*Many thanks to Anthony Marra, Amazon Original Stories, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
This was my first reading by Mr Marra, and the story proved interesting though not that captivating. The father-son relationship, pondered upon after father's death, gives a good background for character development, and I think Mr Marra achieves this target.

The Lion's Den is very much like other short stories from Anthony Marra. He writes about people at their worst and yet very human. Now I am not a huge fan of Anthony Marra and this story did not increase my option of his writing and that is mainly because I felt like I was missing something when done with the story. Now that being said it is an interesting story and for what it was it was done well.

I absolutely LOVE this author and will read anything he writes and although this was good I missed the Russian feel of his other books. With subtle poignancy he paints a picture of a father son relationship.

Michael’s father is dying of cancer and after he passes away, Michael performs an act of symbolism that illustrates how much he respected and loved his father, in contrast to the damning memoir he had written about his father years before.

If you enjoyed the slow eb and flow of books like a Gentleman in Moscow then you will probably love this short story that forms part of the Inheritance Series.

ARC Netgalley

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena is one of my all time favorites. And how can I resist Anthony Marra?

This story is more of a contemplation or reflection on Michael's life by Michael.
Michael is back at home, mainly because he is broke and then because his wheel chair ridden father needs some attention. His father is the famous government whistle blower on whom Michael has published a book.

It is about Father/Son relationships, taking a trip down the memory lane kind of story. Obviously well written and loved it.



Thanks to Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley for ARC in exchange of honest review.
Happy Reading!!!

The Lion's Den is a story based on a 34 year old man named Michael who returns to his childhood home when he loses his job and is forced to leave his home. Michael and his father have had a strained relationship through the years as his father was a notorious government whistle-blower and was once in prison.

I will say that Anthony Marra knows how to deliver a punch in just 28 pages. This story is clever, hilarious and sad all packaged with a neat little bow on top.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a copy of this release.

Well if you ask me <b>The Lions Den</b> makes it three for three by Anthony Marra.     I loved both his full length novels <i>A Constellation of Vital Phenomenon</i> and <i>The Tsar of Love and Techno </i>.    Each was sensational and with these he earnt my utmost respect for his writing.    Naturally I was eager to read his contribution to The Inheritence Collection and I was in no way disappointed.

At 34 Michael has returned home - not exactly by choice although to some it appears he's being the dutiful son helping his sick father.  His father is known far and wide as a government whistle blower, loved by some and loathed by others.    Father and son have had an unusual relationship since Michael published a tell-all many years earlier. 

This short story showcased Marra's incredible writing skill in a thoughtful and humourous manner. The  following reflection on his family life was just one of many passages to catch my attention.

<b><i>Conflict was in the air at the time—my mother had recently discovered that my father had been self-medicating his gambling problem with adultery. My mother, the most devout Catholic among us, didn’t believe in divorce, which was problematic in that her husband didn’t seem to believe in marriage.</i></b>

Thanks to the Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley for the opportunity of reading this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley, Amazon Original Stories, and Anthony Marra for the opportunity to read and review this installment of the short story series, Inheritance. While I love Marra's books and writing, this one wasn't quite as good to me as the others in the series.

Michael is back living at home - to the outside, he's there to help take care of his dying father but he's also broke and unemployed and needed a place to live. Michael has a complex history with his father - he wrote a tell-all about his father's leaking of sensitive information the led him to prison, causing him to be a hero to some and a villain to others.

The father-son relationship will always be somewhat complicated - this was a good short story about some of those feelings.

The Lion’s Den by Anthony Marra is a short story.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Amazon Original Stories, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
 

My Synopsis:   (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)

A son, who wrote a rather disrespectful book about his whistle-blower father, returns home when he runs out of funds.  His father is dying from Cancer.

 
My Opinions:  

This is one of five stories (all by different authors), in the "Inheritance" Collection of Amazon Short Stories.  They are all about secrets within families, and the consequences that come from those secrets.

This story delved into the tenuous bond between father and son.

This story did not resonate with me, as I could not relate to the characters,  nor the political aspect of the plot.  However, I found the humor wonderful.  One-liners abound.  The ending was great!

Great short story from a well respected author. The main character is living at home, in his mid 30’s, his father, A famous author, criminal, yet a man that was pardoned by the president is dying. This was a character driven novel about relationships. It was funny, it was sad, and I really really like this book. One of the best short stories I’ve read in a long time. Thank you for my advance copy

The Lion’s Den is a beautifully written short story that is fascinating, clever, and insidiously probing. Packed with dark humour and satirical prose the observational settings that are painted are vivid and highly revealing. This is a story of a troubled relationship between father and son, with multiple side reflections that spark contemplation in areas such as ethics, religion, respect, honesty and morality.

