| Title | : | Lost and Found |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0786287160 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780786287161 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 496 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2006 |
What do a suburban mom and her troubled daughter, two recently divorced brothers, a pair of former child stars, born-again Christian newlyweds, and a couple of young millionaires have in common? They have all been selected to compete on Lost and Found, a daring new reality TV show. In teams of two, they will race across the globe - from Egypt to Japan, from Sweden to England - to battle for a million-dollar prize. They must decipher encrypted clues, recover mysterious artifacts, and outwit their opponents to stay in play.
What starts as a lark turns deadly serious as the number of players is whittled down, temptations beckon, and the bonds between partners strain and unravel. Before long the question is not only who will capture the final prize, but at what cost.
Lost and Found Reviews
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I enjoyed this. Bit of a brain candy book but at the same time has some hefty topics, i.e. Teenage pregnancy and the ability to "turn off homosexuality", all while the characters are contestants on a global scavenger hunt. A global scavenger hunt intrigues me but I would never want to be on television. Unfortunately for some of the participants the show also has some not too nice motives to gain ratings.
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The whole premise of this story was weird. The back made it sound like it was about a mother and her daughter overcoming some struggles and such and they go on a reality tv show together. Instead, each chapter is from a different contestant's viewpoint and we get all this backstory that doesn't really fit together at all. a LOT of homosexuality in it, too, which was just strange. And the whole reality game show thing was just a weird setting.
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I just could do 50 pages. Still boring. Time is too precious for books I don't enjoy.
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What started out as a fun, family race around the world to get clues to win ended up with secrets being revealed. Some were sad memories and others were just plain hypocrisy. I'm all for trying to be in a game show where you can travel around the world collecting clues so it gets you closer to that million dollars but sometimes I think people don't really see what's expected.
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Carolyn Parkhurst builds on the reader's long-standing familiarity with Reality TV in this book. Whether that familiarity is based on the meltdown of the Loud Family on the 1971 PBS series or current iterations like “Survivor”, the reader will recognize the formula of relentless scrutiny and contrived stress. The game show in this book is called “Lost and Found.” Pairs of contestants compete with each other to decipher clues to locating random objects. It's a global scavenger hunt. With an ever increasing collection of ludicrous objects in tow, the contestants trundle on to planes, buses, trains, jitney cabs and hitched rides in pursuit of the next object. It's a race. At the end of each round one pair is eliminated. The show presses the exhausted losers for a plucky, telegenic valedictory. The host, Barbara Fox, intones: “ 'You've lost the race....But what have you found?'” One contestant, eliminated early in the game, didn't do too well with that one.
Parkhurst's characters seem like recognizable types. Laura and Cassie are a mother-daughter team. Juliet and Dallas are two “where are they now” vintage TV celebs. Carl and Jeff are middle-aged brothers, both divorced. Justin and Abby (“Team Brimstone,” Carl quips in an aside), are an ex-gay married couple on an ex-gayness evangelical mission. Laura, Cassie, Carl, Juliet, Justin and Abby narrate in alternating chapters. Their separate first-person narratives add intimacy. The reader is quickly drawn from spectator to an emotionally involved confidant. As they speak they reveal to the reader their unrealized motives for wanting to be on the show, as well as their messy past lives. Laura, for example, has told the producers she wants one last chance to bond with her college-bound daughter. To the reader she confides a more anguished version. Cassie gave birth to a daughter a scant four months ago. Laura didn't even know Cassie was pregnant. Giving the child up for adoption haunts both of them. Against this poignant story is the backdrop of the comical scramble in the present-day timeline.
Each character reveals unexpected depth. With his brother Jeff, Carl is the vigilant straight-man, constantly reining in the forced, raucous, non-stop patter of Jeff. Away from Jeff, he reveals a subdued self-deprecating wit that provides respite from his painful memories and concern about his ailing son. Justin transforms into an unexpectedly sympathetic character.
