Ever deliberately found other things to do rather than complete the last few pages of a novel because you were enjoying it so much you couldn't bear to be finished? Ever considered NOT returning it to the library? That's how I've been with `A Good Family' by Peter J. Smith...
Twenty years ago, despite my urban background, I would have ENJOYED this book, set on an American island, with the seascape ever invading and dictating the narrative..but I would not have understood it! Twenty years ago, still enveloped in my teaching career, I wouild have RECOGNIZED the people, (for this is partly a novel about TEACHERS), but their disillusionment, their searching for meaning, I would have skimmed over, knowing no better. And Peter J. Smith's `good family;' is a real family, make no mistake! Only childless adults who were `Only Children' could fail to relate to the Knowles family's `Christmas from Hell', when their mother bought each of them a Timber Wolf adoption certificate...except for the new daughter-in-law, who scored a cashmere sweater to match her eyes! Perfectly well-adjusted citizens, with a perfectly `normal' family background, will recognise the cut-and-thrust of sibling dialogue, the jockeying-for-position, influence and approval, the fearsome domination of the parent, no matter how well-intentioned!
And despite what my reviewing collegues, (younger than I, I think), have to say, this, to me, is a SAD book. It is a book about living, and learning,..and, inevitably, losing......and about growing up, the great defeat which awaits us all! `A Good Family'. A good read, and no mistake!!! |
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