Archive for the ‘families’ Tag
Piglet may be the name of a beloved children’s book character, but it’s the fictional main character in Lottie Hazell’s debut novel. And, it’s far from childish. In fact, it’s dark and disturbing.
Piglet and Kit are soon to be married; they’ve just purchased a new home in Oxford, she’s a successful cookbook editor and Kit, who’s from a wealthy family, seemingly adores his fiancé. That is until 13 days before the wedding when Kit confesses to Piglet a transgression that the reader can only guess. Despite his profuse apologies, it is enough to upend Piglet’s world and send her spiraling into a literal feeding frenzy.
Of course, the childhood nickname is enough of a clue that self-esteem may not be the main character’s strong suit. It’s eventually explained which only emphasizes the issues that have been part of Piglet for most of her life.
Although the author doesn’t describe Piglet’s size at the novel’s beginning, the character grows on the page. How could she not after ordering one of everything on a restaurant menu?! The most graphic image comes when her sister, parents and sister’s boyfriend struggle to get Piglet into her wedding dress. If it wasn’t so sad, it would be comical. This is an eating disorder gone off the rails before our very eyes.
Piglet’s anxiety about whether to go through with the wedding is palpable. Initially, she seemed to have everything, but after losing trust in Kit, there’s little that can satisfy her ravenous appetite for more.
Piglet
Three-and-half bookmarks
Henry Holt and Company, 2024
309 pages (includes acknowledgements)
It’s 1980 when Carl Fletcher, the owner of his family’s Styrofoam manufacturing plant, is kidnapped from the driveway of his home In Middle Rock, a wealthy, mostly Jewish, Long Island community. Thus begins Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s novel Long Island Compromise.
There’s certainly intrigue regarding the kidnapping, but it’s not much of a spoiler to note that after his harrowing experience, Carl is ultimately reunited with his pregnant wife, Ruth, six-year-old son Nathan and four-year-old Bernard (later known as Beamer). Carl’s mother, Phyllis, insists the family move onto her estate with the intent that all will be safer.
The family’s affluence has its roots in Phyllis’s late husband, who escaped from Nazi-occupied Poland with a formula for plastics, founded the factory.
Although Jenny, is born soon after her father’s kidnapping, she and her brothers are forever marked by their father’s ordeal and the wealth of their upbringing. For the rest of their lives Ruth and Phyllis go to extremes to protect Carl who remains traumatized.
The novel is loosely based on a true story, but the characters are composites of stereotypes with personality twists. They’re interesting, amusing, pathetic and occasionally surprising, often predictable – sometimes in the same breath (or sentences as the case may be).
The Fletchers’ tale spans four decades with narration changes as each family member’s personal story is portrayed. There are contemporary issues such as drug abuse, mental health issues, financial concerns and familial turmoil. Yet, Brodesser-Akner’s writing is rich with an abundance of humor, irony and empathy.
Long Island Compromise
Four Bookmarks
Random House, 2024
444 pages
When things go wrong for Dickie Barnes in The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, they occur in seemingly slow motion yet the ensuing chaos is still surprising. What catches readers off guard is the number of lies the characters tell not only to one another but also to themselves.
The plot, told in the present and past, follows Dickie; his wife Imelda; daughter Cass; son PJ; and older brother Frankie. Dickie is in a downward spiral. His once-successful car business is falling apart and his family isn’t doing so well either. Reverting to their histories is significant: at which point did things go amiss?
Frankie, the small town’s popular football star, and Imelda were engaged. Dickie was always in his older brother’s shadow and left for Dublin to study at university to one day take over their father’s car business.
The author blends humor and pathos. How Dickie and Imelda came to be married and the bee sting (the title source) that forced her to wear her veil throughout the day of their wedding are major elements; as is the impact of their unraveling marriage on their children. These are main threads of this lengthy book– which at times is long-winded and other times impossible to put down.
Without revealing the ending, it’s necessary to note it is one of the most cinematic, edge-of-your-seat conclusions. It’s fraught with danger, fear and love … just like the rest of the book. However, it takes a long time to reach this point.
The Bee Sting
Four Bookmarks
Paul Murray
645 pages
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023
When considering that Fireworks Every Night by Beth Raymer is about a dysfunctional family the title is certainly appropriate. Yet these are subtle, more like distracting sparklers than explosives, although the repercussions are rattling.
Narrator C.C. begins her story as an engaged woman about to marry into a wealthy family. She alternates between the present and living in Florida as a youth with her older sister and parents. C.C.’s father is a slick, successful used car salesman. He moves his family from Ohio to the Sunshine State after burning down his own sales lot for insurance money.
