The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo
The Most Fun is a sprawling (532-page) novel about long-married Marilyn and David, whose offspring seem to kind of resent how happily married they still are after 40 years--mostly because they can't seem to replicate such a successful relationship in their own lives.
The story bounces all over the place time-wise. So pay attention to the dates at the beginning of the chapters. We hear about something happening, then several pages later, we go back to when it actually happened.
Anyway, Marilyn and David met in their 20s, got married pretty quickly, moved to Iowa so he could go to medical school, and immediately started having their 4 daughters: Violet, Wendy, Liza and Grace. They then moved to the family home in Oak Park, Illinois, where most of the action takes place.
Violet is a driven perfectionist, the married mother of two little boys--and as it turns out, a teenage son that she gave up for adoption the day he was born. Wendy is snarky, rich, drinks too much, and has had a lot of painful life experiences--which makes her frequently very cruel toward Violet, whose life she sees as perfect. Liza is involved with a man who is seriously clinically depressed, which is causing her a lot of consternation. And Grace is floundering, trying to figure out what to do with her life.
Into this mix, Wendy throws Jonah, the teenage son that Violet gave up. Jonah was actually my favorite character in the book. He is a good soul who has learned to go with the flow, which helps him adapt to life with this tumultuous family. And he is so sweet to his much younger half-brother, Wyatt, that you can't help loving him.
There are a lot of relationship issues, health scares, angst, holiday celebrations in this book. I had a hard time keeping the sisters straight at the beginning but things moved along a lot faster once I did.
I wish the editor who worked on this book had convinced the author to cut out about 75-100 pages. After a while it started sounding a little repetitive. Sometimes less really is more.
All siblings squabble but I really didn't like how mean and even vindictive Wendy sometimes was toward Violet--who had nothing to do with the misfortunes that befell Wendy. For such a close-knit family, they didn't always seem to be there for each other in times of trouble. The addition of kindhearted Jonah seemed to be a good thing for the family dynamic.
Except for the length I think it would be a good choice for a book group discussion.
The story bounces all over the place time-wise. So pay attention to the dates at the beginning of the chapters. We hear about something happening, then several pages later, we go back to when it actually happened.
Anyway, Marilyn and David met in their 20s, got married pretty quickly, moved to Iowa so he could go to medical school, and immediately started having their 4 daughters: Violet, Wendy, Liza and Grace. They then moved to the family home in Oak Park, Illinois, where most of the action takes place.
Violet is a driven perfectionist, the married mother of two little boys--and as it turns out, a teenage son that she gave up for adoption the day he was born. Wendy is snarky, rich, drinks too much, and has had a lot of painful life experiences--which makes her frequently very cruel toward Violet, whose life she sees as perfect. Liza is involved with a man who is seriously clinically depressed, which is causing her a lot of consternation. And Grace is floundering, trying to figure out what to do with her life.
Into this mix, Wendy throws Jonah, the teenage son that Violet gave up. Jonah was actually my favorite character in the book. He is a good soul who has learned to go with the flow, which helps him adapt to life with this tumultuous family. And he is so sweet to his much younger half-brother, Wyatt, that you can't help loving him.
There are a lot of relationship issues, health scares, angst, holiday celebrations in this book. I had a hard time keeping the sisters straight at the beginning but things moved along a lot faster once I did.
I wish the editor who worked on this book had convinced the author to cut out about 75-100 pages. After a while it started sounding a little repetitive. Sometimes less really is more.
All siblings squabble but I really didn't like how mean and even vindictive Wendy sometimes was toward Violet--who had nothing to do with the misfortunes that befell Wendy. For such a close-knit family, they didn't always seem to be there for each other in times of trouble. The addition of kindhearted Jonah seemed to be a good thing for the family dynamic.
Except for the length I think it would be a good choice for a book group discussion.
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