Yet these lush details almost seem to weigh the novel down. Ive been continually surprised by how often motherhood comes up as a focus even in the longlisted novels I wasnt expecting to lean that way! Oooh I hadnt noticed the emphasis on motherhood, but now that you bring it up I can definitely see it popping up in a lot of the longlisted books and yeah, I also agree I wasnt too enthused about the Womens Prize longlist this year, sadly. -- Laline Paull, author of THE BEES I adored The Most Fun We Ever Had. Violet is the daughter that did everything right. She went to college, became a lawyer, married a nice man and has two young children. Wendy, widowed young, soothes herself with booze and younger men . by https://literaryelephant.wordpress.com/2019/04/28/womens-prize-2019-longlist-wrap-up-shortlist-prediction/, I havent reached that limit yet but I feel I will, as I read more of the longlist. Claire Lombardo is the next Kingsolver. I found the dynamics between characters highly entertaining and enjoyed the writing, but even so I think Lombardo couldve shaved off two hundred pages without losing anything crucial. Jonah and Jenny eventually broke up, but years later they had a one-night stand and Jenny got pregnant with their son, Elijah. He is a good kid with good morals that makes you laugh. She was just trying to do the right thing, but that wasnt so easy, because everyone in her life had a different conception of what the right thing was, and she herself was caught somewhere in the middle.. 3, flirts with a groomsman at her sisters wedding. [ Claire Lombardo describes how she arrived at the Iowa Writers Workshop with a very messy, 813-page draft. ]. Amy Adams, Laura Dern to Produce 'The Most Fun We Ever Had' Adaptation at HBO By Joe Otterson Doubleday/Claire Lombardo HBO is developing a series adaptation of the Claire Lombardo novel "The. That said, the characters are not immune to the human condition. Naturally, from the inside it is not without its peaks and valleys. Im with you on this one having a lot of interesting thematic potential that sadly goes largely untapped. THE MOST FUN WE EVER HAD by Claire Lombardo RELEASE DATE: June 25, 2019 Four Chicago sisters anchor a sharp, sly family story of feminine guile and guilt. It will make you feel sad for some characters, be rooting for others and want to reach through the book and slap another. The novel is told from the third-person, and provides perspectives from numerous characters. And yes, the book is annoyingly long! But at least I mostly enjoyed this one!). Lombardo levels this vision by interspersing chapters of the Sorenson parents early lean times with chapters about their daughters wobbly forays into adulthood. That book, which. Grace, the baby, tries to see how long she can live a lie. Grace continues to evade her family and meets her crush, Ben Barnes. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Sadly the shortlist seemed a bit uninspired compared to the longlist, so Im very curious to see which books will make the cut this year- hopefully not the disappointing ones! By 2016, their four radically different daughters are in a state of unrest. Her first born, Wendy, has just been married on the Sorensons lawn in Fair Oaks, outside of Chicago. ", Wendy is a terrific character: caustic, tough, difficult, flawed, self-destructive, bitingly funny and ultimately sympathetic. Ahhhh, I see. Violet feels as though she is losing her husband Matt, and struggles to accept Jonah into their lives. But its the uptight second child, Violet, who is the source of the big family scandal: Her son, born without her parents knowledge, was given up for adoption and rediscovered 15 years later thanks to the pointed meddling of the eldest sister, Wendy, a dissolute young widow who resents Violets inability to appreciate her own luck. THE MOST FUN WE EVER HAD By Claire Lombardo The big family secret is revealed almost immediately in Claire Lombardo's engrossing debut novel, "The Most Fun We Ever Had," which. The golden couple David Sorenson and Marilyn Connelly seem to have that figured out. A Rich, Engrossing Family Saga, Spiked With Sisterly Malice, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/books/review/most-fun-we-ever-had-claire-lombardo.html, Claire Lombardo describes how she arrived at the Iowa Writers Workshop with a very messy, 813-page draft.. Then all of a sudden in the last 100 pages, Violet accepts Jonah, apologizes to him and and everything is fine and dandy. Claire Lombardos dbut, The Most Fun We Ever Had, chronicles the life of a family over the course of a year, yet it passes as quickly as the pages turn. There is no reason that it took that much to tell the story of this upper-middle class suburban family. We had one narrator but once I got used to the story, the flashbacks stopped confusing me. Wendy fears she cannot care for Jonah and asks Marilyn and David to take him. The Offspring. Categories: Lastly, I sincerely hope you have a good day! Its one to be savored. I did like the relationships between the characters and seeing how their choices panned out, effecting the whole family in the end. 2. More Books by Claire Lombardo Der grte Spa, den wir je hatten. This is a emotionally engaging read, if overlong, well written, with great character development, and which resonates in its detailed and often realistic depiction of family life and dynamics. If thats the case, I would have a hard time learning about my new brother and then seeing my parents as a happy, stable marriage. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. We get it. This is a great review! How? Still getting used to this book reviewing deal. Next up is Violet, unassuming and mild. Wendy, widowed young, soothes herself with . 