14 posts tagged “family”

Alfred White has always ruled his family with a mixture of tenderness and toughness.  Such was his toughness that he has alienated his two eldest children and doesn't understand what's happening in the life of his youngest child, but when he collapses at work, they all rush to be by his side.  However, just when the family should be pulling together, they find themselves fragmenting.  Oldest son Darren is married to his third wife and comes over from his home in New York and old resentments float to the surface.  Daughter Shirley upset her father years ago by marrying an black man, and after being widowed is still at odds with her father over her new relationship with another black man.  Youngest son Dirk hates all non-white people and his anger at Shirley reaches boiling point.  Things must come to a head, and when they do, who will step up and see that justice is done?

This book is told from the point of view of all of the different family members as well as a few other people who know the family.  The different viewpoints make for an interesting narrative, as accounts of events overlap and are seen through different eyes.

I thought this was a fabulous read.  Each character is realistically brought to life, and are very distinct from each other.  Many of them are not sympathetic characters (Shirley is easily the nicest one of them all), but in each case their motives and reasons for their beliefs and actions are explained , although certain actions are certainly not excused or softened - and nor should they be.  Opinions are explained and while it is impossible to agree with how certain people behave, I could certainly understand why they behaved that way.

Maggie Gee has written a beautiful novel, which explores the prejudices which people hold and live with, and which certainly pulls no punches.  I thought it was a very thought-provoking book, which while heavy at times in subject matter, was always compelling.  I will certainly be seeking out more books by this author.

When 19 year old Ruby decides that she has had enough of her life in London, she runs away to her grandmother Iris's home in Cairo.  As Ruby falls in love with Cairo, Iris is in ill health and fears that she is losing her memories of wartime Cairo and the soldier she fell in love with, who lost his life in World War II.  As we learn the story of Iris and Xan Molyneaux, we also see Ruby growing up, forming a relationship of her own and bonding with her grandmother.  

I really enjoyed this book.  As well as being a retrospective love story (which is wonderfully told), it is also a story of Ruby's own journey from a troubled and thoughtless teenager, to an intelligent and compassionate young woman.  The story deals with love and heartbreak, fear and memory, and in particular, how the memory of one certain time in life, can affect all the times that come after it.

Cairo is vividly brought to life - both in the modern day and during World War II - and it was very easy to imagine how Ruby felt discovering the city for the first time.  Reading the book made me want to visit there myself.

Although the love story between Iris and Xan is passionate and beautifully told, it is never cheesy or overly sentimental.  

All of the characters were entirely believable - more so for not being perfect - and the writing is fantastic.  I am determined to seek out more by this author.

As might be expected from the title, this is a novel which centres largely around motherhood, mothering and the effect that it has on people's lives.

The Melrose family is in freefall.  The father, Patrick is torn between feelings of betrayal and compassion for his mother - betrayal because he feels that she has always been utterly selfless to everyone except her own family, and it now looks as if he will be disinherited, and compassion because of her deteriorating mental and physical health.  Additionally, he feels neglected by his wife, who has just given birth to their second son, and is totally wrapped up in the demands of motherhood.  In an effort to console himself, he lurches from one vice to another.

His wife Mary feels that she has lost all sense of self, and knows that her husband is frustrated at what he perceives as her obsession with being a good mother.  Mary is determined that she will give her children the love and affection that her own mother failed to give her.

Their five year old son Robert is a child wise beyond his years, and at the start of the book, he is a little put out by the arrival of a new baby brother.

The book is told in the third person but most of the sections (there are four, told over four consecutive summers) focus on events from just one person's point of view.  I have mixed feelings about it; it started off promisingly, but eventually I was happy to finish it.  

There is actually very little plot, although this was not a problem for me.  The book simply paints a portrait of a family which has fallen on hard times, financially and emotionally.  All of the characters were certainly very well drawn and believeable, but after a while I stopped caring about what happened to them.  There were however some moments of genuinely bitter humour, and I laughed out loud on a couple of occasions. However, this is not a work of comedy.  It was well written and credible, but ultimately, it left me fairly cold.

This story is set in the deep American south, and the narrator (through a series of letters to God and her sister) is Celie, a poor black girl who is raped by her mother's husband and has her two children taken away.  She is later forced into an unhappy marriage and separated from her beloved sister Nettie.  Life is hard for Celie, and then she meets Shug Avery, a strong woman who shows Celie that she can take control of her destiny, and that she has unrealised strength.

This is a wonderful and moving book.  Celie's story is heartbreaking in itself, but as well as centering on her personal life, the story also explores the treatment of black people in the South at that time, and, through a series of letters from Nettie, the exploitation of certain tribes in Africa.

Celie's written English is understandably poor, and often in books, this irritates me, but in this case it really didn't.  Had Celie been able to write perfect English, it would not have seemed believeable.  The difference between her and Nettie's lives is shown in Nettie's considerably more eloquent letters to Celie.

There are a number of characters who feature prominently in the book, and each and every one of them is entirely believeable and well depicted.  The author demonstrates through Celie's letters why certain characters behave in a certain way, and resists judging them - instead showing how good people do bad things sometimes and vice versa.

Celie is a character who I really cared about during the reading of the book and she will stay with me for a long time.  More than anything, this is a book that made me think - and that is never a bad thing.

A recommended read.

