What’s more challenging, after all, than a family like the Commonwealth of Virginia, made up of separate entities bound together by chance and history? (Sept.Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth follows the repercussions from a chance encounter between Beverly Keating and Albert “Bert” Cousins that sees the end of both of their marriages and influences the lives of their families for years to come.
Scenes of Franny and Leo in the Hamptons and Holly and Teresa at a Zen meditation center show her at her peak in humor, humanity, and understanding people in challenging situations. Patchett elegantly manages a varied cast of characters as alliances and animosities ebb and flow, cross-country and over time. Twenty years after that conversation, middle-aged with children and stepchildren of their own, Franny and Caroline take 83-year-old Fix to see the movie version of Leo’s novel about their family. Patchett follows the surviving children into adulthood, focusing on Franny, who confides to novelist Leo Posen stories of her childhood, including the secret behind the accident. Left unsupervised, Cal takes charge, imitating grown-ups by drinking and carrying a gun, until a fatal accident puts an end to shared vacations. Visiting arrangements result in an angry, resentful younger generation-rebellious Cal, frustrated Holly, practical Jeannette, littlest Albie, bossy Caroline, kind-hearted Franny-spending part of summer vacations together. cop and Bert and Beverly marry and relocate to Virginia with Beverly and Fix’s two children. In 1960s California, lawyer Bert Cousins divorces Teresa, leaving her to raise their four children alone Beverly Keating divorces Fix, an L.A. Patchett ( State of Wonder) draws from personal experience for a funny, sad, and ultimately heart-wrenching family portrait: a collage of parents, children, stepchildren, siblings, and stepsiblings.
0 kommentar(er)