The ethical debate around the role of a whistle-blower is a challenging dilemma – should someone break rules or laws to expose greater crimes. I couldn’t help relate the father to Edward Snowden with the notion that people will see him as a traitor or hero, as someone who acted in the public’s best interests against the nation’s best interests. Is it right that he who holds the power possesses the capacity to act with impunity from the law, while the whistle-blower is derided and ostracised?
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke
The metaphor of going into the Lion’s Den, is wonderfully placed, as the world that awaits a whistle-blower having to face an insurmountable backlash, especially against government perpetrators. The courage to position yourself amongst the lions is an incredible show of fortitude and belief.

Michael's father was sentenced to federal prison for revealing government information on how it acted towards its own population. Pardoned by President Obama, six years later, he has never spoken about the claims or consequences. Michael, however, for financial gain wrote a memoir, betraying his father’s wishes and setting himself as a critic against his father. When he is asked to step in as a last-minute keynote speaker replacement, at his old Catholic School’s Ethics Symposium, Michael realises that he’s not there as a role model but as a cautionary tale.

Michael’s father is dying of cancer and after he passes away, Michael performs an act of symbolism that illustrates how much he respected and loved his father, in contrast to the damning memoir he had written years before. Michael takes the wheelchair to the lion enclosure in the zoo, parks it and walks away.
“Finding an empty wheelchair in front of a lion enclosure is like finding a pair of shoes at the ocean’s edge. You might look to your left and your right, but in your heart, you know the only way their owner went was in.”

I thoroughly enjoyed this book for its depth of meaning and the observational humour that brought life to this superbly written short story. I would highly recommend reading this book and I would like to thank Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC version in return for an honest review.

I'll admit that the title and synopsis scared me off of reading this one right away, and I wondered how I could possibly enjoy a book where the MC so obviously turned his back on his family. I really liked how the story was told though, and the events that led up to the tell-all book the MC wrote about his father. And then how the father reacted- priceless! The tie-in between taking his dad to the zoo and the ending was absolutely flawless and what sealed the solid 5 star rating for me- I honestly couldn't have asked for anything more from such a short novella.

In such a short story, not a word is wasted. Every sentence adds something to the overall. The ending is oh so clever.

This beautiful story is all at once sad, touching, and absolutely hilarious. It's the story of a man who, many years later, is dealing with the actions of his father that made national news and landed his father in prison. At the same time, there is a hilarious description of a speech at a Catholic school. It's also about loving your parents and wanting to honor them, no matter what.

This author creates humor with genius. I will absolutely read his other works.

I received a free copy of this story from Netgalley and Amazon. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Set in Washington, D. C., Anthony Marra’s “The Lion’s Den” is a timelytreasure included in the recently published Amazon Original Stories collection titled Inheritance—a collection of five short stories focusing on “secrets, unspoken desires, and dangerous revelations between loved ones.”

Michael, a 34-year-old whose one accomplishment has been a biased exposé about his NSA whistleblower father, has recently moved back home, not because his father is dying of cancer, but because Michael is unemployed and has been evicted for not paying his rent. “I won’t introduce you to my father, not personally,’ not yet,” Michael tells us, adding, “Chances are you already know him. He has seventeen felony convictions and was supposedly twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize . . . Depending on whom you ask, he is a felon, a folk hero, a national disgrace or a treasure.”

As the story opens, this notorious father is “jiggling a bottle of pain killers” and “casting aspersions" upon his insurance company’s automated customer service phone system. However, father and son are soon off on one of their daily outings. Michael has fallen into the routine of wheeling his terminally ill dad to the nearby National Zoo where the older man chooses a specific animal to visit—for a while the great apes with which Michael thinks his dad had an affinity “based on similar volumes of chest hair and a shared history of confinement” and, most recently, the lions.

Their relationship has been complicated for many years by Michael’s resentment over the economic hardship inflicted on the family by his father’s costly legal battle, incarceration, and refusal to turn his story into cash by selling it to Oliver Stone. Out of spite, 22-year-old Michael had written a scathing account of his dad’s past actions. Now twelve years older, Michael must learn to see his dying father through different eyes.

Filled with humor, satire, and a taste of life in the nation's capital, “The Lion’s Den” will touch readers’ hearts and leave them feeling that Anthony Marra has given them the perfect ending.

Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon for providing an Advance Reader Copy.

This short story runs the full range of emotions. From love to hate, from pride to shame, from confusion to certainty, the characters are bound together as family and sometimes enemies. Anthony Marra has given us a son who has been hurt by his father and hurt his father in turn. In the end, he understands their actions and can clearly see their similarities. I really loved how this story ended.

“The Lion’s Den” is an exceptional story about the evolving relationship between a father and son, told from the son’s perspective as he recalls his father’s death. Michael’s only accomplishment in life has been to write a vengeful tell-all memoir of his father, commissioned by a rightwing publisher that resented the rehabilitation of his father’s reputation in the public eye. Michael’s father, a combination of Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, leaked documents revealing the extent of government surveillance of American citizens. For that he was vilified as a traitor and then heralded as a hero (often by the same columnists) after the Bush administration fell into disfavor. After six years in prison, he was pardoned by Obama.