Parkhurst is an expert at creating unique voices for her characters. Laura does not wonder how they came to be picked for the show. She doesn't know they know about the baby. She assumes she and Cassie are just lucky. The producers were probably swayed by their likeability. Cassie, the savvy teen, views her clueless mother with dismay. ”They picked us because they think we're this big, mother-daughter time bomb ticking away with secrets and they're just waiting for us to explode.”
Parkhurst inserts the right amount of humor into this progressively revealing drama. The game show commences as an entertaining interlude. The contestants stampede through Egypt, Japan and Sweden with hardly a glance at the sights. Justin and Abby spin their ex-gay spiel to an incredulous Swedish couple. At one point, Parkhurst sidles up to a clichéd image with deceptive charm before delivering her jolt. Laura describes the tent set up under the Swedish summer night sky. “I can see that the Theater of Sleep is quite lovely; I imagine it will look even better on TV. They've made a kind of fairy bower out here in the summer night: five brass beds, piled with pillows and covered with satin and velvet, under a tent of mosquito netting draped like a bridal veil. There are ropes of flowers and strings of tiny lights. It's like a honeymoon suite for ten.”
LOST AND FOUND explores the flow of past into future; the present is a mix of aspiration and self-delusion. Its characters must sift through the sediment of memories, dreams, disappointment and fear where the public eye will expose them to unique vulnerability. As in life, what they find isn't always what they sought, and sometimes, that's a good thing. -
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Nobodies Album. It seemed only logical to check out more books by the author. This one had somewhat lukewarm reviews, but it didn’t disappoint the set expectations. Seems I just really like the way the author writes. She has that certain something, the elusive storytelling quality that’s innately naturalistic. I love her character writing, such fascinating multidimensional renditions, enough to overshadow any initial impressions. Whether you find them charming or morally reprehensible, they get the same humane compassionate treatment by the author, which isn’t an easy trick. But it is precisely that lack of reductive good and evil perspectives and all the grey territories that make this such a compelling read. Plus the characters are thrown into a complete pressure boiler of a situation, that most repugnant of entertainment forms, the reality tv show. In teams of two they must travel from country to country, continent to continent, scavenging for clues. The title of the book is also the title of the show and proves to be perfectly versatile thematically. It is the basis of the question every couple that gets disqualified from the show gets asked. And since every character is also on a personal quest of their own, tilting at their own windmills, in the end it’s about what will be found. The alternating narratives provide the readers with the ideal panopticon perspective. And the characters, though they stumble, seem to come through the experience changed for the best, rewarded in ways that prize money have nothing to do with (though, of course, it helps). The main couple of contestants is a mother and daughter team, trying to get over a major event in their lives that ripped the curtain on just how far they’ve drifted from each other while living under the same roof). Most of the book is dedicated to their journey to reestablish some sort of closeness, find a way to get nearer to being happy. But one of the main themes of the book is sexuality and acceptance of it. Arguably the most interesting couple is a reformed and married duo of heterosexually ambitious and they navigate the world, mangling themselves to fit into molds not meant for them. That works out about as well as you’d expect. But there is something tragically compelling about their personal journey, the easily understood desire to fit in with the world turned ugly by the inability to accept themselves as they are. It’s sad to think that is the reality for some, even in what is meant to be a progressive country (well, once upon…anyway) such as US. The reaction that couple gets in a genuinely progressive country like Sweden is hilarious. But at any rate, there are many characters to follow, you pick your own favorite and go with it. That’s pretty much the show’s format anyway. But the best thing about good books is that behind the scenes thing a commercially edited pablum (be it televised or not) just can’t provide. So I enjoyed this book very much. While the rampant popularity of reality television may be a sure sign of the decline of civilization and (potentially) impending apocalypse, a book about such a show proved to be a complete delight. Recommended.
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Loved this book! I read Parkhurst's "The Nobodies Album" a few months ago and was completely dazzled by it, so I picked up her earlier two as well-- in spite of my very long "to be read" list. "Lost and Found" is about a group of people who go on a somewhat "Amazing Race"-like reality show; as contestants are eliminated, they are asked, "You've lost the game, but what have you found?" The most interesting characters (and Parkhurst knows it, which is why they do the greatest share of the storytelling) are a mother and daughter with a life-changing secret in their recent past and an "ex-gay", born-again Christian couple-- a husband and wife.
