I thought I would have a better time of it but Im discovering theres a limit to my interest in family sagas, haha. April 15, 2000. Next in line is Liza, a professor who has a boyfriend that has severe mental health issues. There is something funny, notable or awe-inspiring on every single page' Jenny Colgan, Spectator A joyful celebration of books - the perfect gift for bibliophiles, word lovers and anyone who's ever wondered, should you judge a book by its cover? I do think its appropriate for authors to include characters that are not P.C. Please understand that Violet did not go out and seek her son, it was Wendy that decided to track him down and welcome him back. 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.. Thanks Naty! So if youre looking for your next read, pick this one! This was a delightful debut and I cant wait to see what the author writes next. By 2016, their four radically . The author of this novel is an old soul. It is an important topic to be sure, but books like this just dont seem to be bringing anything new to the table, sadly. Make harvest craft easy to trade. Press J to jump to the feed. To make it extra easy for you . As the novel moves through the single tumultuous year following the arrival of Jonah Bendt given up in a closed adoptions by one of the daughters fifteen years before we are shown the rich and varied tapestry of the Sorensons past: years marred by troubled adolescence, infidelity and resentment, but also the transcendent moments of joy that make everything else worthwhile. " The Most Fun We Ever Had is a remarkable first-time novel offering such an intimate picture of people's interior lives I feel as if every one of these characters is now a close friend. The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo review - family friction A restless mother and meddling sister trigger family reprisals in this nuanced, polished debut Claire Lombardo: 'a keen. 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. Copyright 2023 Kirkus Media LLC. , Ah, Im glad youre enjoying the family focus this year! Every chapter contains a piece of the pie that you must consume. And I have to agree on sister relationships seeming very different than brother-sister ones; I dont have the strongest of sibling bonds, but even in childhood when my brothers and I got along better it was NOTHING like sisterhood is generally portrayed. The characters were flawed sure but also horrible. But Ridges lingering feelings for Maggie cause heartache for all three of them. Dang it. easter egg, The Last of Us | 1.2K views, 27 likes, 0 loves, 1 comments, 1 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Nerdist: Every easter egg in The Last of Us episode 7! Alicia Berenson's life is seemingly perfect. Yet, I felt compelled to see it through and finish. The oldest daughter is an erratic alcoholic racked with grief; the second is a control freak who doesn't want to meet the son she put up for adoption 15 years ago; the next is pregnant and falling. Many, many character povs and lots of timeline jumps. Many thanks to Orion. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Your email address will not be published. Not all of them but Wendy, Violet, and Lisa in particular. Lombardo, a Chicago native and recently minted University of Iowa MFA graduate, has crafted an intricate multigenerational saga about the vicissitudes of a passionate but not perfect marriage over a 40-year span. CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE | By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Basically, a book with loads of potential to explore something interesting, but doesnt go there? Yet these lush details almost seem to weigh the novel down. Lombardos novel is divided into 34 chapters, with dated flashbacks interspersed throughout in order to provide deeper exposition on the relationships between characters. Thats where I thought Lombardos writing shone in this book- the characters arent always sympathetic but they do feel like complex, well-thought-out people and it was so interesting to see how their lives and decisions would intersect. The ruthless competitiveness between these sisters is the driving force of the novel. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Unless the takeaway is that we shouldnt present our children with the model of a solid marriage for fear of setting the bar too high, theres little substance to take back to the real world after closing the back cover. 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 was cautiously optimistic about this years list at first since so many of the titles surprised me- I was hoping that Id find some hidden depths to these titles that I hadnt been expecting, but unfortunately its not turning out that way. FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP. ", Lombardo's sweeping family drama, fueled by power plays between spouses and between sisters, is operatic in both good ways and bad. IMDb is the world's most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. We had lots of flashbacks and secrets that didn't get revealed till later on in the plot but the flashbacks were just too many to my liking. 