Michael’s family suffered financial ruin after his father’s arrest. Michael resented his father’s refusal to profit from his actions by selling the rights to his story to Oliver Stone. “Moral heroism in America usually has the longevity of celebrity marriage,” Michael explains, “yet my father’s caught fire and kept burning, in no small part because he refused to speak of it at all, declining every opportunity to explain himself.” Hence Michael’s decision to profit from his father’s life and help his family by writing the memoir.

The story’s focus is the day Michael takes his father to see the lions at the zoo and the following day, when Michael serves as an emergency replacement speaker at the ethics symposium hosted by the Catholic grammar school he attended. He is replacing a securities trader who has been arrested for fraud and less savory crimes, making the trader a poor choice to speak about ethics, although the school had always been more concerned with a speaker’s name recognition than good character. Unfortunately, it “couldn’t afford the speaking fees of those uncorrupted by power.”

Low-key humor permeates the story. The ethics symposium is one example. Here’s another: “My mother, the most devout Catholic among us, didn’t believe in divorce, which was problematic in that her husband didn’t seem to believe in marriage.” And the thought that “parents love empty gestures,” in this case a school honor code, because “It’s about feeling that your children are decent, honest, and virtuous, rather than doing the work to make it true.”

Anthony Marra packs a surprising amount of characterization into this relatively short story, including Michael’s observation that he and his father conduct their emotional lives through newspaper clippings and “torn-out articles. Our conversations followed similar patterns of recycled factoids.” Despite their difficulties, there is something touching about the relationship, about the father’s jovial lack of resentment concerning the memoir, about the mundane truths (the father’s fame, the shadow in which the son lives) that had become life-defining family secrets. Even more touching is the gesture — in this case, not an empty gesture — that Michael makes at the story’s end, creating a fleeting tribute to his father that only Michael will understand.

RECOMMENDED

4★
“I am in my old bedroom. It has been converted to a guest room, and I have been converted to a guest.”

A son, helping to look after his wheelchair-bound dad, muses about his childhood, about his dad’s whistle-blowing notoriety, and about his own reputation as a writer. The thing he's most famous for is a rather scathing memoir about his father. Awkward? But now he's remembering when he was a kid.

I always enjoy reading about young boys, all elbows and knees and angles.

“What a mess you are at eleven: pimpled, sweaty, peach fuzzed, pulled in so many different directions it’s amazing you can walk straight. Father Carlson’s students have that Frankenstein look of being assembled from different limbs that don’t quite fit or work together. The good news is that adolescence is a disorder whose physical effects are invariably treated by time. Emotionally and psychologically, it is, for some, incurable.”

He's asked to speak at his old school and notes:

“If you want your children to believe they can change the fallen world, send them to a Quaker school. If you want to change your children to survive the world as it is, Catholicism has you covered.”

Marra actually covers a lot of ground in a very few words, which not everyone can do. I like the way this story resolves and must finally read some of his longer, well-known works.

Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted. This is one of five (so far?) stories from the collected called ‘Inheritance’ from Amazon Original Stories.

The Lion's Den is such a funny but sad story. Michael is the adult son of a former NSA employee who was a whistleblower. His father was hailed a hero and a criminal, spent time in prison, and would never reveal his motivations for his actions. Teenage Michael and his mom suffered verbal abuse, threats, and financial insecurity due to his father's actions and even when his father had the chance to write a book about what he'd done, he refused, keeping his son and wife struggling for the means to pay their bills.

Finally college age Michael was offered a deal and money to write a tell all book about his father and he jumped at the chance. Now, in his early thirties, Michael has crawled back home, broke and homeless, but allowing everyone to think he's there because his father is dying. Despite the past, despite resentments, Michael, his dad, and his mom, spend their days with each other, taking care of each other, never talking about the elephants in the room.

In the end, this is a book about love, a son who loves his dad, a dad who loves his son, and we are left with wishing they could have told each other the many things that they have been holding back. Michael's words are funny and sad, all at the same time and if he could put these things on paper, he surely wouldn't be a struggling writer. This is another book in Amazon's Inheritance collection.

Thank you to Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley for this ARC.

The Lion's Den packs a full novel's punch in a short story about a son sorting out his feelings about his enigmatic father. Beautifully written and a good addition to the Amazon Original Stories Inheritance series.
Thanks to NetGalley, Amazon Original Stories, and the author Anthony Marra for an advanced digital review copy.

Full review published on Booklover Book Reviews website: https://bookloverbookreviews.com/2019/12/the-lions-den-by-anthony-marra-inheritance-collection-review.html