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Book Reviewed by:A finely nuanced, universally resonant portrait of the ties, however strange or awkward, that bind two brothers and their families together through the decades.
Separated by a decade and 200 points on their SAT scores, Jack
and Connor Reed have a life in the Cleveland suburbs held
together by spit and Chinese takeout. With his self-absorbed,
over-the-hill parents dead by his twenty-fifth birthday, Jack
has abandoned his own plans and returned to his parents’ house
where he works marathon hours at his late father’s law firm,
beds young paralegals, and throws money and advice at his
teenage brother. Connor meanwhile wants nothing more than to
leave the Midwest, start a family early, and do everything the
way his parents didn’t. But over the years, through the car
crashes and bad break-ups, the illnesses and illicit affairs,
both realize that while circumstances are sometimes beyond
control, there are always choices to be made.
Family and Other Accidents tells the story of these
brothers from their viewpoints as well as from those of their
girlfriends, wives, and children. It is a story of what it means
to be a family, to love unconditionally in the face of
confusion, anger, and regret. Shari Goldhagen’s debut is a
finely nuanced, universally resonant portrait of the ties,
however strange or awkward, that bind families together through
the decades.
There's something slightly addictive about this debut novel - something that kept me reading even though not much really happens. it even kept me reading past the teenage sex scene in the first chapter ... Goldhagen describes the family bonds so vividly that it's impossible not to be drawn into her characters' lives. I bet there's many a reader who's finished this novel with a tear in the eye, and picked up the phone to make a long-overdue call to a sibling!..continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
Shari Goldhagen is a native Ohioan who holds a lot of writing degrees from Big Ten Schools in the Midwest: A journalism degree from Northwestern and an MFA from Ohio State. She currently lives in New York City where she teaches fiction and works as a freelance writer.
If you liked Family and Other Accidents, try these:
by Walter Mosley
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In a riveting story of modern-day resilience and redemption, two boys, as close as brothers, confront separate challenges, and when circumstances reunite them years later, draw on their extraordinary natures to confront a common enemy and, ultimately, save their lives.
by Nick Hornby
Published 2006
Intense, hilarious, provocative, and moving, A Long Way Down is a novel about suicide that is, surprisingly, full of life.
Bill Roorbach, author of The Smallest Color and Big Bend
Jack and Connor are by turns joyous and sad, wise and foolish, fragile and tough, kind and mean, even cruel—but they are always human, always fresh, always surprising, always lovable even when we least want to love them.