544 pp. 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. At its core, The Most Fun We Ever Had isn't much more than an entertaining drama about four sisters and their futile competition to prove themselves most worthy of their picture-perfect parents- and each other. Subscribe to our email newsletter. It is such a shockingly tender and uncannily knowing novel about the reality of long term love and affection, and the sweetness and claustrophobia of relationships between sisters. At times, it feels as though there are too many details, too many implausible things that go wrong, tied up with all-too-convenient deus ex machinas. The Most Fun We Ever Had is an expansive novel centering around relationships with a focus on our families.Written by Claire Lombardo, a Chicago native and Iowa Writers' Workshop graduate, her debut novel based in her home state captivates with precise prose and well-developed, realistically flawed characters. I had this in a queue at my library but I may press on with others I want to read first! Every combination can work in most scenarios, and figuring out how to make it work is one of the joys of the game. Claire Lombardo has given us all a spectacular gift: the Sorenson family. HOWEVER, Violet was completely rude and hostile towards Jonah. Feeling betrayed by the adults in her life, Clara marches forward, acting both responsible and rebellious as she navigates her teenage years without her father and her aunt, while Jonah and Morgan's relationship evolves in the wake of the accident. I just finished this and am already missing the Sorenson family. This woman plays such scant role in the plot that she seems present primarily to balance the scales of the familys wealth. Here it is in writing, in January of 2019, and I can't wait to look back on this and know how right I was. The ruthless competitiveness between these sisters is the driving force of the novel. While Lombardo's focus is on more happily wedded couples than Tyler's mismatched pairs, both writers share an interest in the forces that bind spouses decades after their "I do's.". The Most Fun We Ever Had is a well-structured story that shares the characters' backstory adroitly, never all at once, but in reveals that feel well-timed, well-placed. In addition to more likable characters this could have used a good edit. I've had a day of bliss at @thehausofvenom with my partner. 8. However, compared to her sisters struggles, Grace is not quite on the same level. The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace. Still, it was indeed very readable! In a narrative that shifts between past and present, there are complicated, flawed and tangled relationships, resentments, jealousies, births, marriages, deaths, turbulence, messiness, infidelities, mental health issues, secrets, lies, love, loss, surprises and life's challenges that their wealth cannot insulate them from. We were quite in agreement on this one! Wendy not only lost her child but she lost her husband. 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. Ridges deafness doesnt impede their relationship or their music. The central story unfurls over a single event-choked year, begun by Wendy, who unlatches a closed adoption and springs on her family the boy her stuffy married sister, Violet, gave away 15 years earlier. FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP, by It feels like it was a little safe and one-note, which is I think where the lack of variety in themes comes in. Lombardo's writing is so elegant - she makes our most complex and fragmented feelings tangible, which is a very rare skill. 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. My Lord, did I love this novel. Ah, sorry you didnt enjoy this one! It looks like the judges were just very interested in books about parenthood this year for some reason! Part Three, Fall, tells how Marilyn nearly died giving birth to Grace, and Gillian Levin saved her. It is such a shockingly tender and uncannily knowing novel about the reality of long term love and affection, and the sweetness and claustrophobia of relationships between sisters. She finds out after the fact that Ridge already has a long-distance girlfriend, Maggieand that he's deaf. Lombardo has the remarkable ability to delve into people's minds so deeply that the most quotidian moments become utterly fascinating." Marilyn wonders if she failed the girls. We picked entirely on the icons, and they went against type. Where to start this book was amazing in so many different ways. 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 . 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! How each character deals with that child is demonstrated. This isnt a fast read. Now her life as a stay-at-home parent has left her feeling empty but not ungrateful for what she has. The "shining unfathomable orb of their parents, two people who emanated more love than it seemed like the universe would sanction," sets a powerful but daunting example for the couple's children. But let's not lose sight of Lombardo's considerable achievement. 