eShop USA > Books > Family History: A Novel
Family History: A Novel
List Price: $13.95Our Price: $11.16 You Save: $2.79 (20%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781400032112
ISBN: 1400032113
Label: Anchor
Manufacturer: Anchor
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: August 10, 2004
Publisher: Anchor
Release Date: August 10, 2004
Studio: Anchor
Related Items: Featured Listmania!
Editorial Review:
In Family History, Dani Shapiro has written such a nail biter of a plot that it's easy to overlook just how good--and how literary--a novel this really is. Narrator Rachel Jenson is a housewife and art restorer married to Ned, a one-time painter. They live with their two children, 13-year-old Kate and 2-year-old Josh, in the small New England town where Ned grew up. In an elegant series of flashbacks, we learn of the emotional devastation teenage Kate has wrought. She was a perfect child growing up, but once Josh came along, her dark thoughts and tragic actions nearly destroy her family. As secret after secret is revealed, Shapiro gets perfectly Rachel's horror of daily life: how can you chat with the other moms at preschool when your world is falling apart? But what makes Family History a fine novel is its utter freedom from stereotype. Kate is bad, but she's never the bad seed; Ned's a failure, but he's not a total wash; Rachel's a narrator mired in tragedy, but she's a wry, slightly unreliable narrator mired in tragedy. Shapiro knows just how much hope to give her characters. In the end, their redemption is so slight that we actually believe in it. --Claire Dederer
From the prodigiously gifted author of the acclaimed memoir Slow Motion, a stunning and brutally honest novel about one family’s harrowing recovery from devastation. Rachel Jensen is perfectly happy: in love with her husband, devoted to their daughter Kate, gratified by her work restoring art. And finally, she’s pregnant again. But as Rachel discovers, perfection can unravel in an instant. The summer she is thirteen, Kate returns from camp sullen, angry, and withdrawn. Everyone assures Rachel it’s typical adolescent angst. But then Kate has a terrifying accident with her infant brother, and the ensuing guilt brings forth a dreadful lie—one that ruptures their family, perhaps irrevocably. Family History is a mesmerizing journey through the mysteries of adolescent pain and family crisis.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Disappointed
First the negative stuff: I found many things wrong with this book. The voice of the narrator first and foremost. She's a first-class navel gazer, a whiner. The writer could only have made her more of a soap opera heroine by adding "Alas!" to her vocabularly. The protagonist does a lot of emoting which becomes tedious.
In fact most of the characters are tedious and overwrought. They sob uncontrollably, they gasp, they choke on tears, they run screaming out of rooms. Because they're always ... Read More
Rating: - You can't wait to see what happens
The way the book starts, keeps you turning the pages and staying up late to see how in the world it got to that point. The plot could happen to any family as things keep spiraling out of control and you feel the mother's agony when she doesn't know what to do to help those she loves. I wish at the end of the book it would have given you a little more insight into the daughter. The book does reward though by giving you hope when it seems hopeless.
Rating:  - Terrific book
This book held me mesmerized throughout as a parent who knows you can do all you do and still life doesn't stay perfect. The heartbreak of parenting is exhibited so well in this book. You want things to work out for them.
Rating: - A Searingly Important Book
Family History is not only beautifully written, it is a searingly accurate look at life inside a troubled family. There are no cliche's or easy answers provided to the reader. As a psychotherapist who has worked extensively with families in pain, I can tell you that this story goes straight to the core of the nearly impossible task of being the parent your child wishes you to be. It will stay with you long after you have finished reading it.
Rating: - RIVETING, SERIOUS READING!!
This is a serious book which realistically portrays a family dealing with incredibly sad situations. This should be read by a mature audience, as well as by people who think that they may wish to enter into social services. Shapiro deftly writes about how a family could easily disintegrate. She writes with uncanny realism. I don't view this as a "fast read." Shapiro offers much info in a rather brief book -- and gets the job done! Very sad reading... it's always sad when children are not well. This ... Read More
Related Categories:
| |
 |