Those funds allow him to purchase property in a rural, as yet undeveloped area in Palm Beach County, and build a house with a swimming pool. These, C.C. says, are the best days of her childhood.
Soon, however, the halcyon times fade: her sister becomes a drug addict, and her parents begin a drawn-out separation while sharing the same space — until they don’t.
The chapters about C.C. as an adult living in Connecticut are less engaging. There are no pyrotechnics and not much action. Those are saved for her teenage years.
C.C. is smart enough to see she has to work to change the trajectory of her life. The odds are not in her favor of achieving any semblance of a normal life, i.e., without following in her parents’ or sister’s patterns of deceit and self-destruction.
Raymer incorporates dark humor while describing the harsh reality of living in a world of disappointments.
Fireworks Every Night
3.75 Bookmarks
Random House, 2023
224 pages
Whether it’s referred to as a tome, an extravaganza, or even a whale of a novel, all are apt physical, and some are literary, descriptions of Abraham Verghese’s The Covenant of Water. At more than 700 pages, if nothing else, it’s a marathon of a read.
Set in southwestern India, it encompasses 1900 to 1977. The narrative follows three generations of a family whose members have a history of drowning, known as “The Condition.” Besides the expanse of time, much of what adds to the book’s length is the number of characters introduced, then seemingly discarded only to eventually resurface.
Big Ammachi is the (direct and indirect) loving force binding all of them together. It begins with her as a 12-year-old girl betrothed to a much older widower with a young son and thriving farmland.
The author’s fortes are evident in the descriptions of the numerous evolutions of the relationships among those populating the book. This is rivalled only by the portrayals of the characters and the imagery of the various landscapes visited in the novel. Along with the family’s farmland, the latter includes Madras and a leper colony. Everything is connected; it just takes a while to see how.
Indian history, the caste system, British Raj and medicine are significant elements.
Tragedies and joys abound throughout this epic, with themes of faith and resilience. After questioning whether so many characters, settings and, ultimately, pages were necessary, it’s difficult to see how the story could have been told any other way.
The Covenant of Water
Four-and-a-half Bookmarks
Grove Press, 2023
724 pages, including acknowledgements and notes
The Age of Vice is a massive novel about inequity, corruption and loyalty. Despite its hefty size (more than 500) pages, Deepti Kapoor has crafted an epic story that is equal measures mystery and love story – my favorite combination.
Ajay is the manservant of Sunny Wadia, the son of one of the wealthiest and most powerful man in India. Ajay is imprisoned when he’s identified as the driver of the speeding Mercedes that kills five people. The narrative then jumps back 13 years when Ajay is a poor, barely-educated child in a rural area of India. When his father is beaten by the village leaders, Ajay is sold to help pay the family’s debts. He’s sent to a mountain farm where his situation is improved, although he’s still looked down upon for his station in life.
How Ajay came to be Sunny’s servant and charged with manslaughter is a circuitous tale of excessive wealth and waste amplified by exploitation. By contrast are Ajay’s strong work ethic and his gradual rise to Sunny’s shadow, something that comes with numerous perks but many strings attached.
Sunny is an addict and womanizer, but falls in love with a journalist. Their relationship is complicated. She’s not what Sunny’s father envisions as the perfect wife for his heir.
Bunty and his brother’s influence span much of the country and little goes unnoticed by either, including how Ajay came to be behind the wheel in the deadly crash.
Kapoor’s characters are vividly depicted as are India’s extremes.
The Age of Vice
Four+ Bookmarks
Riverhead Books, 2023
548 pages
Except for lives lost and residual health issues faced by those infected by COVID-19, the pandemic was, in many ways, positive. It was a time for introspection and, if lucky, being together. This is the starting point for Tom Lake, Ann Patchett’s newest novel.
It’s cherry picking season on the Nelson family orchard in northern Michigan. Due to the pandemic, Lara and Joe Nelson’s young adult daughters are home to help harvest the crop. They plead with their mother to tell the story of her long-ago romance with Duke, a famous actor.
The narrative seamlessly moves between Lara’s descriptions of present-day life and her involvement with Duke. They met doing a summer stock production of Our Town. Duke was beginning his trajectory while Lara awaited release of a movie she was in. However, it, and her role as Emily, was as far as her acting career would go.
Lara does little to embellish the relationship and spares few details regarding the intensity of their short-lived affair; she, via Patchett, tells a good story over the span of several days. She’s happily married to Joe, relishes her life on the farm and being with her daughters. How this evolved is entangled in Duke’s story, which has several (credible) surprises. Fortunately, readers are privy to info Lara does not share with her kids.
