the power that an assassin or mass murderer wields. And he imagines what it would be like to be the upper-middle-class physician father of such a child. It's a very ambitious undertaking. I think he isn't completely successful. It's hard to believe that a couple of events - the almost crash of a plane in which the murderer was riding alone when he was a child, and seeing the politician whom he kills ogling his not-quite girlfriend's breasts - are enough to tip Danny over the edge. And it's hard to believe that his parents' divorce, distant father, and ditzy mother, have made him so confused about his identity and so lost. But Hawley does a great job of describing that confusion, and describing the attraction of using a gun to be powerful. He shows that a terrible act is not necessarily the product of a terrible person. (Dostoyevksy's novels and Russian literature in general make a not coincidental appearance.) He also does a great job of describing the father's desperate attempt to find his son innocent, to use his diagnostic and integrative skills to obtain evidence that will show someone else committed the murder. He conveys very well the horror of being the father of a murderer. He also does a great job of describing the Iowa couple with whom Danny lives for several months. That couple are the parents of a girl Danny knew slightly at Vassar before dropping out in the middle of his second semester. The meeting between Danny's father and the girl's mother, who is dying of cancer, is very touching. The mystery at the heart of the book is how a terrible violent crime can arise from a person who is aptly described as 'lost'. I am grateful to the reviewer of another book who suggested reading this one.

Imagine sitting down to dinner with your family turning on the news and learning that your son has just killed the leading Democratic contender for the presidency. This is the nightmare that becomes Dr. Paul Allen's life.

Paul Allen is a successful doctor, married to a younger second wife and the father of two young boys. He is also the father of Daniel, his son with his first wife Ellen. Now twenty Daniel has dropped out of college and is estranged from both parents. He's become a drifter, searching for meaning to his life. At the time of the assassination Daniel has not spoken to anyone in his family for months.

The book is told from two viewpoints, that of Paul who is determined to prove his son's innocence. He goes from theory to theory trying to understand what happened to his son, believing his son is the scapegoat of a large conspiracy plot. From Daniel's viewpoint we learn of the months leading up to the shooting
and how he has always felt like his father's "shadow son".

While I read this book in a few days it wasn't an easy read. Paul is a decent man; he is a good father to his two young sons and tried hard to be a good father to Danny. As most parents can attest as much as you may love your children there are days when you may not like them. But when push comes to shove you will do anything to save that child, even if it puts everything and everyone in your life at risk. Danny is a confused young man, not unlike many other young men of his age. It was hard to read his painful steps to that fateful day, to not want to reach out to him in some way. As Paul continues his quest for answers you begin to wonder how much this quest is about his son or about easing his guilt about putting his career and new family ahead of that child, the one he left so many years earlier. Throughout it all one question hovers in the back of your mind - what would you do?

This was a very taut story, but a few plot twists were a little illogical and a little judicious editing would have helped. Overall it was a good book, and one I would recommend.

The Good Father by Noah Hawley is the haunting tale of Dr. Paul Allen, a remarried father of young twins, who is struggling to come to grips with a single horrific act perpetrated by, Daniel, his son from his first marriage. After dropping out of college for a soul-searching life on the road, Daniel assumed a new identity and is arrested for assassinating a popular presidential candidate. Mostly narrated by Dr. Allen, there are parts that switch to Daniel's point-of-view, giving the reader the full 3-D experience.

Reading this book was a bit of a harrowing experience. What propels the book forward is Dr. Allen's quest to understand his son's actions. He is desperate to prove his son's innocence while also trying to come to terms with what he has done. Was it the divorce that changed his sweet boy into a killer? Was it the cross-country flights between parents? Was it because he had remarried and started a new family? Did he pay his son enough attention? These are the questions Dr. Allen asks himself as the rest of the world vilifies his son.

What is difficult about this book is that it personifies the killer. In light of recent events in Aurora, CO; Newtown, CT; and California, this is a difficult pill to swallow and I know that a of of people will likely put off reading The Good Father because of it. But it is a very good book and it should be read because it's main focus is the father. We oftentimes forget that violence affects the families of the guilty, and this is one of those rare books that delves into that unexplored side of tragedy.