This terrific novel bears all of Parkhurst's hallmarks-- excellent plot and character hooks; an easy, relatable voice that delivers engaging bits of wisdom; and steady, well-paced action and tension. Parkhurst has such a keen eye for the most interesting stories that surround us-- the types of people we wonder about, but whose lives we can't penetrate-- and offers us fiction to fill the gap. As the "ex-gay" couple's story unfolded-- or rather, unraveled-- I gave up on trying to put the book down. I had an hour to read tonight, but it turned into three because I had to know how it would end. I appreciate, too, how she managed to make each first-person voice entirely distinct-- no easy feat for a writer, and one many fall short on-- and managed to endear each character to me, injecting just enough humanity even into the least likable among them.
Parkhurst is turning out to be one of my favorite writers. I plan to read "The Dogs of Babel" next, and I can't wait to see what other stories she has to tell. -
I cannot recommend this book to anyone that I know. It not only deals with underage sex resulting in a baby that the mother didn't know about, but also struggles with sexuality. This author seems very facinated with female homosexuality. I didn't get past chapter 3 because there were just too many pages that I was skipping.
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Couldn't stand it. Truly horrible and contrived and boring. Finishing this book was only slighly less revolting than finishing an 8 hour flight with nothing else to read. Had I been on land and within a 1 hour drive of an English-language bookstore, I would have tossed this book at Chapter 3 and found something worthwhile to read.
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Picked this book up on a Target run one day, mainly intrigued by the premise of mother and daughter on a reality show, trying to restore their relationship after a trauma. Being a huge "Amazing Race" fan, I thought it would be an intriguing read. Sadly, it seems to be more of a "gotcha" novel with thinly veiled suspense. I also found the homosexual storylines disconcerting, too obvious and not all that well done... maybe gratuitous is the word. Don't know that I would recommend it. Not a bad book, just not one that I really enjoyed.
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When I picked this book I had forgotten that I'd read another of Parkhurst's novels, The Dogs of Babel. Truth is, I still can't remember much about that book, though I did hang on to the talking dog idea.
I picked it because I'm (sort of not) working on a novel about someone who goes on a reality TV show, so it was research. I expected little from it, so I was pleasantly surprised.
I found the story very compelling, just as you would a reality TV show you watched week after week. I wanted to return to reading it all the time, just to hear what happened next in the plot.
The characters of the mother-daughter team Cassie and Laura are the most compelling. The story is told from multiple points of view, and these two were the most well developed. But looking at it critically, I can say that almost none of the characters were well developed enough.
What was most interesting to me was the way Parkhurst used television to characterize the people in the story. One character's favorite show as a kid was Fantasy Island. Another's was a fictional show called Best Friends. In our lives television plays many roles, and we often discount its shaping of our character. Parkhurst does not.
Ultimately, it's very difficult to take a book seriously when it concerns itself with television. I wish I could say that this book had transcended the stereotypes of TV, the boob of its boob tube. That it did not may be a failing of the author, but strangely, it seemed it was more a failing of the medium -- not hers, but the one about which she writes. -
Lost and Found is a novel about reality t.v. After her teenage daughter hides her pregnancy, Laura decides that spending time together as a team on the reality show, Lost and Found, is exactly what she and her daughter, Cassie, need to reconnect. They join many other teams from around the country and travel throughout the world, solving riddles and searching for items on the massive scavenger hunt.
The idea behind this book has a lot of potential and the characters on the reality show had great back stories and interesting life situations, but the story of their experience on the reality show did not meet my expectations. Each of the pairs on the world-wide scavenger hunt had been chosen by the producers of the show for the potential conflict and interesting relational dynamics that they would offer the show. It was this that propelled the story forward. But, I found myself wanting something more from the characters (more individuality that would differentiate one from the other) than just their interesting circumstances, and the personalities were simply too weak to deliver.
