Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst

Last Wednesday, negotiations for Father’s Day began. I caught my mother by the back door of our office. “Hey,” I gestured to her surreptitiously. “What should we do for Father’s Day?”

“I had an idea,” she whispered back. “Why don’t we go fishing?”

As we readers know, “fishing” is a secret code word for sitting by a lovely body of water and reading. This was a perfect plan: Dad gets to spend a day with his family, Mom and I get to relax outdoors, and DH gets to fish. (Hey, if you have to spend a day with your in-laws, fishing is the best way to do it.) I was in the middle of Carolyn Parkhurst’s new book, Lost and Found, and was looking for a good opportunity to finish it up. Everyone wins.

We decided to meet at the Municipal Pier in Pacifica, arguably the best pier for fishing in the entire state of California. They say striped bass can be caught there year round, as well as Dungeness crab. So after a picnic lunch on the pier, DH went off to buy bait and came back with a fancy new toy: a Dungeness crab trap.

The allure of a free Dungeness crab dinner was too strong to resist and I put my book down to try my beginner’s luck. Of which I had frustratingly none. Next to us at the end of the pier were these two guys, each manning two fishing poles. One after another, they would each reel in a flailing crab and toss in onto their growing hoard. Couldn’t they spare just one? As we watched them collect crab from the ocean, while not a single crab was biting our bait, the wind picked up. I had to go to the bathroom. The new toy’s appeal was gone.

Two hours later, I turned the final page of Lost and Found, basking in the glow that comes from finishing a good book. I’ve already read a few reviews of Lost and Found, and I agree with them that it’s a fun, humorous read. I agree that the characters are the strength of Parkhurst’s storytelling, and I agree that this book is going to be a big hit this summer. What I liked best were the expertly drawn characters and the book’s fast pace, rushing toward its inevitable conclusion—after all, every reality show must have a winner.

My problem is with critics’ labeling of Parkhurst’s reality-show premise as satire, or even exposé. I don’t think it’s satirical, and I don’t think it’s particularly insightful about television reality shows. From a television watcher’s point of view, I think the way the show is portrayed seems entirely realistic. The Onion’s critic was delighted with the behind-the-scenes glimpses: “Lost And Found blows the lid off the inherent ridiculousness of game operas, from the edited-out downtime while participants wait for transportation to the product placements and cheesy challenge themes.” I find these manipulations unsurprising and even expected. Isn’t that just the way things are in game-show land? Is it just me? Was I just overly cynically about these television shows to begin with?

Don’t get me wrong. I liked Parkhurst’s use of the reality show as setting. It gave the plot a strong structure, and it gave her a perfect excuse to create some quirky characters. However, I think it also allowed her to take the easy route of storytelling without taking the book anywhere truly daring. In Lost and Found, a game show is just a game show- there is no postmodernism here, no satire, no irony. I was almost disappointed that everything ended up very neatly, exactly as the producers of a reality show (or movie?) would have wanted: the correct people have breakdowns, and the correct team (read: nicest) wins the day.

The bottom line? This is a great summer read. It was hard to put down and I loved traveling the world with this host of characters. It was good, honest fun—perhaps about as much fun as going fishing without catching any fish.

Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst

tags: books book reviews father's day fishing reality shows Carolyn Parkhurst