As one afflicted with ADHD, I find it difficult to stay engaged with a book. However, here I am, in the wee hours of the morning, having hurried from my bed, barely awake, to finish this one. If we are encouraged to write what we know, I pray I am never able to write about about such a painful subject. Mr. Hawley writes with such conviction and personal angst, I can only hope that this book is the exception to the rule. Kudos for this magnificent, albeit tortured, examination of a father's unconditional love for his son. It certainly held my attention.

The father of a man who assassinates a presidential candidate tries to make sense of his son's crime in Hawley's gripping new novel. Dr. Paul Allen is a successful rheumatologist happily living with his second wife and their twin sons; when he experiences the shock of a lifetime one evening when he sees a news bulletin: someone has assassinated popular Senator Jay Seagram at a political rally, and it looks like his son Daniel may be the assassin. Paul cannot believe that his son would kill someone. Contact with Daniel, his aloof son from a previous marriage, is sporadic, and when Daniel drops out of Vassar in his first year to 'see the country,' Dr. Allen shrugs it off as a youthful foible; he believes that shuffling between parents turned the boy into a 'teenage gypsy.' Dr. Allen had seen him only once since then, a year ago in an Arizona coffee shop, so the Secret Service agents who appear at his door are a great surprise. Daniel, aka Carter Allen Cash, has shot and killed the Democratic presidential front-runner. The shooting takes place one warm evening in June during a rally in downtown Los Angeles; which we learn is close to the scene where Robert Kennedy was shot in 1968. Despite the overwhelming evidence against Daniel, Dr. Paul Allen refuses to believe that his son is guilty, he remembers his son as a member of Greenpeace and a liberal Democrat; and becomes convinced of a conspiracy involving a second person. His attention to every detail of his son's case, and to the cases of other famous assassins, puts everything he's worked for at risk both professionally and personally. With great skill, Hawley (The Punch) renders Dr. Allen's treacherous emotional geography, from his shock and guilt to his growing sense that he knows far less about his son than he thought. Initially privileged and priggish, Dr. Allen is humanized by his attempts to piece together the missing months of Daniel's life; although not a good father in a conventional sense, Hawley's complicated protagonist is a fully fathomed and beautifully realized character whose emotional growth never slows, and a narrative that races toward a satisfying and touching conclusion.

This is the kind of book that contains a little of everything, like suspense, history, and part family trauma and is all around a fantastic read. From the very beginning of the story, the plot pulls you in and keeps you locked in, I found it hard to put down. I could sympathize with the characters the writing style was meant to make the reader feel like we were really inside the heads of both father and son so we could understand their actions based on their feelings. It was like we witnessed a painful tragedy full of turmoil from two people's perspectives based on one terrible event. One is the son's life building up to the event, which is told in flashbacks while the other is the father's life which is happening after the event and in real time. Although the father is the main character, and the son a close second, the other characters throughout the book are well developed and believable. This is a truly thought provoking read. Highly recommend picking this one up.

Over-written exploration by a father whose son has committed a public murder. The entire book is details that after many many chapters become boring, redundant. The details don't add up, rather collect in mass and lead, inexorably, to the same conclusions established in early chapters. Most of the story, the reader is inside the father's head. We hear every little thought. Ponderous, dull, lacking the depth of true psychological insight or anything inspired, really. Little drama or discovery - fails to deliver on the promise of the plot setup.

(For a great mystery by Noah Hawley, read BEFORE THE FALL; or watch the FARGO TV series where Hawley was Showrunner.)

This book reels readers in from the very start. Dr. Paul Allen, a diagnostician at New York Presbyterian Hospital in NYC is a well respected man about town. He and his second wife Fran and 10-year-old twins live in Connecticut. Dr. Allen has a 20-year-old son named Daniel from a previous marriage. His first wife Ellen did not sound like a likable character. She had her own set of problems - a hippie mother who would keep her home at least 2 days a week because she craved company. As for Ellen, she was flighty and irresponsible and during the marriage to Dr. Allen, she had numerous affairs. I admit that I didn't like Ellen at all.

