Lake Life took me quite a while to finish. I just couldn't get into the storyline nor the characters. But try it yourself, don't take my word.

"Lake Life" by David James Poissant is a beautifully crafted novel that explores the complexities of family dynamics, love, and loss. The setting of a lake house serves as the perfect backdrop for the characters to confront their past, present, and future. Poissant's writing style is evocative and powerful, capturing the essence of each character and their relationships with each other. The themes of the book are universal, making it a relatable and poignant read. Overall, "Lake Life" is a must-read for anyone who enjoys literary fiction and character-driven stories.

This is a story of family dysfunction, secrets,and relationships. The plot is good and very well written. The characters are not likeable. They are realistic but I had a hard time engaging with them. I did like the story though.
Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Sometimes wonderful writing can't save a boring story.

While this is insightful, and at times beautiful, this drama about a family gathering at their summer lake house in North Carolina for one final, farewell week. Everyone has problems and everyone is terrible.

That's it. That's the plot.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book.

Lisa & Richard Starling have owned their lake house in North Carolina for years. It was where their two sons & their partners joined them for the annual family vacation. Both Lisa & her husband, professors at Cornell, have decided it is time to retire & sell the property, to facilitate a move to Florida. Like any other family, each couple in the Starling family has their difficulties. When a young boy drowns near their beach, the emotional aftereffects bring family secrets to the surface & every one of the Starlings gets caught up in the life changing tsunami.

As I read this book I felt like a mind reading peeping Tom. It was so real. The characters, their relationships with each other, their problems - were all written beautifully. I loved this book and even though it was not one of the happiest stories I've read, I strongly recommend it.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author David James Poissant & the publisher Simon & Shuster for granting my request to read this book. This is my honest opinion.

Adult children, their parents, and their partners meet for one last week at the family lake house before it is sold, bringing up fresh emotional wounds and old losses.
The novel opens with tragedy: a boy drowns in the lake and Michael, one of the adult sons, tries and fails to save the boy. What follows is each person's examination of his or her own life and the choices each has made, including their partners, their past decisions, and their current predicaments.
An unplanned pregnancy, infidelity, mental health, childhood loss - this novel has all the makings of a weighty family drama and it delivers. Each chapter takes the reader through the reasoning and internal thoughts of each of the characters (there are 6 main), allowing the reader to feel compassion and empathy for their choices and current life situations. Though the ending rang a bit sanguine when paired with the first 3/4 of the book, it's an excellent choice for readers looking for dramatics with a hopeful ending.

This beautifully written haunting story of messy family life will leave you thinking about it long after you've turned the final page. Full of loss and hidden secrets, the novel shows how love can last through everything imaginable. Not all of the characters are likable, but all are very real and engaging.

Comparing the story line of this wonderful book with its title reminded me of something I heard on the streets of Dickinson, North Dakota, in the early 1970s. Two older men in farmer's gear exited the town's theater after a weekend matinee. They were disgusted. "That ain't no western!" one of them said. The marquee read: "Midnight Cowboy."

Lake Life ain't no typical summer beach read. I liked it a lot. The writing is clean, simple, intelligent and perceptive. But it forced me to confront the shambles we all can make of our lives. After I finished the book, I looked up the author's earlier work, where he was praised as a writer who makes us “face the people we are when we’re alone in the dark.” Exactly!

These six characters (parents Richard and Lisa Starling, sons Michael and Thad, and their partners Diane and Jake) are each at a turning point in life. They are each questioning where they are, how they got there, and where they want to go from here -- and it may not be where their loved ones need and expect them to go.

Set the six of them down in their small, decrepit summer house on a lake for the last time (the house is being sold) and you can only imagine the way the will get on one another's nerves and push each other's buttons. It's a hot mess, individually and collectively -- but the love they share comes through in so many scenes.

As one of the characters concludes: "Love is dragging things behind you -- dead children, houses fallen into disrepair, infidelities lassoed to your back -- and continuing on."

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an advance readers copy.

Very enjoyable read about a family spinning out of control on a vacation at the lake house. My interview with the author will appear at Southern Review of Books in July.

I had very much anticipated this novel. I'm not exactly sure what happened. It just did not work for me. Perhaps, I had a different idea of what the characters were going to be and that was not the case. I was expecting a little more Southern Fiction. That is on me. I think the writing was well done and this novel would work for another reader.

I did not finish at 20%

This is a classic family gathering before the sale of a home novel, this time set on a lake in North Carolina and distinguished by a tragedy that happens to a neighbor which serves as a catalyst for secrets to be spilled. Richard and Lisa, the parents, are questioning themselves- will their marriage last, what happens when they sell the house. Their sons, Michael and Thad, are also questioning their lives and relationships with Diane and Jake respectively. The drowning of a five year old sets off a whole new set of questions. The characters are not really appealing (although you will no doubt recognize parts of them) and the secret not so dire but it's a good read, largely because of the writing. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction.