The book was a quick and easy read- perfect for summer. But, if you have a long list of books-to-read, don't add this one to it. There are more worthwhile books to read than this one. -
I'm only two chapters in the book and I am already convinced the two main characters are stupid beyond my wildest expectations.
I'm just going to call them The Mother and The Daughter because I can't be bothered to remember their names.
So, The Mother. How the eff do you not notice your daughter is nine months pregnant?! Of course, she notices she started wearing baggy clothes and all that, but she just assumes The Daughter is just gaining weight and doesn't want to raise such a "sensitive" topic... Like...seriously?! First off, no amounts of baggy clothes can hide a nine-months pregnant belly. Second, your daughter is 17 and she has a serious boyfriend and most likely has sex, and the first thing that comes to your mind when she starts wearing baggy clothes is that she must be getting fat?! Oh. Come. ON!
The Daughter... She has sex with her boyfriend, they use a condom. So far, so good. But then the condom breaks, they notice it immediately after the intercourse...and what do they decide to do? Nothing. That's right, NOTHING! They just leave it like that, hoping she won't get pregnant. Helooo, morning-after pill, anyone?
I'm only going to keep reading this book because I want to see just how much more ridiculous it could get. -
The first novel I've ever heard of that uses a reality TV show as a framing device. Seriously, not bad though.
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Onvan : Lost and Found - Nevisande : Carolyn Parkhurst - ISBN : 786287160 - ISBN13 : 9780786287161 - Dar 496 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2006
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This is a fun read for fans of the Amazing Race, although I am glad that the AR is not so dirty!
We follow the contestants on a reality show called Lost and Found and learn the background stories and how they came to be on the show. The contestants are chosen specifically on the basis of whether they might provide interesting conflicts. The producers then play some nasty tricks that they hope will elicit dramatic scenes.
Laura and Cassie are a mother and daughter with a difficult relationship. We see Cassie waking her mother up one night and informing her that she has just had a baby in her upstairs bedroom. The mother had no idea she was pregnant.
Dallas and Juliet are former child stars who would do anything to get back in the public eye.
Carl and his goofy brother Jeff have been chosen not only because of a silly interview video, but because Carl has a very sad story. His small son was born needing a liver transplant and Carl became his living donor. The child appears to be doing well now, but Carl is terrified that one day he will encounter further health problems.
The strangest story is that of Justin and Abby. They are a married couple who were formerly gay. They belong to a religious group that tells them they can overcome their gayness. Needless to say, this isn't the way it works. A handsome cameraman sets Justin up and tapes their get-together in a hotel room.
Riley and Trent are tech inventors who have made a bazillion dollars on some part that is on every phone that is currently sold. No one knows why they joined the competition because they certainly don't need the money. Apparently they are not as interesting as the producers of the show had hoped because we learn very little about them and there is no chapter told from their point of view. -
I love reality TV competition games like Survivor, The Amazing Race, and Big Brother, so it was fun reading a book about a fictional show 'Lost and Found', which reminded me of a hybrid of The Amazing Race (which was name dropped in the book), The Mole, and a scavenger hunt. The book starts mid-season when there are 7 teams left on the show, and is told from the perspectives of some of the contestants, plus the host. As with the real shows, the casting department has chosen a diverse group of people to compete for the grand prize, so each pair of competitors has their own 'schtick', among them a couple of former child stars, reunited high school sweethearts, married former homosexuals who were 'saved' and are now spreading the word of God's love, and a mother and daughter struggling to reconnect after a secret tore them apart. In addition to the competition, teams are encouraged to figure out what they have 'found' while being on the show, so a lot of the book deals with their backstories and how the show evolves them. Plus, there is a lot of 'behind-the scenes' info, the parts the TV viewers won't see on the final show, which reminds me of watching the 'after dark' show on Big Brother, which is unedited and thus any spin the producers try to put into the prime time shows doesn't exist.
