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WORK TITLE: The Dependents
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Berkeley
STATE: CA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Oakland, CA.
EDUCATION:Graduated from Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. MacDowell Fellow.
AWARDS:Grant, Elizabeth George Foundation.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Katharine Dion is an American writer. Born in Oakland, California, she went on to graduate from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop under an Iowa Arts Fellowship. Dion is the recipient of an Elizabeth George Foundation grant and has also served as a MacDowell Fellow.
Dion published her first novel, The Dependents, in 2018. After forty-nine years of marriage, Gene Ashe’s wife has died. He has turned bitter at life and ponders how others can maintain any shred of happiness in theirs. His adult daughter has little patience for him and his ways. He has a husband-wife pair of friends, but Gene is usually annoyed by the husband. At his wife’s funeral and after struggling with writing an appropriate eulogy, he is hurt and confused at the content of the eulogies given by his daughter and best friend. After the funeral and due to his failing health, Gene’s daughter hires him a caretaker who provides some relief for his loneliness. But this also gives him time to reflect on the past, leading him to suspect that his wife had kept numerous secrets from him.
Booklist contributor Carol Gladstein found the novel to be “a deeply satisfying examination of the gulf between what we want to believe and the truth.” Gladstein admitted to being “eager” to read more from Dion in the future. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews lauded that “at this novel’s most successful moments, the depiction of Gene’s mental state achieves the eloquence and insight of C.S. Lewis’ A Grief Observed.” The same reviewer found the novel to be “intelligent and profound but quite depressing.” A Publishers Weekly contributor described the novel as being “a beautiful story of communication and commitment.” The Publishers Weekly contributor labeled The Dependents a “fine debut.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 1, 2018, Carol Gladstein, review of The Dependents, p. 60.
Kirkus Reviews, April 1, 2018, review of The Dependents.
Publishers Weekly, April 2, 2018, review of The Dependents, p. 41.
KATHARINE DION
THIS AUTHOR IS ON TOUR
Katharine Dion was born in Oakland, California. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was awarded the Iowa Arts Fellowship. She has also been a MacDowell Fellow and the recipient of a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation. She lives in Berkeley, California. The Dependents is her first novel.
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Print Marked Items
The Dependents
Carol Gladstein
Booklist.
114.17 (May 1, 2018): p60.
COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
* The Dependents.
By Katharine Dion.
June 2018. 288p. Little, Brown, $26 (9780316473873); e-book, $13.99 (9780316473880).
Gene and Maida had a long and satisfying marriage. But when Maida dies suddenly, Gene begins to wonder
whether their time together was all that he thought it was. With the help of his lifelong friends Ed and
Gayle, Gene attempts to work through his grief, focusing on happy memories and fighting lingering doubts.
Gene's daughter, Dary, however, further challenges his version of the past and presents a side of Maida he
knew nothing about, deepening the long-standing rift between father and daughter. Gene's unsettling
feelings for his new caregiver create more confusion as he struggles to balance his grief with the unexpected
hope for a new love. Dion's debut novel is a seamless exploration of Gene's past life, long marriage, deep
friendships, and present-day struggles through loss and understanding. Her rich and nuanced characters
combine with her exceptional writing to create a powerful and intimate look at the inner workings of one
family. The Dependents is a deeply satisfying examination of the gulf between what we want to believe and
the truth, and readers will be eager for more from Dion.--Carol Gladstein
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Gladstein, Carol. "The Dependents." Booklist, 1 May 2018, p. 60. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A539647365/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=0ee624d3.
Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A539647365
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Dion, Katharine: THE DEPENDENTS
Kirkus Reviews.
(Apr. 1, 2018):
COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Dion, Katharine THE DEPENDENTS Little, Brown (Adult Fiction) $26.00 6, 19 ISBN: 978-0-316-47387-
3
An introverted older man deals with the grief of losing his wife.
Dion's melancholy, meditative debut dwells in the head of Gene Ashe, a widower after 49 years of
marriage. It opens with a scene at the beach that conveys both Gene's crankiness and his melancholy: "The
beach was crowded, a cluttered heap of pink skin, chipped toenail polish, ice chests, crumpled tin foil..."; a
group of teenage girls beside him emits "a collective shriek that he vaguely recognized as a form of
laughter"; "His interest in other people lay primarily in the mystery of their happiness." Through this lens of
gloom, we gradually collect the details of his life. He has one adult child, a daughter, who is perennially
irritated with him, and a close friendship with a couple he and his wife have known since their college days,
though he is just as habitually annoyed by the husband as his daughter is with him. Adding to his woes at
the beginning of the novel is the need to write a eulogy for his wife; even with the help of a how-to site on
the internet, he is unable to get past four words: "Something definite was lost." When the memorial service
does occur, he is hurt and bewildered by the speeches given by his daughter and by his wife's best friend. At
this point, since Gene's health is failing, his daughter hires him a caretaker who at first seems to offer not
just housekeeping, but relief from loneliness. As the weeks and months go by, Gene sorts through his
memories, some of them perplexing and seeming to suggest that his wife had secrets from him. At this
novel's most successful moments, the depiction of Gene's mental state achieves the eloquence and insight of
C.S. Lewis' A Grief Observed: "It amazed him he could still remember so much about the particular way
she had inhabited the world. Such intimacy, to think of these things, to know exactly the way she had cared
for her own body or moved it through space."
Intelligent and profound but quite depressing.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Dion, Katharine: THE DEPENDENTS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Apr. 2018. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532700597/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=0b5bd79a.
Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A532700597
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The Dependents
Publishers Weekly.
265.14 (Apr. 2, 2018): p41.
COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Dependents
Katharine Dion. Little Brown, $26 (256p) ISBN 978-0-316-47387-3
Death and unavoidable truth shatter the serene surface of a man's golden years in Dion's fine debut, set in
the hills of New Hampshire. Gene Ashe's wife dies suddenly, leaving Gene to sort through the physical and
emotional remnants of their life. Their 49-year marriage was entwined from the start with college friends Ed
and Gayle Donnelly, but Gene is beginning to question the nature of their friendship. As they reminisce
about raising their children in the same small town, Gene is forced to reconsider past events and grapple
with choices that left him disconnected from family and friends. Gene's daughter, Dary, meanwhile, remains
emotionally distant from him and doesn't want to hear his entreaties about why she should get married
instead of having a child as a single parent. Amid his grief and the realization that he can't remember when
life started to feel so hollow, Gene stumbles into an unexpected relationship. But without his wife's
companionship, new doubts constantly arise, and Gene must understand what in his life is worth living for
and what made him worth loving: "love was not enough ... but now it was too late for him to adopt a new
delusion." The narrative travels back and forth through Gene's life as he tries to pick apart the performative
from the heartfelt acts of love. The result is a beautiful story of communication and commitment. (June)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"The Dependents." Publishers Weekly, 2 Apr. 2018, p. 41. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A533555584/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ab08d7a7.
Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A533555584