In Between Days

Reviews

“In Between Days is a tightly wound novel of suspense, wrapped in the emotional trials of a family teetering on the edge of disaster. Andrew Porter has given us a fresh, modern, literary page-turner, exposing in turn the inner lives of father, mother, brother, and sister. Grown-ups go around behaving like children, while adult children refuse to grow up, until ultimately everyone is shaken from their sheltered lives and into a whole new world.”

“A family drama spiced with a touch of intrigue…There’s a reason writers love dysfunctional families—they are an endless source of dramatic fodder, encompassing just about every flavor of human neurosis and cruelty imaginable. In Between Days, the debut novel of the well-regarded short-story writer Andrew Porter, is a welcome new entry in the canon.”

“In Between Days immerses readers in a family drama…[Gives] a real and moving sense of how families are composed of so many moments mutually and individually and collectively experienced…The author manages to make us care, to help us see how every move and each decision, however seemingly important or inconsequential, ravels and unravels a family’s life, as the fabric nonetheless somehow holds together…Eloquent.”

“This is Andrew Porter’s first novel and, as a portrait of a modern American nuclear family, it is a deft one. He weaves in the full tapestry of contemporary life and its complications: male menopause, desperate housewives, extended adolescence, and race relations in post-9/11 America.”

“Porter writes with intuitiveness about the complexities of family life and creates indelible characters in the novel…[Told in] stately prose…What makes In Between Days so compelling is the characters. Each is holding something back from the others, carrying a secret, telling only half the truth most of the time. By withholding vital information, Porter is able to develop a sense of unease as thick as Houston smog…As Chloe’s frantic parents’ distress mounts, the psychological suspense builds.”

“A deftly paced social psychodrama…A stirring page-turner, part Chekhov and part Hitchcock…[Porter’s] descriptions of [Houston] society and geography are spot on—whether imagining the lives of Montrose rent boys or detailing architectural one-upmanship at Harding’s fictional firm.”

“A striking assemblage of generational disintegration and distress that will remind some readers of [the] Ingmar Bergman–inspired Woody Allen art house flick Interiors by way of Jeffrey Eugenides’s The Virgin Suicides…Porter has effortlessly and enviably, it seems, made the tough transition from best-kept literary secret to bestseller material.”  

“I’m not really a fan of family-drama novels [but] In Between Days is an exception…The real treat is Porter’s plainspoken treatment of his characters, quiet and intense, and the revelation of fine but substantive fractures that are impossible to repair.”

“Porter’s debut novel grabs the reader and does not let go until the last line…The plot moves backward and forward in time, artfully revealing key details and maintaining a mesmerizing level of suspense.” 

“The story is told with great emotional and psychological insight. All of the four Hardings get to tell their pieces of the story in their distinct voices, creating a multilayered and suspenseful tale of love in all its varieties and family defined in different ways.”

“In Between Days confirms that Andrew Porter has arrived…A Jamesian examination of character that dances a quadrille with the points of view of the four Hardings, the novel sustains the taut suspense of crime fiction…The prose and pacing are nearly flawless.”

“A powerful portrait of family dysfunction, a worthy successor to Porter’s award-winning short-story collection, The Theory of Light and Matter…It succeeds as a universal comment about love, loyalty, and loss.”

“Porter’s absorbing debut novel chronicles the slow-motion fracture of an upper-middle-class Houston clan…The prose is smooth—practically frictionless, thanks to Porter’s realistic yet meaningful dialogue and his plainspoken, nonjudgmental descriptions…Porter wants to explore why we take such firm hold of some parts of our emotional lives but willfully neglect others, and his surprise ending suggests why it’s worth breaking free of others’ definitions of emotional attainment.”

“In Between Days is as complex and sensitive in psychology as it is credible and compelling in narrative…[Porter] masterfully creates the context in which this quartet of characters displays not just their vulnerabilities but their desperate comprehension.”

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