4 retirements within one scenario, how is that even possible? Page edges may . The Most Fun We Ever Had is a family saga that spans decades and closely follows multiple POV characters. Not that the narrator was bad, she was excellent, it was the fact that so much of the dialogue in the book is wrote in a staccato, abrupt, leave words off sentences, interrupting each other kind of way and by this point I couldn't listen anymore. Despite their wealth, there is a plethora of more relatable issues: accidental pregnancies, eating disorders, cheating, stagnant communication the list could go on. (LogOut/ We first meet the Sorensons in 2000, at the backyard wedding of their oldest daughter, Wendy, an unapologetic gold digger who has struck it rich with an old-money millionaire she's genuinely wild about. This Study Guide consists of approximately 52 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Most Fun We Ever Had. Fast forward to present day, Wendy tracked down Jonah and found out that he needs a home. Each of the sisters has their own crosses to bear. A character driven book needs characters that I actually like. A multigenerational novel in which the four adult daughters of a Chicago couple--still madly in love after forty years--recklessly ignite old rivalries until a long-buried secret threatens to shatter the lives they've built. Ohhhh! Great review! When Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s, they are blithely ignorant of all that awaits them. I was confused at first, too! One of the most fun" Ah, I saw Fatmas review a couple days ago as well. There are a FEW more likable characters though so its maybe not a totally lost cause! This sounds exactly like the kind of book Ill enjoy, even if it was fine but not perfect for you. Jonah was placed many times in different homes, none very permanent. Its page count allows Lombardo to examine- in excruciating detail- the minutiae of day-to-day interactions, a lifetime of decisions and assumptions, and each sibling and parent relationship that is one thread in the greater web of this family. The main action of this notably apolitical, all-white, all-straight novel takes place over four seasons, beginning in the spring of 2016 which finds just about every member of the Sorenson family in turmoil. So if youre looking for your next read, pick this one! Sydney and Ridge make beautiful music together in a love triangle written by Hoover (Losing Hope, 2013, etc. What did last years picks look like? Liza, the second youngest, has just received tenure but is ensconced in a difficult relationship with Ryan, who is depressed. Some of them bothered me as well, but a lot of the problematic things the characters say and do I took as criticisms of them; I dont think the author was using horrendous digs at less fortunate people out of a place of ignorance, but as a way of showing how privileged and ignorant her characters are. Im excited to see everyones wrap-ups and predictions this year. EX-FENCING COACH AND HARVARD PARENT ACQUITTED OF BRIBERY CHARGES. Signs of wear can include aesthetic issues such as scratches, dents, worn and creased covers, folded page corners and minor liquid stains. Thanks! David has a heart attack and falls from the gingko tree. Things seem to snowball out of control, and perhaps for a reader it seems like a bit much, but Lombardos inclusion of all the minutiae are also true to life: This is how life actually is. I might be interested in picking up more of Lombardos work someday, but I wont mind if this one doesnt make the shortlist. Grace haltingly tries to navigate her first relationship with Ben, but flounders. (The sisters improbably kept David and Marilyn clueless with a phony study-abroad scheme.) Claire Lombardo Still, the deft touchesa neighborhood fundraiser for a Little Free Library, a Twilight character as erotic touchstonedelight. Beneath it all, the daughters share the lingering fear that they will never find a love quite like their parents. Every combination can work in most scenarios, and figuring out how to make it work is one of the joys of the game. The Most Fun We Ever Had. Into this churn, Lombardo adds cancer, infidelity, a heart attack, another unplanned pregnancy, a stillbirth, and an office crush for David. The flashbacks and cast of characters large enough to people a sitcom give the reader someone to root for, and one could read all 500 pages in a week like one might binge a soap opera. Sixteen years later, the already messy lives of the sisters are thrown into turmoil . It also exposes Davids somewhat secretive but platonic dinners with Gillian after work. (The year 1996, an annus horribilis in the Sorensons' marriage following an office flirtation, seems particularly endless, as David notes.). It hits plenty of high notes, but like opera, it runs long and tends toward histrionics and repetition. While music student Sydney is watching her neighbor Ridge play guitar on his balcony across the courtyard, Ridge is watching Sydneys boyfriend, Hunter, secretly make out with her best friend on her balcony. Make harvest craft easy to trade. Characters flip between bottomless self-regard and pitiless self-loathing while, as late as the second-to-last chapter, yet by Essentially what the book is exploring is that all four daughters have these huge life struggles theyre hiding from their parents and each other because they hold the parents marriage up as the golden standard and dont want to be seen as failing to live up to that model. Youd think his arrive would upset everything, teaching these children more about their parents than they thought the parents capable of. Not only do I get to read about the perspective of one sister, I get to read about the thoughts and emotions of all three sisters, their parents AND Jonah. The Sorenson daughters all witness their parents sharing an intimate moment beneath the gingko tree and are awestruck at their love. My head hurts from hearing about all that love repeatedly. By 2016, their four radically different daughters are each in a state of unrest. Enough loss to break anybody, but Wendy has overcome her obstacles and continues to overcome by living every day. The blind character choice is great. What do they