Product Description

The day I returned to Templeton, steeped in disgrace, the fifty-foot corpse of a monster surfaced in Lake Glimmerglass...So begins this spellbinding debut novel. Part contemporary story of a girl's search for her father, part historical novel, and part ghost story, at its core it is a tale of how one town holds the secrets of a family. Willie Cooper arrives on the doorstep of her ancestral home in Templeton, New York in the wake of a disastrous affair with her much older, married archaeology professor. That same day, the discovery of a prehistoric monster in the lake brings a media frenzy to the quiet, picture-perfect town her ancestors founded. Smarting from a broken heart, Willie then learns that the story her mother had always told her about her father has all been a lie. He wasn't the one-night stand Vi had led her to imagine, but someone else entirely. Someone from Templeton. As Willie puts her archaeological skills to work digging for the truth about her lineage, a chorus of voices from the town's past--both sinister and disturbing--rise up around her to tell their sides of the story. Willie discovers the curse of the Temple family runs deep. In the end, dark secrets come to light, past and present blur, old mysteries are finally put to rest, and the surprising truth about more than one monster is revealed. The Monsters of Templeton is a mesmerizing tour de force that marks the debut of one of the most exciting talents in years.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #208406 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Metro
`This cracking tale, admirer Stephen King gleefully says, is full of "monsters, murders, bastards and ne'er do-wells". Yet Lauren Groff's remarkable debut is not a horror at all ... as Willie slays her demons by slowly but surely excavating her family tree, the novel blossoms into a crossbreed of intimate confession, eccentric social history, origin myth and literary biography ... the true `monsters' of Templeton are its secrets.'

Easy Living
`Groff's delightful debut is a glorious hybrid of history and humour, with just a sprinkling of magic.'

The Gloss
`In lesser hands, this could be yet another contrived, oh-so quirky tale of small-town American life, but Lauren Groff writes with seemingly effortless grace - the opening chapter alone would make a beautiful, deeply moving short story, and the rest of the book doesn't disappoint. Gorgeously written, very funny and full of unforgettable characters, The Monsters of Templeton is the best book so far of 2008.'

Customer Reviews

Some historical flaws, but a great read!
The Monsters of Templeton was short listed for the Orange New Writers Prize in 2008. It tells the story of a young woman in New York State, as she finds out the secrets of her family tree, in order to discover the truth about her own life.

There were many things I loved about this book. The photos at the start of each chapter made the characters in the historical sections feel much more real, and the continual updating of the family tree throughout the book helped me to understand what was happening, as sometimes the large family became confusing. Unfortunately, some of the historical writing in the book did not seem true to it's age, and so didn't come across as very realistic. The letters weren't as well written as the rest of the book, and I lost interest in a few of the characters further up the family tree.

The modern story in the book was excellent. The main character, Willie, was very well drawn. I loved her, despite her flaws, and really felt for her as she dealt with the problems she was faced with.

I loved the way the discovery of a monster in the lake was made to feel realistic. The scientific analysis of it at the end was particularly clever.

Overall, the way the story was well plotted, and the ending was very satisfying.

Recommended.

Monsters in the water, love in the past

As explained at the beginning of this book, Templeton is actually Cooperstown. You know, the place with the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Or rather, it's a "slantwise" version of Cooperstown, with lake monsters, friendly ghosts, and a tangle of ancient family secrets. Lauren Groff's "The Monsters of Templeton" is a cleverly interwoven mystery of old secrets, poetic writing and forgotten scandals, but her heroine is the book's Achilles heel.

Willie Upton is returning to her mother's shabby mansion, pregnant and disgraced after trying to run over her married lover's wife. On the same morning, a gigantic monster is found floating in the nearby lake.

Unsurprisingly, Willie is far more interested in her own problems, especially when her hippie-turned-Baptist mother reveals that Willie was not conceived in a free-love orgy, but with a man she knows right in Templeton. To distract herself from her woes, Willie decides to take a single clue and explore back through her family's history, hoping to find the man who fathered her.

Turns out the Temple family tree has a lot of memorable people -- a savvy slave girl, an ethereal Schizophrenic, a pyromaniac, at least one murderer, a popular novelist, a gentle giant. And as Willie backtracks through her family tree, she finds that the secret of her father's ancestry is intertwined in family scandals long forgotten...

It sounds like a fairly ordinary "family saga" novel, doesn't it? But Groff does infuse something special into the story, including touches of magical realism (an immortal town weirdo, a long-lived lake monster, and a lilac ghost) and a series of family accounts that intertwine over time. Which ones are true, and which are self-serving lies? Well, that's up to the reader.

And Groff spins out this complex story in the decaying small-town paradise of Templeton, through misty colours and vibrant details ("the letters themselves smelled of antique rose-water and age-crisped lace"). Despite its links to the "slantwise" past, a feeling of near-fantastical isolation fills Groff's prose, tempered by the fact that there are so many quirky moments from Clarissa and Vi ("I LIKE the international foods potluck").

The biggest problem with this book is Willie herself -- a whiny, selfish brat whose snobbery, anti-religious bigotry and violent behavior are treated as minor flaws. About two-thirds of the way through, Groff seems to realize that Willie is a pretty nasty piece of work, and tries to soften her into a more likable heroine. This happens without warning or development, and it's too little too late.

Groff's supporting characters are far more likable, especially Willie's vivacious, sickly pal Clarissa, and the two unpredictable ex-classmates who are inexplicably vying for her affections. And Vi is a character deserving her own book -- an ex-hippie earth-mother-type whose free-spirited past is awkwardly fitting with her newfound faith. As the book winds on, we find that it's Vi, not Willie, who is the center of the book.

The only real flaw with "The Monsters of Templeton" is Lauren Groff's lead character. The rest of the book is a dreamlike tapestry of half-real history and magical realism. Definitely worth a read for Groff's way with words.

Exactly as blurbed on the front, `bold and beautiful`
The blurb on the front of THE MONSTERS OF TEMPLETON, says, `bold and beautiful` and it is exactly that.
Willie is a 28 year old student. Goes back to her home town of Templeton as she is pregnant, unmarried. There, her Mum, Vi, breaks the news that her real Father, does live in Templeton. Until this, Willie has always been led to believe that the identity of her Father was never known. She was supposedly conceived during a fling her Mother had as a student, with some college hippies. Not true. Willies Father is alive and well, and in Templeton. But for several reasons, her mother does not want to disclose his identity. She does suggest that if Willie really wants to find him, she should trace the Family history right back to their roots. So the story works on two levels. One the modern day with Willie, her quest to find her Father, and of Vi, her Mother, and Chrissie her best friend . On the other level, we are giving insights into the lives of the ancestry of Willie's family. This proved equally as enthralling. Take the huge suprises that are revealed in the letters between, Cinnamon and Charlotte, (1860) - goodness!!
I could understand Willie's dilemma. Anyone in the small town of Templeton could be her Father. She could go into a shop and be served by her Father and never know it. A perfectly written novel that could suggest, that in whichever way we choose to live our lives, the town that we grew up in still retains significance. The story is as much about the town as about the people of that town, past and present. Oh, and the prehistoric monster of course.