The story opens with Captain Charles Ryder and his troops, who at the end of Word War II, arrive at an old house which has been converted into an army barracks.  Upon learning of the name of the house, Ryder realises that it is Brideshead, a house where he spent a considerable amount of his youth...

Ryder starts to recount his life as an under-graduate at Oxford, who becomes infatuated with the charming but immature Sebastian Flyte, a beautiful fellow student.  As Sebastian introduces Charles to his family at Brideshead (the family home), he becomes fascinated with the unusual family, and particularly later on, with Sebastian's sister Julia.

I feel almost guilty that while the story itself is full of promise, this book left me cold.  I thought it might be that none of the characters is particular sympathetic or even likeable (with the sole exception of the Sebastian's younger sister Cordelia), but on reflection, I don't believe that that was what put me off.  The writing is undoubtedly eloquent and at time comedic, but the book did not stir any emotion in me.

Sebastian's family are Catholic, and Catholicism is a strong theme throughout the book.  Sebastian and Julia both struggle with their religion - although both turn to it in times of anguish - while their mother and their siblings, Cordelia and Brideshead, seem more at ease with it.  Religious versus secular love, and the conflict which this can cause, is portrayed well, as is the changes which came about in Britain during the years the book is set in, where the aristocracy is starting to mean less, and people are looking for different values.

I wish I had enjoyed this book more - I expected to, and I wanted to - but in the end I simply felt a mild sense of relief at finishing it.  That said, I have read many many reviews of this book, and most seem to rate it extremely highly, so I would not wish to discourage others from reading it; I would just hope that they get more out of it than I did.

Louise and Don's daughter Miranda has died in a freak accident.  After her death and the initial grieving, Louise decides that, although devastated, she has to try and move on with her life.  However, the tragedy has affected Don tremendously and he becomes obsessed with finding someone or something to blame for it.  His obsession has torn their marriage and their family apart.  They have two remaining children - Molly (Miranda's twin) and Finn.  The children have their own grief to deal with, but on the whole seem to be coping as well as can be expected.  However, the family is slowly being torn apart by Don's obsession and Louise's changing feelings towards her husband.

This is a beautifully written book.  Louise herself is the narrator, and I think the first person narrative helps the reader to empathise with her, and the other characters.   The book starts after Miranda's death, and although the details of what happened to her are explained, the story centres on the aftermath and the struggle to come to terms with such a terrible event.

Each and every character is extremely well written and totally convincing.  It is easy to like Louise, and still be able to see her actions through the eyes of others.  Despite the fact that the others don't narrate any part of the story, it is also easy for the reader to understand their actions and reactions.

Despite the subject matter, the book is not depressing, although it is very moving.  The author does not dwell entirely on the effect that the accident had on the family, but also portrays situations of complete normality, showing how their lives, while forever changed, must in some ways remain the same.

I have never read anything by Margaret Forster before, but this book has absolutely made me want to read more of her books.  This is a highly recommended book.

Synopsis on the jacket of the book:

This is the story of Mina, a girl at a Sheffield call centre, whose next customer in the queue is Peter, a Cambridge geography don, who has crashed his car into a treestumo when swerving to avoid a cat.

Despite their obvious differences, they've got a lot in common - both single, both parents, both looking for love.  Could it be that they've just found it?

Crossed Wires is an old-fashioned fairy tale.  It is about the small joys and tribulations of parenthood; about one-ness and two-ness; about symmetry and coincidence; about the things that separate us and the things that bring us together.

I really enjoyed this novel.  Peter and especially Mina, are very well drawn and believable characters.  Although a lot of the book is about the problems they face in bringing up their respective children, many of the issues are ones which we can all identify with, parents or not.

All of the supporting cast of characters - from Peter's friends Jeremy, Martin and Trish, to Mina's mom, stepdad and sister are brought effectively to life, and I found myself really starting to care about them.

The reader gets to see far more of Peter and Mina's respective lives than they do of each other, and therefore when misunderstandings arise between the two of them, the reader is able to see the truth behind certain events before the characters do.  I  found myself rooting for both Mina and Peter, and groaning when things went awry.  

The book is very well written, and is both an intelligent novel and a real page turner.  I am definitely going to be looking out for more by this author!

The first thing to mention is that Denis Leary is not a medical Doctor - the Doctor in his name is due to the fact that he has been granted an Honorary Degree.  I mention it because anyone familiar with Denis Leary might be shocked (as I was) to see him referred to as Doctor!

For anyone not familiar with Denis Leary, he is an outspoken, often controversial, Irish-American writer, comedian and actor.  He polarises audiences; generally people think he is extremely offensive, or extremely funny.  I fall into the latter category.

Leary is famous for his onstage rants, and this book is an extended such rant.  He discusses what in his opinion is wrong with America today (blaming lazy parenting,over medication, bad role models and the blame culture amongst other things), and says what he would do to put things right.  To be clear, this book is obviously meant to be comedy, although he does raise many serious points in it.

It's not an autobiography, although there is plenty here about Leary's childhood and his relationship with his parents, especially his mother, who is obviously close to.  He also talks about his marriage and children, and it is obvious that his family is the most important thing in the world to him - and he is frustrated that so many people don't put their family first (or even second or third).

The book made me laugh out loud on many occasions.  If you are easily offended by swearing, then I would advise you to approach with great caution (or just avoid altogether), but if you sometimes wonder at what on earth the world is coming to, and don't object to a fair amount of bluntness and curse words, and feel like you need a good belly laugh, then I would definitely recommend this book to you.