Favourite novels about families.

Hi there Msolga, it's nice to see you here too!

Other great family novels include Balzac's PERE GORIOT ( a father and his ungrateful daughters), Dostoevsky's THE ADOLESCENT (a son in search of his father), Turgenev's FATHERS AND SONS (the title says it all). Dickens handles the theme a great deal also--nearly every Dickens novel deals with blood relationships. It may be the basic theme of fiction and drama. Where would Greek tragedy and Shakespeare have been without family dynamics? It is only recently, with the family becoming less important to most people's lives than it was hundreds of years ago, that novelists are avoiding the family theme. Even a modernist master like Proust spent a great part of his novel cycle describing his parents, his grandmother, his aunt, his serants, etc. A novelists with equal ambition today would probably not focus on his own family to the same extent--which is his/her loss, and ours.

He said it so nice,
He did it twice!

Welcome aboard LR!

At the moment I'm roughly half way through a novel I bought for $3 from a bargain bin (I often buy books this way. You never know, it might be something brilliant! And a good way to sample new writers, too.)
It's called Amy & Isabelle, by a writer I've never heard of before - Elizabeth Strout... Her first novel, apparently.

The story explores the relationship between Isobelle, a single mother & her 16 year old daughter, Amy. They live in a small American town, which is an important feature of the story: the town people, the seasons, the expensive parts of town & the poorer parts, the privileged & the poor ... The relationship between mother & daughter changes dramatically during the spring & unseasonally hot summer, when the sheltered Amy becomes romantically & sexually involved with one of the teachers from her school. Isobelle (the mother) feels betrayed by her daughter. She has ben lying to her about what she has really been doing & isobelle felt that she could trust her daughter till now, felt that they were becoming closer ...

I am just at the point where isobelle has confronted her daughter, followed by a confrontation with the "offending" teacher ... Both encounters leave her feeling diminished & sorely aware of her lack of formal education, which means she feels at a disadvantage ...

This is a pretty good read, with some powerful, sad & funny moments ... I'm certain I'll finish it soon. I want to know what's going to happen between these 2!

Just found a review of Amy & Isobelle:

http://www.bookpage.com/9901bp/fiction/amy_and_isabelle.html


~

Portnoy's Complaint.
The finer details of family life are a little hazy on this one, as I read it in high school. But the Portnoy family really rang bell's for me, as they reminded me so much of mine! No, not Jewish, like the Portnoys, but Ukrainian Catholic. The startling thing was the many similarities. The constant noise & bickering, the fixation with food & health, the overly-protective & hen pecking mother, the generalized state of anxiety & oh, the GUILT!!
I suddenly understood my own family so much better & decided their & then to escape at the first opportunity!

~

I believe you did a similar topic on abuzz didn't you Msolga? I think it was you - I mentioned a book that is actually nonfiction - The Family Heart.

Edna Ferber's "So Big".

LarryBS

You know, I'm not sure if it was me ... Abuzz seems So long ago! <sigh>
The Family Heart ... Will have to check that one out!

New Haven

Haven't read that one. Could you tell us a little about it?

Edna Ferber's "Giant"

New Haven

Have seen the film, but haven't read the book.

Giant?

I saw the movie and read the book. Great!

"Cat on a hot tin roof". (Tennese Williams )

(Play, not novel...but still excellent )

The Bread Givers

_Anzia Yezierska


Fabulous---it was required reading in college.

Hello Bluxx

Forgive my ignorance but I know nothing about The Bread Givers .... Can you add a little detail?
I'm interested!

Since we are discussing plays, many many plays deal with families:

The Greek tragedies--the Oedipus cycle most obviously, but also the ORESTEIA of Aeschylus; Shakespeare's History plays which d ramatize the dynasties of English kings; Ibsen and Strindberg; even Chekhov's plays all take place within family circles. More recently, Tennessee Wiliams and Arthur Miller have both written magnificent family dramas. And to my mind the greatest American play, LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, is based on Eugene O'Neill's own tormented family.

Hi all,

so much to say, lol...

My advice is to perservere with Heartbreaking Work...it's a slog, but worth it...

Ya-Ya Sisterhood is quite possibly my favourite book, ever...

I'm reading The Godfather right now, now as it happens! Love it!

And I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Anne Tyler, as she deals in family stories...imo her best are St Maybe and Breathing Lessons...

And I tried The Corrections, but against my better judgement, gave up!

Anyway, that's me...

great thread, btw...

Lorna

I just finished listening to a wonderful talking book, called Saving Francesca, written by Australian author, Melina Marchetta. (also author of Looking For Alibrandi) So many issues explored: friendship & loyalty, depression, changing schools, love .... But the core of the novel is the effects on one family when the strongest member becomes ill and can't function normally, seen through the eyes of the 16 year old daughter, Francesca. Theoretically this is a novel for older teenagers, but but I enjoyed it immensely.

My fascination with literature that focuses on families continues. The trials & tribulations, the highs & the tragedies, the conflicts & resolutions, the dramas, the exploration of family dynamics .... fascinating stuff! Most recently I've been rereading Tim Winton's Cloudstreet, one of my favourite books & favourite authors of recent years. Just purchased the audio tape & have found myself just as enthralled the second time around, listening & reading. I love this (very Australian)novel!

Through the tale of two families, Cloudstreet offers a range of reflections on how communities form and grow, and what sustenance they thrive on. Neither family has all the answers, and all live multifaceted lives. Oriel Lamb, despite her hard work, is a manipulative woman who chooses to live in a tent rather than with her husband, Lester. Dolly Pickles is an alcoholic who regularly betrays Sam - but she is also the bearer of a secret childhood tragedy which she has carried for decades. Both fathers, Lester and Sam, live for their families, and their respective families thrive on the love which binds them together, despite their various antipathies. One senses that Tim Winton, too, both loves and despairs of the Pickles and Lambs, often conveying his exasperation with humour. On Oriel's relationship with her daughter-in-law, Pansy, he remarks: 'she and Oriel did not speak, and very loud they were about it.'......

http://www.penguin.com.au/readers/groups/notes/0140273980.txt

Lots of new A2Kers (& new readers!) since this thread was started, way back in 2002. So any new finds, or fresh recommendations, anyone?

"The Berrybender Chronicles" -Larry McMurtry. Consists of 4 parts and chronicles an imaginary English noble family's journey through the American West of the 1830's