It was definitely a fun read for me even though I was wishing for a bit more thematic depth. The Offspring. These are such specific characters, in such a specific situation, that its difficult to apply much of their experience to life beyond the novel. Thank you! Newcomer Lombardo brews all seven deadly sins into a fun and brimming tale of an unapologetically bougie couple and their unruly daughters. Residents Demand Answers at Council Meeting on Police Killing of Sayed Faisal, Bob Odenkirk Named Hasty Pudding Man of the Year, Harvard Kennedy School Dean Reverses Course, Will Name Ken Roth Fellow, Ex-Provost, Harvard Corporation Member Will Investigate Stanford Presidents Scientific Misconduct Allegations, Harvard Medical School Drops Out of U.S. News Rankings. Violet quickly departs avoiding the now fifteen year-old Jonah. "The Most Fun We Ever Had" is an ambitious and brilliantly written first novel, sometimes amusing and sometimes shocking, but its unrelenting nature and lack of context is ultimately. He is a good kid with good morals that makes you laugh. I appreciated your probing more into the themes of the novel and how they didnt seem to illuminate anything beyond the specific situation of this family. His return years later is what wakes everyone up to the enormity of what the four daughters have been hiding. Change). 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 . 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. I might be interested in picking up more of Lombardos work someday, but I wont mind if this one doesnt make the shortlist. She has not lived enough life to have made any mistakes or have any defining characteristics. Some of those remarks are challenged a bit on the page, like the daughter who says her mom is in schizoid mode is berated for it right after by other characters present. Grace confesses her lie and returns home to live with Marilyn and David while she contemplates her next move. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast . Jonah lives with Wendy and then moves to his grandparents house, but never lives with Violet and her family. I feel like even though the book claims each sister is in a state of unrest, Graces struggle is somehow not quite as severe as the others. More Books by Claire Lombardo Der grte Spa, den wir je hatten. 4 retirements within one scenario, how is that even possible? Lombardo deeply understands marriage, sisterhood and plain old ordinary family dysfunction which is present on every character driven page. RELEASE DATE: March 18, 2014. It also exposes Davids somewhat secretive but platonic dinners with Gillian after work. On the heels of Wendys birth, Marilyn becomes pregnant with Violet and the tumultuous child-rearing years begin. But The Most Fun more strongly evokes Anne Tyler's explorations of long marriages in meticulously observed domestic novels like Breathing Lessons (1989), The Amateur Marriage (2004) and A Spool of Blue Thread (2015). Posted by 3 years ago. Our standard tank was the Spellweaver, the support guy was the Scoundrel. There was a lot of repetition and I honestly wanted to skip some pages when the characters really got on my nerves. Author Claire Lombardo writes every sentence with precision. Then all of a sudden in the last 100 pages, Violet accepts Jonah, apologizes to him and and everything is fine and dandy. Next up is Violet, unassuming and mild. Liza asks her father to connect with his colleague Gillan Levin to deliver her baby. Dang it. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Gloomhaven is a cooperative game of tactical combat, battling monsters and advancing a player's own individual goals in a persistent and changing world that is played over many game sessions. Petersons eight original songs flesh out Sydneys lyrics with a good mix of moody musical styles: Living a Lie has the drama of a Coldplay piano ballad, while the chorus of Maybe Someday marches to the rhythm of the Lumineers. The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace. This Study Guide consists of approximately 52pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - 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. This is a character driven story of a present day family on the north shore of Chicago. Claire Lombardo's debut is a fascinating epic character driven, multi-generational Chicago family drama with all its complexities through the decades from the 1970s. I listened to the audio on a staycation so I'll remember it for a while as the book that kept me company, especially since the audio wouldn't end. (LogOut/ But she secretly got along much better with Chris thoughtful best friend, Jonah, who was dating her sister, Jenny. Even family interactions elicit a mix of exasperation and comfort. By 2016, their four radically . If all of Lombardos future writing reach such a sprawl, however, we may (unfortunately) have to wait a while for her next novel. There are much better family sagas out there with better stories and fewer pages. There are 3 books also on the Womens Prize longlist around 200 pages, to balance out the two longer books, Im sure! Wendy, widowed young, soothes herself with . The project is based on the. Courtesy of HBO. Knopf Doubleday. 