Lake Life is a crazy ride that grabs you from the first page and keeps you hooked until the end. Some of the subject matter might be unsettling to readers but I found the storyline to be captivating and relatable in a lot of ways.

I struggled to get into this book. I stopped and started reading it multiple times and for some reason I just could not connect with it. The concept seemed exciting to me: A family decides to sell its lakehouse, a place they visited often, where their children grew up, where they experienced firsts and grew together as a family. What should be a sentimental last stay before the keys are handed over to the new owners is more bitter and less sweet than expected. This should be a time for the family to come together and reminisce on their shared memories but the gathering is less than ideal with all the members of the family at odds with one another. It starts to give pause and have the reader ask the question, "is this a last stay to say goodbye to a beloved family vacation home or a last ditch effort to try and bond a family that has continued to be at odds with one another for years?"

I typically enjoy books that have unlikable characters. There is something about it that draws me in more by my distaste for the characters. It makes me appreciate the story more than the characters. I did not get that with this. This was a DNF for me. I could not get into the characters or the story. I was annoyed by them and felt like everyone was trying to force everyone else to be the person THEY wanted them to be verses appreciating them for who they are. Even the partners of the sons gave me that impression. It made me frustrated and I kept setting the book down. Then I would give it another go and found myself in that same state and would have to put the book down again.

I don't know if I could recommend this to anyone. If someone with more patience could finish it and summarize it back to me, maybe then I could determine that but I don't think I would recommend it to anyone at this time.

This was a good book but not a great book. The story line is believable and the characters are well developed but it's not something that has stuck with me.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book is hard to define, it is so full of grief, sadness, loss and regret much of it is depressing- the opening scene has the Starling family- mother, father, grown sons and their signifigant others witness the tragic drowning of a 5 year old boy. They are there to celebrate one last week at the family’s lakefront cabin before its sold. Each family member person has a secret, and a deep hurt that has left them feeling alone, stuck and unable to move on.
However, something about the way the author skillfully tells the story, feels real and raw and just a tiny bit hopeful. As you watch each of them struggle though their pain, you root for them, to find the love and solace they each crave, to heal their damage and finally find peace.

This is your usual family drama - adultry, tragedy, betrayal, lies. The parents decide to sell the family beach house so the adult kids come for one last summer. The characters are despicable and honestly people you want to have nothing to do with. The saving grace is the writing. If Poissant can develop better characters with depth and warmth he will be much more enjoyable.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of Lake Life by David James Poissant. I think authors know what they’re doing when they surround stories with water. To me, it’s almost an instant draw of a story features a lake house or one near the ocean. NY couple Richard and Lisa are getting ready to sell their NC lake house. This has been the summer home for them and their two sons for many years. This story follows the last weekend spent there before they sell it. Michael and his wife Diane head there from Dallas and their other son, Thad, and his boyfriend come from NY. Each couple brings issues of their own, as well as feelings regarding the sale of the house. On the same weekend, tragedy strikes and ends up bringing 30 yr-old secrets to the surface. If you are a family saga fan, this will be a great choice. I loved this book.

I read this book a couple of weeks ago while I was on vacation in the Carribean and then I returned home to the Coronavirus crisis and social distancing.

It's a good book, but not a great one and I already don't remember the details. An older couple is selling their house on the lake. Their adult children and partners come for one last summer visit. They reminisce and there's a tragedy involving another family.

It's very much a family drama, with themes of adultery, tragedy, betrayal, etc.

I have a hard time with books where all of the characters are unlikable. That said, this book was beautifully written and even though I wanted to give many of the characters a good slap, they were fully rendered and believable. Poissant is a very talented author and I will certainly investigate anything else he writes, but I spent most of this book truly irritated by the characters - but it did keep me reading.

Despite the fact that all of the characters in this book are unlikable and deeply flawed, their stories, their voices, their struggles, stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page - and that is the mark of a skilled writer. A family, gathering for what will be the last time at their summer lake house, witnesses a tragedy. It is this tragedy which pushes the narrative forward, as we get a glimpse into how each one of the characters deals with his/her own personal issues (and they ALL have issues of some kind) in and around their feelings about what happens on the lake. The characters are well-drawn, the writing is, in places, luminous and poetic, and this is an author I will read again. But, there were places I thought the story could have deepened, could have moved beyond character study and into true exploration of some of the book’s themes - privilege, parenthood, marriage, infidelity, our ability to love someone at the very same time that we admit we don’t like them very much and the ways that knowledge changes us. This is also a book about secrets kept too long, forgiveness and confession, searching for the things we truly need in our lives, and it is about family in all it’s messiness, and the ways familial love can tear us down and save us when we most need saving.