This was a fun summer read and it kind of makes me wish 'Lost and Found' was a real show, although the ending to the book was a bit weird and felt rushed, which prevented it from being a 5 star book on my shelf. Plus, I would have liked to know a bit more about some of the teams, because it became clear which ones were just 'filler' Parkhurst added for the sake of numbers on the show. -
Lost and Found is a reality tv show, similar to The Amazing Race, where pairs of teams race around the world, in this case, on a giant scavenger hunt with extra challenges thrown in. The story is told from the point of view of various contestants, as well as the host of the show. Cassie and her mom Laura are racing together; Justin and Abby, an "ex-gay" married couple, now avid Christians; Juliet and Dallas are child stars; Carl and Jeff are brothers. Of course, most of the contestants have secrets they are hiding from the cameras.
This was really enjoyable. Especially for those who like reality tv, and The Amazing Race, in particular, this is fun. Laura and Cassie seem to be the best developed characters, though there was a lot of focus on Abby and Justin, and Juliet, as well. The relationships were enjoyable to "watch" - those already developed and those that developed throughout the competition. Even though fictional, the "behind-the-scenes" look at reality tv was interesting, as well. -
Teams are on a reality show scavenger hunt around the world to win a million dollars. The book is told from the perspective of members of four different teams- a mother and daughter, two brothers, former child television stars and and "reformed gay" husband and wife. Each person has issues they are working through. I enjoyed the race part of the book, the game is like the Amazing Race combined with hauling strange scavenger hunt items including a ski pole and live parrot around the world. I connected with all of the characters, even Justin and Abby the married couple trying to deny their sexuality, who come off as annoying at the beginning of the book. A fast paced, enjoyable read.
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Reality television continues to make its mark on the pop culture landscape, but even the most ardent fan can't deny the market has become saturated. Networks scramble endlessly for an original concept that they hope will have every member of every home in America tuning in, to later discuss with co-workers at the water cooler. Game show contestants eat vermin for cash, the lonely agree to marry strangers, and aspiring entertainers subject themselves to national ridicule. The question that perhaps most often comes to mind is not, "Who will triumph?" but rather, "What will they think of next?"
Author Carolyn Parkhurst's novel Lost and Found attempts to explore the reality behind the reality, by allowing the participants of an Amazing Race-like game show explain first-hand what's really going on when the cameras aren't rolling. Contestant teams include a mother and daughter, husband and wife, two brothers, and a celebrity pair. But this wouldn't be reality television if each team wasn't harboring a secret--like a child born out-of-wedlock, religious fanaticism, or (the most common staple) a gay tendency--to ponder just a few.
The stories behind "the story" are certainly compelling enough to keep the reader interested, but they inadvertently play second fiddle to who will win the race. These characters are dealing with issues that couldn't possibly be rectified in the course of a game show stint, so the testimonials play almost like they would in a Real World confessional, where the viewer nods in understanding yet anxiously awaits the climax. The author deserves praise, nonetheless, for facing the formidable task of trying to win over both lovers and haters of reality television, where originality is almost as scarce as morality. -
I'd had this book on my "to-read" list for roughly 7 years, so I decided to finally give it a read. I LOVED it! It wasn't quite as good as I remember The Dogs as Babel being, but it was much better than "The Nobodies Album", which I read more recently. The reviews about this made me think it wouldn't be a strong showing by Parkhurst, but I think because I was prepared for this to be a story not just about Laura and her daughter, Cassie, I enjoyed it more.
I loved that this was similar to the "Amazing Race" concept (though it was funny the book alluded to that show, so "Lost and Found" apparently exists in a world where both TV shows exist) where teams of players find clues/key words/compete across the globe to ultimately win a million dollars. I thought Parkhurst did a great job of giving each character an individual voice (Justin's was a lot different than Cassie's, which was different than Laura's) and it was pretty simple to keep each narrative straight.
