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Summary
Summary
What do a suburban mom, her troubled daughter, divorced brothers, former child stars, born-again Christians, and young millionaires have in common? They have all been selected to compete on Lost and Found , the daring new reality show. In teams of two, they will race across the globe -- from Egypt to England, from Japan to Sweden -- to battle for a million-dollar prize. They must decipher encrypted clues, recover mysterious artifacts, and outwit their opponents to stay in play.
Yet what started as a lark turns deadly serious as the number of players is whittled down, temptations beckon, and the bonds between partners strain and unravel. The question now is not only who will capture the final prize, but at what cost.
Author Notes
Carolyn Parkhurst was born in Manchester, New Hampshire on January 18, 1971. She received her B.A. from Wesleyan University and her M.F.A. in creative writing from American University. Her books include The Dogs of Babel, which is known as Lorelei's Secret in the UK; Lost and Found; The Nobodies Album; Harmony, and a children's book, Cooking with Henry and Elliebelly.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Luckily, this novel about a reality-TV show is a satire, if an often muted one. Addressing the comedy and tragedy of missed connections, bestseller Parkhurst (The Dogs of Babel) uses the forum of Lost and Found, an Amazing Race-type competition, for a mostly somber (but occasionally very funny) set of character studies. As two-person teams journey from Egypt to Japan to Scandinavia, the carefully constructed, TV-ready personae of the competitors slowly unravel. Employing a constantly shifting perspective, Parkhurst admirably juggles a large cast of characters, with a number of competitors emerging as standouts: squabbling mother and daughter Laura and Cassie, tormented by a secret neither of them wants to publicly acknowledge; Justin and Abby, an "ex-gay" married couple wrestling with unruly desire; and Juliet, a former child star desperately angling for a return to the limelight. Parkhurst treats the game show as an opportunity for the contestants to decide, as the producer asks of them, "What have you found?" The answer for readers: heart and wit to spare. (June 13) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Parkhurst's lauded debut, The Dogs of Babel (2003), which centered on a man struggling to come to terms with the death of his young wife, struck a chord with readers, and her follow-up, a humorous and touching send-up of reality shows, is bound to please as well. The novel focuses on several characters competing on an Amazing Race-like reality show called Lost and Found, where teams of two travel from destination to destination following enigmatic clues and collecting various items in hopes of winning the game. Laura wants to connect with her sullen teenage daughter, Cassie, after a traumatic experience highlighted the distance between them. Justin and Abby believe they have cast off their homosexual urges in favor of a traditional Christian marriage, but the game offers unexpected tests for their resolution. Carl and Jeff are two middle-aged, recently divorced brothers looking for adventure. Juliet and Dallas are former child stars seeking to recapture fame and willing to do just about anything to achieve that end. Emotional confrontations, suppressed desires, and unexpected connections surprise the various contestants as they continue to play a game that is starting to disgust them. Thoroughly original and inventive, peopled with engaging characters, and just plain fun, this second novel deserves to be as big a hit as the reality shows it genially pokes fun at. --Kristine Huntley Copyright 2006 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Adult/High School-Here's a fast-paced novel featuring a reality TV show that is like The Amazing Race and Treasure Hunt combined. Contestants have personal secrets and have been chosen specifically because producers hope that they will spill their guts for ratings. The action focuses on four characters. Justin and Abby are a married couple, a lesbian and a gay man who have renounced their "lifestyles" and proudly carry the banner of their newfound faith while they both struggle to remain straight. Although described as young, these two seem much older than their years in their pursuit of a traditional marriage. Meanwhile, the mother-daughter team of Laura and Cassie deals with the fact that the girl gave birth without anyone even noticing that she was pregnant. When she is given the chance to choose a different teammate-and does-emotions and rivalry ratchet up exponentially. Teens may well relate to Cassie, who feels alienated from her mother and unable to communicate about the most basic parts of her personality (most notably, that she is attracted to women). Laura's reaction is that of love and guilt. Despite being rejected, she keeps trying to find a way to connect to her daughter. An over-the-top, dramatic ending leaves some loose ends, but there is satisfaction in the resolution for a couple of the characters. Older teens may find that this book presses just the right buttons.-Charlotte Bradshaw, San Mateo County Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Twelve contestants on a round-the-world scavenger hunt compete for reality-TV fame and a million-dollar jackpot. The latest reality-TV show to go into production, Lost and Found is down to its last six pairs of contestants. Cameramen and sound crew trail each duo as they careen through international airports lugging a parrot in a cage, an aviator helmet and a ski pole, en route to clues that will lead them to other equally hard-to-travel-with objects. What with jet lag, drastic time-zone changes and the grueling challenges of the intermittent daredevil rounds (milking rattlesnakes, being buried to the neck in hot sand), relations between team members are frayed: 18-year-old Cassie and her newly slimmed-down, long-widowed mother Laura are NOT TALKING about the baby Laura carried unnoticed to term and gave up for adoption; Juliet and Dallas, former child stars, find the spotlight isn't big enough for both of them; Carl and Jeff, brothers both recently divorced, disagree as to whether their lifelong joke-meister routines are appreciated by the others; Betsy and Jason, former high-school sweethearts reunited for the trip, learn that they've long outgrown each other; Trent and Riley, techno-whizzes who caught the dot.com wave and bailed in advance of the crash, are having trouble with the mundane; and Justin and Abby, both "ex-gays," now born-again Christians, discover that their marriage to each other hasn't put a stop to "sinful desire." As the teams decode rhymed clues that send them from a Cairo nightclub to a Shinto palace in Japan, and further on around the globe, the show's producers manipulate contestants' exhaustion to orchestrate juicy confrontations for the cameras. Told from different characters' points of view, this novel manages, despite its madcap premise and full-frontal exposure of crass American greed, to deliver several sympathetic characters. Given the high-concept premise, Parkhurst (The Dogs of Babel, 2003) has avoided the pitfall of simply engineering a joyride, and written a funny second novel that surpasses her first. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Fresh from her success with The Dogs of Babel, Parkhurst here devises a global scavenger hunt as reality TV show, with seven competing pairs of contestants. Among them are a teenager with a secret and her mom, who just wants to be friends again. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
