Family Album: A Novel (Original 2009; 2010. Auflage)

Well observed, well captured, wittily recounted. ( )

Okay, perhaps five stars because this book was so ridiculously timely, what with me lately thinking about family and memory and the fantastic oddity of life. But five stars it is because for me, this book truly was Amazing.

I don't know how I'd even begin to describe Family Album, except to say that it really is rather like being privy to the meandering memories that pass through the minds of family members as they are gathered to flip through the family photo album. But that really isn't quite right at all, so perhaps I'd talk about Penelope Lively's amazing use of punctuation and sentence structure, and her gloriously diverse vocabulary. I had to use my dictionary quite a few times and that's a rarity for me. Meanings were always quite clear from context, and mostly I was intrigued by how certain words were employed, but there were also a few distinctly British words unfamiliar to me. Hurray for that!

If you have a family, or know any families, and you like words, and you like thinking about families and words - and memories - read this book. And if you have lots of siblings, read this book...and then call me up so we can sit down and talk about it. (And that invitation even includes my sisters.)
( )

Una famiglia, i suoi ricordi, la casa con angolini e ambienti legati a vecchie consuetudini. Il posto perfetto è questa villa edoardiana dove i figli ormai adulti si ritrovano portando con se segreti e sentimenti sospesi. Narrazione lenta, scarsa profondità nella costruzione dei personaggi e sopra ogni cosa deludente l'intreccio. ( )

9780670021246 ( )

Penelope Lively is one of my favorite authors, and this novel did not disappoint. Gina, the oldest daughter of Alison & Charles, brings her partner Philip to meet her parents and stay the weekend at her childhood home, Allersmead. Philip, an only child, is fascinated by Gina and her five siblings, and begins to draw stories out of her. It’s obvious Gina’s family has more than its share of dysfunction, but most of it is masked until Lively expertly reveals a detail, and until those details start to add up and connect. As each family member’s character is developed, Lively shows how the same incident can affect each person in radically different ways. And of course there was a huge family secret which was a constant, unspoken presence which everyone pretended to ignore.

This was an excellent character study with a few “aha moments” in the storyline, making for a quick and satisfying read. ( )