Daniel, their son had what appeared to be a perfectly ordinary life. He did suffer a major trauma in 2000 when, at age 8 he was on a plane that nearly crashed. By then the Allens had divorced and Paul was flying from NY to Los Angeles holidays and summers. As his life spiraled downward like that airplane, Dr. Allen would wonder if that trauma is what caused his son to decompensate and demonstrate a labile personality.

On June 16, 2012 the Allens are jolted by a rude awakening. A knock on the door reveals FBI agents who have confirmed the announcement they have seen on the news - Paul's son Daniel was charged with killing Senator Seagram, the democratic candidate for the presidency. Daniel had been shot in the leg during the scuffle.

Dr. Allen's life spirals downward from that point as well. The FBI agents are rude and hostile and from there, things go from bad to worse. Dr. Allen is a persona non grata in the hospital where he spent his professional life; former colleagues turn on him and he and his wife suffer fallout from the neighbors. In time, the Allens would move across country to beautiful Colorado.

The book explores Daniel and Dr. Allen. Daniel always felt like the "shadow son," or as he would ruminate over in Montana the winter of 2011, "shadow son/sun" as he spent 3 mostly sunless months in Montana, stalking Seagram. Dr. Allen and Daniel's lives overlap, although they don't know it at the time. When Daniel drops out of Vassar and hits the road in an old Honda, he researches murderers just as Dr. Allen would do months later when Senator Seagram was assassinated.

Dr. Allen is convinced Daniel is innocent. The questions remain as to did Daniel in fact pull that trigger? Did he kill the Senator? What about two men whom he met while bumming rail rides across country? The men were war veterans and they might have had some insight as to who really pulled that trigger. But do they?

Daniel's life is one long and winding road. In fact, his theme song during his transient days could be Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again" as he ends up in Iowa, where a former friend's family lives. The couple own a feed and grain store and hire Daniel on the spot. He spends 4 happy months there before just picking up and heading for Montana, the home of Senator Seagram. Once he leaves Montana, he ends up in Austin TX. People familiar with the area will recognize the street names and landmarks. One thing that jumps out at readers is when Lady Bird Lake, the former Town Lake is called Town Lake in the book. (It was renamed Lady Bird Lake on July 26, 2007.) It is in Austin where Daniel gets to know Senator Seagram and work on his campaign. From all outward appearances he admires the man.

What led Daniel to California and to the site in California where Senator Seagram is killed? Who shot the Senator and what were the motives if any? Why is Daniel taken into custody and why isn't he talking? These questions will keep readers up all night reading to a shattering conclusion.

Daniel's theme song is the 1968 Beatles' classic, "Happiness is a Warm Gun." He lived that song's lyrics and he, as the turning point in his life on that turbulent airplane spiraled downward. Unlike the plane, Daniel crashed and burned. The questions remain as to what really happened on June 16, 2012 in California and why isn't Daniel answering any questions?

This is an excellent book. It has no numbered chapters which, in this case is very effective as it keeps readers wanting to know the conclusion of each section, which segues neatly into the next. There are some date inconsistencies, such as Sunday, May 24. May 24 was a Sunday in 2009. Other dates match up with 2009. The final date given in the book is Wednesday, December 14. In order for that date to work in the time frame in this book, that would have been 2010 which predates any of the events in this book. Just a minor thing, maybe, but it doesn't go unnoticed.

Goodreads Description- As the Chief of Rheumatology at Columbia Presbyterian, Dr. Paul Allen's specialty is diagnosing patients with conflicting symptoms, patients other doctors have given up on. He lives a contented life in Westport with his second wife and their twin sons--hard won after a failed marriage earlier in his career that produced a son named Daniel. In the harrowing opening scene of this provocative and affecting novel, Dr. Allen is home with his family when a televised news report announces that the Democratic candidate for president has been shot at a rally, and Daniel is caught on video as the assassin.

Daniel Allen has always been a good kid--a decent student, popular--but, as a child of divorce, used to shuttling back and forth between parents, he is also something of a drifter. Which may be why, at the age of nineteen, he quietly drops out of Vassar and begins an aimless journey across the United States, during which he sheds his former skin and eventually even changes his name to Carter Allen Cash.

Told alternately from the point of view of the guilt-ridden, determined father and his meandering, ruminative son, The Good Father is a powerfully emotional page-turner that keeps one guessing until the very end. This is an absorbing and honest novel about the responsibilities--and limitations--of being a parent and our capacity to provide our children with unconditional love in the face of an unthinkable situation.

