My Rating: 4 stars
This was a book that I very nearly devoured in 2 sittings if it
weren’t for the fact that I had work and family obligations I had to take care
of, so I ended up finishing the last dozen pages or so just now (turned out to
be 3 sittings, not 2). In all honesty, when I first picked up the ARC
of this book and read the summary, my expectations weren’t too high, as the
premise sounded like it would be yet another story about sibling rivalry and
complicated family dynamics – both familiar topics that have featured in plenty
of the books I’ve read over the past few months. This one turned out to be different from what
I expected, but in a good way.
At the heart of the story is the Skinner family – the father Ellis
Avery, the mother Antonia (whom everyone in the family refers to as “Noni”), their
4 kids Renee, Caroline, Joe, and Fiona – living in the middle-class town of
Bexley, Connecticut in the 1980s. When 34-year-old
Ellis dies suddenly and unexpectedly (he literally drops dead in the middle of working),
his 31-year-old wife Noni finds herself thrust into widowhood with 4 young
children in tow (the eldest Renee was 11 years old at the time, the youngest
Fiona was only 4 years old), but even more shocking is the realization that her
husband had left behind very little in terms of savings, causing the family to
fall into dire financial straits not long after the funeral. This
plunges Noni into a deep depression that causes her to retreat into her bedroom
for days at a time, “resting” with the door closed, curtains drawn, and lights
off, leaving the 4 Skinner siblings to essentially take care of themselves, though
Renee, as the eldest daughter and most responsible one, steps up to care for
her siblings in their mother’s absence.
This went on for 2 to 3 years, a time period that the siblings later
collectively refer to as “the Pause.” Though
their mother eventually emerges from “the Pause” and together, the family is
able to pick back up the pieces and move on, a few defining things happen
during this time period that will end up affecting the siblings for the rest of
their lives. In the decades that follow,
though each sibling grows up and leads their separate lives, they are not able
to escape the inevitable ties that bind them together as a family.
This was an interesting story that ended up being surprisingly engaging
for me. I was absorbed into the Skinner
family’s story from the start and as each chapter progressed, alternating
between each sibling’s backstory, this family grew on me and I found myself
rooting for each character throughout their many trials and tribulations. The writing was exceptional and even flowed “poetically”
in certain parts (which is significant given that the main character Fiona, whose
perspective the story is told from, starts off in the story as a renowned poet)
– the smoothness of the writing helped draw me into the story quite quickly and
kept me engaged throughout. With that
said though, my one minor complaint was the odd way that the story was narrated
throughout the book, jumping from Fiona’s first-person perspective (since the
way things are setup, she is actually telling the story of her family from a
future time period) to a quasi-third person perspective starting each chapter
about her siblings, but then in the middle of the chapter, it switches back to
Fiona’s first-person perspective. I will
admit that this format was a little jarring for me, especially the first few
chapters, but I guess later on I got used to it so it didn’t bother me as
much. I don’t really know how to explain
it – perhaps it’s the way the story was told, but I felt that there was an
addictive quality to the story that made me want to continue reading even when
I knew I should stop (i.e.: it was getting late and I needed to get some sleep
in order to function properly at work the next day)…there were times where I
felt a certain “urgency” to find out what will happen next to each of the
characters as they deal with the issues that crop up and what their fates end
up being when all is said and done.
As might be inferred from the title, it can be said that this book
is about “love” in its many different forms: love between a couple in a relationship
(romantic love), love between family members – whether parent to child or
between siblings (familial love), love between friends, casual love, selfish
love, unconditional love, subtle love, etc. but in a big way, this book is also
about the failures of love and the disappointment, regret, and pain that come
along with it. With all that said
though, this book is NOT a romance novel nor is it a love story in the
traditional sense of the word – in fact, despite the title, there is actually
very little “romance” in here. If I had
to describe this book in a few words, I would classify it as a “family epic”
that explores the complexities of life, love, relationships, and how the individual
choices we make at different points in our lives impact and shape our futures.
I didn’t realize at first that this is the author Tara Conklin’s
second novel – her debut novel was actually The House Girl, which was
published back in 2013. I haven’t read
that one yet and I heard it’s a completely different genre (historical fiction
versus contemporary fiction with this one), but it’s definitely going on my TBR
now – hopefully I’ll get around to reading it some time soon!
Received ARC
from William Morrow / Harper Collins via Edelweiss
No comments:
Post a Comment