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. Marilyn Connelly and David Sorenson's love for each other has more than survived the decades, they have 4 now adult daughters, Wendy, Violet, Liza and Grace who have felt pressured to emulate the loving example of their parents. By Only a few pages into the novel, and the reader already knows about Wendys vulnerability, characterized as vestiges of her teenage habits appeared only fleetingly for her now she still, on occasion, flirted with the idea of purging, and once in a while shed try a diet that she read about in US Weekly. 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. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated. I might be interested in picking up more of Lombardos work someday, but I wont mind if this one doesnt make the shortlist. Many ways. We had four teams from Crossfit Alluvium this year. Strange, perhaps, for a woman who'd added four beings to the universe of her own reluctant volition, but a fact nonetheless: Marilyn rued the inconvenient presence of bodies, bodies beyond her control, her . ISBN-13: 9780385544252. Newcomer Lombardo brews all seven deadly sins into a fun and brimming tale of an unapologetically bougie couple and their unruly daughters. Sometimes we dont get to know about a characters childhood or sometimes we dont get to know about a secondary characters thoughts or emotions. After a while, you feel that you've always lived with the Sorenson family, and always will. She wonders how her daughters could have all turned out so markedly different, not only from one another but also from her. The seasons become symbolic for the various life cycles described within the work. They crept into my heart; it was like being a member of their family. Random Grandson, at your service! I particularly enjoyed their contrariness, but it wont be the right fit for everyone. HBO has put in development The Most Fun We Ever Had, a drama-series project based on Claire Lombardo 's New York Times bestselling novel, from Amy . How they lived and loved became all-important to me as I folded myself into their days and years. 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. Pages may include moderate to heavy amount of notes and highlighting, but the text is not obscured or unreadable. The central narrative arc of the work begins in Chapter One with the Spring of 2017, and ends on December 10, 2017, in The Midst of Life. The novel focuses on the extraordinary marriage of Marilyn and David Sorenson, and the byproduct of their incredible union, the four Sorenson girls. Knopf Doubleday. #haunted #haunting #ghost #mystery #strange. Ah yes, I was so confused about what the author was trying to say about marriage, since all of these characters seemed so quick to condemn this really successful one! The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Lombardo, Claire. RELEASE DATE: Dec. 10, 2019. We all desperately want your life and we all know well never have it, the third-oldest, Liza, confesses in a moment of truth. (The sisters improbably kept David and Marilyn clueless with a phony study-abroad scheme.) Jonah lives with Wendy and then moves to his grandparents house, but never lives with Violet and her family. Though each is sympathetic and suffering in their own way, they do all make poor choices, sometimes for bad reasons. Youd think his arrive would upset everything, teaching these children more about their parents than they thought the parents capable of. The Most Fun We Ever Had Claire Lombardo, 2019 Knopf Doubleday 544 pp. https://literaryelephant.wordpress.com/2019/04/28/womens-prize-2019-longlist-wrap-up-shortlist-prediction/, https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2859759789?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1, Book Review: The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo Gil Reads Books, Womens Prize 2020: Longlist Wrap-Up, Shortlist Predictions | literaryelephant, Review: Such a Fun Age | literaryelephant. 1 views, 0 likes, 0 loves, 0 comments, 0 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Scooter: Haunted Explorations - Overnight Challenge - Exploring With Josh!! The Most Fun We Ever Had is a family saga that spans decades and closely follows multiple POV characters. Required fields are marked *. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. You have to really like these characters to spend time in their lives and inside their heads for days at a time. By 2016, they have four radically different daughters, each in a state of unrest. FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP. Fast forward to present day, Wendy tracked down Jonah and found out that he needs a home. The story is divided into two storylines. There was a lot of repetition and I honestly wanted to skip some pages when the characters really got on my nerves. Wendy also has a knack for speaking her mind and exhibits no shame in any of her actions. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Design a site like this with WordPress.com. But while I thought a lot of those details were just characterization tactics and a critique of wealthy white suburbia, it is definitely understandable that they would be unpleasant to read anyway.