Parkhurst has a great way with words and I love her style. I also loved the variety of locations that people visited - I hope I can see some of them at some point in my life! -
The synopsis seems fascinating doesn’t it? Full of intrigue and game play and battle of the wits? Uh, I think I read the above book, yet the synopsis did not represent the book very well. Yes, it was centered on a reality show and the “backstage” view of the filming of a reality show was quite interesting. Yes, they did race across countries. The last sentence of the synopsis really makes me laugh – “but at what cost?” This book could have been so much more. It just was lukewarm to me. The concept was brilliant, the execution was not. The mom and daughter had so much potential yet I want to slap both of them. The recently divorced brothers were mildly interesting yet one was almost abandoned throughout the other brother’s story. Former child stars? We get about one paragraph on one of them. The Christian newlyweds (who by the way were “ex” gay leading a mission for their church who helped them become “ex” gay) well, you get a little “too” much of them. The couple of young millionaires? I must have blinked and missed them because I remember only a brief description of them early on in the book. They were completely unmemorable. I give this book just and “ok” rating. I kept reading because I was waiting for something really interesting to happen. I think the book cover and the synopsis WAY oversells the story here.
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I picked this book because i thought it sounded interesting. I thought i was going to read about parets but it ended up being about a mother and daughter going on a tv show called lost and found becaus cassie (laura's daughter) is geting ready to go to colledge. Laura wants to spend much time before she goes to colledge so she hears about the show lost and found and that show travels around the world looking for selected stuff and the first thing to find was a paret. Later cassie dosen't like the idea and the story goes to flashback of cassie wakeing laura up and brings laura to her room where on the bed was a new born baby and alot of blood and they dont know if they should go to the hospital and the baby did survive but they put it for adoption. This book is fiction. Carolyn Parkhurst wrote it based on her daughters life part of her life and her agents life. the main character was laura and cassie and they didn't get along well on the game show. That was because of cassie haveing a baby and not telling her mother about it until the night of birth. The main problem was them looking for the selected item and getting it back before the rest do or they get kicked off the show. It was resolved by working together and writeing every little thing down. this was really good and i recamend it for everyone.
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Lost & Found by Carolyn Parkhurst (who wrote the amazing Dogs of Babel from 2003) is about a reality show a la The Amazing Race. In Parkhurst's realm, tv execs are relentless predators in pursuit of other people's emotional baggage, cameramen are easily ignored unless you have stopped at a Tokyo hotel to have sex with one, and your partner in the race easily becomes the target of your blame for the screwed up situations you're finding yourself in.
The pages in this book don't say something meaningful. Honestly, it would seem ridiculous to bring too much gravitas to a book about a game show. What the book does well is give insight to the "reality" of reality shows, Parkhurst sat down with several reality stars and mined the goings on behind the camera before writing her story. For someone who has heard that these shows are unrealistic but doesn't really get how manipulative the execs can be, this is great light reading. The characters, most anyway, are drawn up very well and the central game show team, a mother and daughter pair, are a valid plot line. But also like the reality shows, there are so many characters involved, its hard to care for each of them and you sometimes question whether you're meant to. -
Lost & Found by Carolyn Parkhurst (who wrote the amazing Dogs of Babel from 2003) is about a reality show a la The Amazing Race. In Parkhurst's realm, tv execs are relentless predators in pursuit of other people's emotional baggage, cameramen are easily ignored unless you have stopped at a Tokyo hotel to have sex with one, and your partner in the race easily becomes the target of your blame for the screwed up situations you're finding yourself in.
The pages in this book don't say something meaningful. Honestly, it would seem ridiculous to bring too much gravitas to a book about a game show. What the book does well is give insight to the "reality" of reality shows, Parkhurst sat down with several reality stars and mined the goings on behind the camera before writing her story. For someone who has heard that these shows are unrealistic but doesn't really get how manipulative the execs can be, this is great light reading. The characters, most anyway, are drawn up very well and the central game show team, a mother and daughter pair, are a valid plot line. But also like the reality shows, there are so many characters involved, its hard to care for each of them and you sometimes question whether you're meant to.
