4 out of 4 stars
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Cooperative lives is a novel written by Patrick Finegan about the interconnected lives of people living in New York City housing cooperative. These people were brought together through a series of events like coincidences and accidents. In the beginning, they only share the same building with no suggestion or evidence that they had anything in common. As they navigate the modern life’s frustrations and disappointments their secrets and unhealed wounds are revealed through an attempted cover-up even after making effort to hide them.
The story revolves around as it moves forward and backward in time offering clues of deep underlying secrets, deeply held griefs, poorly held grievances, and together with twisted and tangled interconnections. We are slowly drawn by the story beginning with a lonely tenant whose life was caused to run off the track after a tragic skiing accident that resulted in her ex-wife spending the rest of her life in a wheelchair. The couple got divorced after the loss of their daughter. He was also saved by another tenant from a fatal bus collision who went into a coma where he imagines an occurrence that he came to believe together with his caregiver that it happened. This forced the cooperative into a shocking scandal.
This story is told in multiple perspectives shifting from one character to another as it links residents one after another. The book has a fast-paced plotting with a quick change in point of view giving the reader no other choice than to follow from every person, lies and secrets. The author did an awesome job in writing this literary fiction and driving the story through the exploration of its characters. The author did an excellent job of drawing our minds to the seemingly tiny lives of its characters with stories which seems less significant but grows deeper opening ties and pieces together as we proceed in a creative way.
What I didn’t like about this book is that it has too many characters which makes it difficult to keep track at the beginning but as we proceed the story’s multiple perspectives and interconnectedness eases the read. The characters are connected to the main protagonist in one way or another. The book uses New York characteristics and resident’s features.
I will give cooperative lives a rating of 4 out of 4 stars. The book was professionally edited since I found little to no grammatic and spelling errors. The book is fun to read and is suitable for anyone who is in love of literary fiction and realistic drama with plot twists that will keep you hooked to the story.
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Cooperative Lives
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