'The Most Fun We Ever Had' is an intense, edgy family drama brimming with sibling rivalry, marital distress, and soul-binding love that will leave you with an onslaught of emotions. ", Another narrative throughline is the intense competition between the two older Sorenson daughters: Wendy, an "impulsive, compulsive, turbulent" child, and Violet, the sister who encroached on her infancy by being born in the same calendar year. 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. Hoover is a master at writing scenes from dual perspectives. I love books that make me feel. I think there are actually some similarities to Fleishman in this book, especially with characterization and marriage commentary, so Im not sure youd enjoy this one much! The Most Fun We Ever Had? This definitely read like a telenovela in book form for me. Theres four of you? he asked. Overarching it all is the unusually ardent connection between Marilyn and David Sorenson. This book give you unlimited access to everything, all the time. FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP, by A family of six subsisting on one doctors salary didnt exactly equate to the lap of luxury for the four girls while growing up (which isnt to say they wanted for anything), but most of them were able to improve their circumstances even further as they reached adulthood- their own children are well-situated indeed. Lombardo captures this often toxic sibling dynamic with the perfect image: "A seesaw, this sisterhood, and Wendy was the jerk who jumped off early so the other person toppled into the sand. The item is very worn but continues to work perfectly. Violet got pregnant when she was younger, didnt tell her parents, stayed with Wendy, had the baby (Jonah) and gave him up for adoption. That child, Jonah, the returned observer of this cloistered world, is as fascinated by David and Marilyns love as their daughters. RELEASE DATE: Dec. 10, 2019. Sorry, Ive been struggling with explanations lately I guess! 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. Across all of these moments, The Most Fun We Ever Had demonstrates the duality of affection and pain in familial relationships, showing that what holds people together can also drive them apart, and that it is after all easiest to hurt the ones we love. Wendy has asked to meet Violet for lunch but much to Violets shock and horror, Wendy is sitting at a table with Violets adopted son whom she gave up at birth. I kept waiting for drama or for something exciting to shake things up but by this point, for me, that was lacking. 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? Title: The Most Fun We Ever Had: Author: Claire Lombardo: Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2021: ISBN: 0525564233, 9780525564232: Length: 640 pages: Subjects: 'I adored The Most Fun We Ever Had. Part Three, Fall, tells how Marilyn nearly died giving birth to Grace, and Gillian Levin saved her. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. It hits plenty of high notes, but like opera, it runs long and tends toward histrionics and repetition. The Most Fun We Ever Had proceeds in a steady march through the Sorensons' major life events to reveal how the daughters a blindsided widow; a tightly strung stay-at-home mom with a law degree; a tenured professor facing solo parenting; and the perpetual afterthought of the family, a recent college graduate caught up in an embarrassing lie came to the messy pass in which we find them. 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 . 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. THE MOST FUN WE EVER HADBy Claire Lombardo. A marathon of instability and hair products. . To be sure, Lombardos characters exist in a world in which money is of no object or concern, conveniently available because of the marriages the four daughters have made generally to wealthy lawyers or businessmen who seem perpetually frazzled thanks to their jobs and often find themselves in awe of the strong women with whom they chose to spend their lives. (Perhaps!) She sets the plot in motion by springing a terrible surprise on Violet, whose perfect life is just too much for her to swallow after she suffers a series of unhappy blows. This was quite a delightful debut. 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. Marilyn wonders if she failed the girls. However, it is based upon a deep and abiding love that seems to be unattainable to their four daughters within their own lives. Sometimes we dont get to know about a characters childhood or sometimes we dont get to know about a secondary characters thoughts or emotions. This was a delightful debut and I cant wait to see what the author writes next. 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. Beneath it all, the daughters share the lingering fear that they will never find a love quite like their parents. 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. 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