Patchett’s writing is engaging from page one and never wavers. Like those in Thornton Wilder’s play, Patchett has created a family of extraordinary characters living conventional lives in unusual times.
Tom Lake
Five Bookmarks
Harper, 2023
309 pages
The unlikely mix of family history, parenting, basketball, Chicago, mental health and love, most of all love, are all elements of Ann Napolitano’s Hello Beautiful.
Much has been written regarding this as homage to Little Women. Yet, the references are brief with themes beyond what Louisa May Alcott addressed. Yes, there are four sisters: Julia, intent on a better life; Sylvie, the librarian with whom she is closest, who dreams of finding her one true love; and twins Cecelia, and Emeline.
Beginning in 1960s, Napolitano’s novel provides perspectives from different characters. William Waters is a sad child neglected by his parents dealing with years-old grief. Basketball courts are the only places he finds a sense of belonging.
His skills and physical growth develop almost simultaneously. By the time he’s in high school, William is 6’7” and good enough to earn a scholarship to Northwestern University. There, he meets Julia the eldest of the Padavano sisters who decides William is the man for her. That is, unlike her father: kind but lacking motivation. Julia has long-range plans for William; he just wants to play ball while he can.
The Padavano family embraces William in ways he never experienced. What follows is a multi-decade narrative addressing depression and belief in the power of love.
When Julia gives birth to their daughter, William despairs he’s an emotionally-distant parent. What ensues is an upheaval in the relationships of all the characters. Napolitano creates such a credible rift; it’s questionable whether repairing the damage is possible.
Hello Beautiful
Four Bookmarks
The Dial Press, 2023
387 pages (includes acknowledgements)
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng starts slow; initially it’s too easy to put down, until, well, it isn’t.
Much has to do with the mystery surrounding the absence of 12-year-old Bird’s mother who his father refuses to acknowledge while insisting his son to do the same. They live in a not-too-distant dystopian world where fear and suspicion rule based on safeguarding America’s culture known as PACT.
It’s a time when children are removed from parents suspected of seditious thoughts and behaviors. Those of Chinese, and by default all Asians, are considered threats. Bird’s mother Margaret is Chinese American and a poet. Her work goes largely unnoticed until one day PACT protesters use a line from one of her poems for their cause: Our Missing Hearts. To protect her son, she leaves the family.
Despite his father’s pleas, Bird’s curiosity about his mother becomes a driving force. These efforts to find her are where the narrative revs up.
Margaret’s story catches the past up with the present. This includes her childhood in the neighborhood’s only Asian family, later surviving on the streets when the economy collapses (blamed on the Chinese), and meeting Bird’s father and becoming a mother.
It’s been years since Margaret has written poetry, but she embraces a new passion based on the protester’s slogan: she tries to meet and interview as many parents as possible whose children have been taken from them.
Ng’s writing is vivid and frightening in its depiction of how self-preservation is manipulated by fear.
Out Missing Hearts
Four Bookmarks
Penguin Press, 2022
335 pages (includes author’s notes and acknowledgements)
When considering what I know about mothering, I must thank my mother first and foremost. I may not be the stellar student, but she is the exceptional teacher. With this in mind, I found Jessamine Chan’s ironically-titled The School for Good Mothers heart-wrenching. Chan’s writing evokes a range of emotions related to the subject of child rearing, neglect and relationships. The reader is left with much to consider.
Many women have neither strong role models, nor good maternal instincts. Both are true for Frida, mother of a toddler, whose limits are tested thanks to a lack of sleep, her job and the recent separation from her husband and his relationship with a younger woman.
One day, Frida leaves her young daughter, Harriet, home alone to run an errand. Frida is gone for two hours.
Of course, this is irresponsible and unforgivable. However, what evolves is also unacceptable. Frida is subjected to 24-hour surveillance and limited supervised visits with Harriet.
The only way for Frida to be reunited with Harriet is to undergo a year-long program designed to teach her, and other mothers, to be a better parent. Here’s where things go off the rails. Some of the women’s infractions are horrendous, others accidental. The mothers are incarcerated and given robotic dolls on which to hone their skills. The staff is unsympathetic and the parenting courses are often unreasonable (ie., speaking “motherese”).
Chan’s characters are vividly portrayed. Their losses are palpable. Child abandonment warrants repercussion, but not through draconian means.
The School for Good Mothers
Four Bookmarks
Simon & Schuster, 2022
324 pages
The Blue Page Special 