This is an emotional journey of a father trying to find his son. As a doctor he wants to look at the facts and circumstances to figure out why Danny, his son, has assasinated a political candidate. However, he is treating it as a diagnosis and it is taking over his entire life. It is interesting how Paul, the father, compares his extensive investigation to medical diagnostics and definitely adds much more heft to the plot. It is sad, as the reader, to see the fall of the father. His decline in his desperation to save or vindicate his son not realizing he is putting his current family at risk. As a reader you can feel Paul's desperation and it made me wonder what I would do if I were in a similar situation. The reader almost knows that Paul's efforts are futile but Hawley definitely approaches the question of what is unconditional love and does it really extend to all circumstances. He asks questions about family, and nature vs nurture and made me think. Hawley puts his various opinions out there in the form of characters who sometimes play the "devil's advocate". Although this book isn't a political rant and the circumstances are around a politician, Hawley is not promoting one side or the other. This is a book about family, unconditional love, and other psychological issues. This is definitely a book I would recommend because it has so many aspects that readers can find interest in. 5 stars!

The Good Father, by Noah Hawley, reminded me of another book I just finished called Defending Jacob: A Novel. It is another story, a father who questions what constitutes one being a "good father", and whether he could have prevented his son from doing what he did.

The story is told from the POV of the father, Paul Allen, successful Chief of Rheumatology at a prestigious NYC hospital. Paul is happily married to his second wife Fran, and the couple has young twin sons. His first marriage took place when he was much younger when Ellen had become pregnant with their son Daniel. Ellen was somewhat of a ditz, and the marriage ended when Daniel was just starting school. Although he tried to stay involved in Daniel's life, Daniel felt like he never fit into Paul's new life and new family, and as a result, they began seeing less and less of one another.

Paul's peaceful life, begins to fall apart when one evening over dinner, he learns that his son Daniel (a.k.a. Carter Allen Cash) has been accused of shooting and killing a leading presidential candidate. A candidate that Daniel had once worked for. Paul cannot believe that his son could be capable of such a thing and is experiencing a deep sense of denial.

The remainder of the novel has Paul trying to understand what might have made his son possibly become another name like other political assassins who have been in the news over the years. Paul sets out to understand what has happened in Daniel's childhood, teen years and young adulthood that could have attributed to what he has been accused of. Of course, he questions his lack of involvement in his life, and even wonders about whether genetics have played a part in the person Daniel has become.

Although I enjoyed the audio book, the (3) readers: Bruce Turk, Arthur Morey and Ryan Gesell were all good, the story itself did not wow me. Where as Defending Jacob: A Novel, by William Landay, kept me guessing from beginning to end, this book did not. I also did not enjoy the detailed analysis into the background of other political assassins in US history. Despite these criticisms, The Good Father is still a decent book, because it is an interesting examination of father and son relationships. It is also a story that makes the reader realize that no matter how smoothly things seem to be going in our lives for us at times, all that can change, for any one of us in an instant.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Paul Allen is a doctor, a rheumatologist who searches for the diagnoses of rare and often elusive diseases. He is married to Fran and they have two children, male fraternal twins around nine years old. He had been married before to a woman named Ellen. Their marriage lasted only a short while and together they had a child named Danny. Paul left Ellen when Danny was seven years old and moved from the east coast to Los Angeles. He saw Danny at Christmas and in the summers. One evening when Paul and Fran are watching television they see a picture of Danny on a news broadcast. He is accused of killing Senator Jay Seagram, the democratic hopeful for the next presidential election - think JFK. Seagram is young and vibrant and a true alternative to the Washington driven old boys' network. "This is how it happens. There is nothing and then, suddenly, something. A family is making dinner, talking, laughing, and then the outside world muscles in."

