The Imagined Life
- Judith D Collins
- Apr 15
- 5 min read
By: Andrew Porter
Narrator: Lee Osorio
Random House Audio
ISBN: 9780593538050
Publisher: Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Knopf
Publication Date: 04/15/2025
Format: Hardcover
My Rating: 5 Stars + (ARC)
From the award-winning, internationally acclaimed writer, a taut, elegiac novel about a man trying to uncover the truth about the father who left him behind
Steven Mills has reached a crossroads. His wife and son have left, and they may not return. Which leaves him determined to find out what happened to his own father, a brilliant, charismatic professor who disappeared in 1984 when Steve was twelve, on a wave of ignominy.
As Steve drives up the coast of California, seeking out his father’s friends, family members, and former colleagues, the novel offers us tantalizing glimpses into Steve’s childhood—his parents’ legendary pool parties, the black-and-white films on the backyard projector, secrets shared with his closest friend. Each conversation in the present reveals another layer of his father’s past, another insight into his disappearance. Yet with every revelation, his father becomes more difficult to recognize. And, with every insight, Steve must confront truths about his own life.
Rich in atmosphere, and with a stunningly sure-footed emotional compass, The Imagined Life is a probing, nostalgic novel about the impossibility of understanding one’s parents, about first loves and failures, about lost innocence, about the unbreakable bonds between a father and a son.
My Review
“Haunting, poignant, nostalgic. Acclaimed author Andrew Porter’s THE IMAGINED LIFE is a beautiful, lyrical, emotional coming-of-age family portrait of a boy searching for answers to his father’s complex history, with vivid descriptions of time, place, and culture in the 80s.”
About...
Present: Steven Mills has never forgotten the father who left him and his mother behind when he was twelve. Now, with his own family, he is grappling with the past and his struggles. His wife, Alison, and son, Finn, have left. Steven needs answers about his father to move forward. Is he still alive?
Past: 1984. Living in California, his dad was a brilliant, charismatic professor who was up for tenure and gave lavish pool parties with the weed flowing. He also had many male friends and colleagues, and often, his dad spent much time in their pool house with another male colleague.
Steven never understood what was going on in his father’s mind. He was close to his mother, but she tried to protect him. He desperately wanted his father’s love and acceptance; however, he was attentive one minute and manic the next—in his own selfish world. His life seems to be a place full of ghosts. Are his memories correct?
To confront truths about his own life and the past with his father, he drives up the coast of California, seeking out his father’s friends and former colleagues to learn more.
Will he find the answers he is looking for?
My thoughts...
THE IMAGINED LIFE is psychologically rich, lyrical, evocative, intimate, and eloquently written. Profoundly moving, the past/present timelines add a layer of suspense, mystery, and intrigue.
Heartbreaking yet hopeful, this bittersweet poignant story draws you in from the first page to the last, examining this young boy's life to adulthood in search of answers about his complex father and identity. At times, it almost appears so real that it could be a memoir.
The author rewinds the culture in California's 80s, a time of vibrant artistic expression and changing social norms, with backyard parties, films, art, music, drugs, and sexuality. With vivid descriptions of time and place, these elements provide insights into the complex family drama, marriage, father/son relationships, academia, and mental health central to the story.
Atmospheric, thought-provoking, lyrical, and moving, THE IMAGINED LIFE offers an intimate look at a father and son relationship, forgiveness, grieving, and acceptance.
The book's conclusion ties up the narrative threads in a satisfying and emotionally resonant way, leaving the reader with a sense of closure and a deeper understanding of the characters.
Recs...
THE IMAGINED LIFE is for fans of the author, coming of age, domestic, and literary fiction. It has the edgy, raw emotional intensity of Bret Easton Ellis combined with the elegance and sophistication of Dennis Lehane and Ron Rash (favorites). These influences, blended with Porter's signature style, create an impressive, compelling, and unforgettable reading experience. I cannot wait to read more from this mega-talented author.
Thanks to Knopf and NetGalley for a gifted advanced reading copy in exchange for an honest review. I look forward to listening to the audiobook narrated by Lee Osorio.
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 5 Stars +
Pub Date: April 15, 2025
Praise
"With its quiet confidence and elegant precision, The Imagined Life is a masterpiece of memory, music, and longing. Andrew Porter is one of our finest prose stylists, and everything he’s turned his attention to here—a troubled adult son struggling to understand his troubled father; the slow disintegration of an American family; a boy coming of age amidst the wine and weed of California in the early ‘80s—shimmers into pure gold."
—Kimberly King Parsons, author of We Were the Universe
"The Imagined Life is a wise and elegant novel. Andrew Porter bestows so much grace on the confusion of growing up and the relatable anguish of looking back and recognizing our parents as people—true people—who struggle just as mightily with sorrow and love."
—Manuel Muñoz, author of The Consequences
"The Imagined Life delves into the space between the people we love and who we wish them to be. With unsentimental precision, Andrew Porter examines the flawed relationship between a father and son, approaching it with the grace of a true literary master."
—Jai Chakrabarti, author of A Play for the End of the World
“A gorgeous, glow-in-the-dark novel, and the best book yet, from an unflinching, uncompromising writer of the highest order. A paean to the ‘unreliability of memory,’ the lives we imagine for one another, and the impossibility of ever really knowing those we love and those who love us most.”
—David James Poissant, author of Lake Life and The Heaven of Animals
"The Imagined Life is haunting and intimate, Andrew Porter’s prose a master class in restraint and nuance and surprise. There are a handful of writers whose every book I will read, and Andrew Porter—because he writes novels like this—is one of them."
—Lori Ostlund, author of After the Parade
“Master prose stylist Porter expertly evokes the heady atmosphere of Steven’s memories while sharply rendering the costs of the ‘imagined life’ that Steven has clung to ever since, possibly at the expense of his own. Recommend to fans of Paul Harding’s Tinkers.”
—Lindsay Harmon, Booklist
“Porter’s novel is astute about masculinity, shame, and the ways heterosexual matrimony can constrain both wives and husbands.”
—Emma Alpern, Vulture
“Psychologically intricate and briskly paced.”
—Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
photo by Sarah E. Cooper
ANDREW PORTER is the author of the story collections The Disappeared and The Theory of Light and Matter and the novel In Between Days. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he has received a Pushcart Prize, a James Michener/Copernicus Fellowship, and the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. His work has appeared in One Story, Ploughshares, American Short Fiction, Narrative, The Southern Review, and on public radio’s Selected Shorts. Currently, he teaches fiction writing and directs the creative writing program at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. WEBSITE