represent? Weddings and deaths, pregnancies and illnesses, ways for the sisters to measure themselves against one another as they continue to excavate the contours of their parents love and hold it up to their own. And that sometimes they choose zero degrees. I always enjoyed picking it up despite the length, and yet when I got to the end I was a bit mystified that there wasnt more substance to it. In this "rich, complex family saga" ( USA Today) full of long-buried family secrets, Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s, blithely ignorant of all that awaits them. Lombardo describes falling for someone as feeling accompanied in a way she had never before, by a person who was choosing to feel beholden to her instead of simply scooting up the rope of familial obligation. The novel shines brightest in the moments in which Lombardo is able to probe into the psyche of her female characters to express something that feels universal, yet somehow fresh. Every page contains vital information that contributes to the story. influencers in the know since 1933. This thread is archived. I was wrong about who the father of that child was though. The really tragic thing about this spoiler is that whoever has created it probably thinks that they have been really creative and innovative, whereas, in reality, they have just made their slightly shabby sports car look even trashier. Books that follow a group of characters over decades have always been the kind that speak to me in a special way, namely, The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer - a gold standard that Ive held many other books to over the years. The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo. Basically, a book with loads of potential to explore something interesting, but doesnt go there? My party is about to do so in our next scenario for example. Knopf Doubleday. Arrive a few minutes early to get a spot by the stage, especially if you have little kids. Your email address will not be published. PQ Titles: Study of Anatomy, Trophy Hunt, Zealot of the Blood God, A Helping Hand. She wonders how her daughters could have all turned out so markedly different, not only from one another but also from her. Wendy, Violet, Liza, and Grace, four sisters who squabble and have quite flawed but still lovable personalities made this a complete treat that I kept finding myself eager to steal minutes away to come back to. Im not sure if I understand correctly, but did the parents raise four girls and give their son up for adoption? What I love about this story is the way it is told, the back and forth of the years, the alternating chapters from the perspective of different family members, and the creativity in the layout of the unfolding story itself. They are a healthy, but imperfect family of four daughters, who are all jockeying for their place in the world. If I'm to be honest I found myself bored at times and absolutely enthralled at others. The fact that they are truly a well-off family that would do basically anything for each other even before they understand whats been going on kind of takes the bite out of the complexities of their struggles. My reaction: 3 out of 5 stars. As the work closes, David and Marilyn find contentment and comfort in one another as they marvel at the brood they have created, out of their extraordinary and enduring love. She was born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois. The Most Fun We Ever Had. It feels like it was a little safe and one-note, which is I think where the lack of variety in themes comes in. Its one of those lovely meandering, literary tales that weaves the story of a family over a long period of time. Now Im curious as to how the grandparents handled and may have to check this book out for myself. Front-loaded with drama, the story leaves plenty of room for the mother and daughter to unpack their feelings and decide whats next. RELEASE DATE: June 25, 2019. All Rights Reserved. Though this year is presented chronologically, the book also delivers numerous flashbacks that showcase virtually every significant moment in each characters life, from the parents origin story, through their four daughters childhoods, and into choices each make as adults, all leading up to this one eventful year. When Wendy, the oldest, sets her sights on a mate, she made sure she left her mark throughout his housesoy milk in the fridge, box of tampons under the sink, surreptitious spritzes of her Bulgari musk on the sheets. Turbulent Wendy is the novels best character, exuding a delectable bratty-ness. It will reel you in and not let you go from the moment you read the first word till the last; Lombardo's powerful depiction of her characters, of . If you ever get the chance to sail on Disney Magic or any of the Disney ships don't miss the Sail Away party that takes place shortly after the muster drill as the ship pulls out to sea. How do gingkoes function as a symbol in the book? Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP. However, it is based upon a deep and abiding love that seems to be unattainable to their four daughters within their own lives. Other than an event which I found hard to fathom, this is a realistic and intimate look at an affluent Chicago family as they love, laugh, annoy, clash, and support each other over the course of forty-odd years. Back to reviews with another Womens Prize longlist title! Definitely a bit longer than it needs to be, though it wasnt a slog for me. Icon to log in: you are commenting using your WordPress.com account by Hoover ( losing hope, 2013 etc! Fear that they will never find a love quite like their parents sharing an intimate beneath! Gingko tree by living every day pregnant with their son, Elijah without. Beautiful music together in a state of unrest to unpack their feelings and decide whats next sincerely hope have... 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Least I mostly enjoyed this one! ) see how long she can not care Jonah...