The novel goes into Danny's history. He had recently dropped out of Vassar College and is traveling around the country, not staying in any one place too long. Like a hobo, he gets dead-end jobs and moves along to the next city quickly. Paul is obsessed with Danny's innocence, not believing him capable of having committed such a horrendous crime. Even if he did commit the crime, Paul is determined to find out why. Was is because of his fathering, or lack therof? Were there signs in Danny during his childhood that he missed that might have led to his having murdered a man? Paul jeopardizes the family he has to try and understand Danny, living his life as a detective, trying to cipher what he missed in Danny that led him to buying guns and shooting someone. He finds out that Danny has changed his name to Carter Allen Cash as he traveled the country. Was there a reason for this?

Paul goes from being a respected doctor and head of his department in a teaching hospital to being viewed as a pariah. "I looked at their faces. I could see it in their eyes. They all thought he had done it. He was a monster, and I, as his father, was at best a sad, pathetic man, and at worst a parent guilty of almost criminal negligence. Monsters don't just become monsters, after all. They are forged in a laboratory of abuse a neglect. And who else is to blame but the parents?" Paul thinks about everything he can remember of Danny's childhood - his lack of follow-through, his impulsivity, the impact of the divorce on him, his lack of a large network of friends. None of these symptoms seem severe enough to account for the murder. His first wife, Ellen, was ditzy and somewhat of a hippy but she loved Danny and did the best she could. Paul himself saw Danny relatively infrequently and they were never very close. He blames himself for not devoting more time to Danny and not having fathered him in a more qualitative manner.

The murder causes terrible stress to Paul's marriage and family. "Overnight we became public figures." He was determined not to turn his family into a circus. News reporters hovered all over the place seeking interviews or snapshots. It became so bad that Fran took the twins out of school and home schooled them.

Paul has all sorts of theories about the crime - there was another gunman, there was a conspiracy, Danny was duped into committing the murder. He realized that "an attack on a presidential candidate was an attack on democracy itself. Elections are about hope, the Secret Service agent had told me. And my son was accused of murdering hope. The hope of his country, of the world." Danny's fingerprints are on the murder weapon, he has declared himself guilty and there are pictures of him firing the gun. Still, Paul wants to believe in his son's innocence or lack of responsibility for the crime. He goes to great lengths to try and prove that Danny did not commit the murder. The sentence for this crime is death and Danny is scheduled to die by lethal injection.

The book traces Danny's footsteps from the day that he dropped out of Vassar and began traveling the country. There are chapters about other murderers and what led to their crimes - John Hinckley, Timothy McVeigh, Charles Whitman. The book also examines criminals such as Charles Manson, Gary Gilmore, and Lynette 'Squeaky' Fromme. The novel's timeframe is from the time that Danny is 19 and drops out of college after one semester until he is 26 years old and shoots Senator Seagram.

What is so exceptional about this novel is the way it explores the inner life of Danny's father, Paul, and the despair he is experiencing along with his complete bewilderment about why his son would have done something as horrific as murdering Senator Seagram. "I had spend the last three months trying to compile the evidence, to add up all the moments from Danny's childhood that could provide a diagnosis, a definitive answer as to who he was and why he did the things he did, and yet in life everything is open to interpretation. We see the past through the prism of our perception. When a man is indicted of a crime you review his life looking for patterns. Incidents that may have been meaningless before suddenly loom large." "I have looked into my son's eyes throughout the course of his life and never once have I seen a freak, a sociopath, or a murderer." Paul believes the answer to his questions lie in Danny's time wandering the country but he never stops questioning himself about his own role as a father.

This book is page-turner as well as being a book of depth. It is extraordinarily well-written as it examines the inner life and actions of a father who can not bear to lose his son but in the process of trying to save his son may lose everything else in life that he holds dear. It is a book of moral and ethical ambiguity, a story of a man lost and most likely seriously mentally ill, of a father who wears his guilt on his sleeve and can no longer sleep. Paul goes through the steps of his life in a rote manner but his passion for life is no longer there. I highly recommend this book and look forward to more books by this author.

Doctor Paul Allen's specialty is diagnosing patients with conflicting symptoms, patients other doctors have given up on. He is married, with two sons and has a son Daniel from a previous marriage. Things are going well in his life both at home and professionally. He doesn't see Daniel as much as he would like, but Daniel is an adult, has always been a good kid and a decent student, but he is easily distracted, something inherited from his mother. He recently dropped out of college and it traveling around the states. Paul is worried about him but knows that Daniel will check in with him if he needs anything.

Home relaxing with his family he is shocked when a televised news report announces that the Democratic candidate for president has been shot at a rally, and Daniel is caught on video as the assassin. There has to be a mistake, that can't be Daniel.

Dollycas's Thoughts
The book chronicles Paul's journey to find the answers he needs to come to grips with what everyone is convinced his child has done. He researches other well known killers like John Hinkley and Sirhan Sirhan to try to get inside their heads and compare them to his son. Why did they do what they did? Could his son have been brainwashed or had a mental breakdown? He knows he wasn't the best father but he was a "good father". What did he do wrong to raise a son like Daniel? Did his son actually assassinate a man running to become President of the United States?

This is a very gripping novel. It uses several real events to ground the story in reality. As a parent you understand the unconditional love that you feel for your children and understand Paul's need to find the truth. His job is to explain the unexplainable and this drives him throughout the story.

The author really had me with him in most places throughout the story but lost me at a couple of illogical turns. At times the writing felt forced but the subject matter was compelling enough to keep the story moving forward. A little more editing would have made this a great read. It is a very good read that I do recommend.

Although live television shows 20-year-old Daniel Allen shooting presidential frontrunner Jay Seagram, his father, Paul, grasps at straws and devotes the next year trying to prove Daniel's innocence. Paul's second wife and family suffer from this obsession, and he's told, "You need to accept that this wasn't your fault. That your son is lost to you." Perhaps Paul attempts to overcompensate for not being in Daniel's life by trying to stop the execution of a convicted killer. He tries to rewrite family history by focusing on its positive aspects.

An astute physician, Paul analyzes past assassinations. "And yet if Sirhan Sirhan was standing in front of Kennedy, how did he shoot him three times in the back?" Paul is convinced that his son is involved in a conspiracy and is the fall guy. He blames himself for Daniel's actions: "I had been a bad father, selfish, neglectful. I had sacrificed my son for my career." After Paul's failed first marriage, Daniel became "a boy who, instead of inheriting two homes, found himself with none."

Paul's first-person narration counters Daniel's third-person account. Mirrors reflect many views, and THE GOOD FATHER shines with its recitation of historical facts. Influences in Daniel's life are analyzed from the myriad views of people he meets after dropping out of school and wandering across the country, which led him to meet Paul's presumed conspirators in the assassination. This dark and brooding novel is likely to keep replaying in readers' minds. The question begs: What would you do if you were Paul?

Noah Hawley wrote and produced the hit TV series "Bones." The screenwriter and producer lives in Texas with his family. Following A CONSPIRACY OF TALL MEN, his emotionally charged fourth novel about unconditional love challenges many premises: gun control laws, the importance of financial success over family values, and the ability to accept the inevitable.

Reviewed by L. Dean Murphy

This was a very well written, although sad book.
I found it very interesting, as I knew practically nothing about this kind of event, nor much about the kind of people who were portrayed.
It was pretty awakening to see how this evolved and how children can be effected by things when they are young, that the adults almost forgot about. Things like this can pop up in families which would never expect it, scary.
Yes, I did like it, and at times couldn't put it down!

I just finished "The Good Father" - and although I could read through the first 200 pages when it was convenient, I read the last 100 in one sitting, unable to put it down, unable to wait to find out how it all would end.

If you are a parent, and if you are a divorced parent as well, this story will inevitably leave its mark as it has on me. Daniel, the young man accused of killing a popular presidential candidate, is like so many young people all of us have known - some of them in our own families. Daniel's father asks the questions all of us would ask in the same situation. Hawley, the author, skillfully takes us along with Daniel on his travels of the year preceding the event - and also with his father, as he battles hopelessness and the knowledge that his son may actually be guilty of this crime.

Hawley's characters are genuine, and we feel empathy for all they are going through. His descriptions of all of the locations visited by the son are made real by Hawley's knowledge of these areas - or some really great research. And, the story moves along and carries you with it. This book has the three ingredients I look for in a truly great read - characters you can relate to, settings that transport you, and a plot that says "gotcha" and won't let you go until the last page! Hawley is an excellent writer - and the way he handled the plotting and sequencing of this difficult story was brilliant. Bravo, Noah Hawley!