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Daughters-In-Law [Hardcover]

Joanna Trollope (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)


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Book Description

March 2011
Rachel has always loved being at the centre of her large family. She has fiercely devoted herself to her three sons all their lives,and continues to do so even now they are all grown up. They are, of course, devoted to her - she and Anthony, their father, hold the family together at their big, beautiful, ramshackle house near the wide, bird-haunted coast of Suffolk. But when Luke, her youngest, gets married, Rachel finds that control is slipping away. Other people seem to be becoming more important to her children than she is, and she can no longer rely on her role as undisputed matriarch. A power struggle develops which can only end in unhappiness; her three daughters-in-law want to do things their own way, and so, to her grief, do her sons...


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Short on plot but long on emotion, Trollope's latest (after The Other Family) is a straightforward take on the ways we shape and reshape our idea of family. Though her three sons are grown and married, Rachel is unwilling to let go of her role at the center of their lives, much to the dismay of her daughters-in-law. Responsible Edward, the eldest, feels the burden of being the good son, but his consuming roles as son and brother are jeopardizing his relationship with his own wife, Sigrid, who sacrificed her relationship with her family in Sweden to build a life with him. Rachel and her husband coddled their middle son, Ralph, even matchmaking him with fragile Petra, whose marriage is made uneasy by the large role Ralph's family has in their life. And willful Charlotte quickly finds herself at odds with Rachel after her marriage to youngest son Luke, when Charlotte challenges Rachel's hold on the family's habits. Though genuinely caring, the characters slight each other as they tumble toward individual crises. There's nothing groundbreaking, but it's a decent fix for family drama addicts. (Apr.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

“Trollope is a quietly brilliant, mesmerizing storyteller. Her readers are fully engaged from the first paragraph of each book to its last sentence, captured by the finely rendered details of the characters' lives and caught up in their struggles.” --Washington Post*

“[Trollope] aims for the heart… and she hits it.”

The New Yorker

Joanna "

Joanna Trollope creates an impeccably observed world, exploring the vagaries of love and family ties with honest grace.”

--Connie May Fowler, author of How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly



“[A] thoroughly engaging, intelligent, literate novel.” –Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post --This text refers to the Paperback edition.


Product Details

  • Hardcover: 328 pages
  • Publisher: Doubleday Books (March 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0385617984
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385617987
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,750,594 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joanna Trollope has been writing fiction for more than 30 years. Some of her best known works include The Rector's Wife (her first #1 bestseller), A Village Affair, Other People's Children, and Marrying the Mistress. She was awarded the OBE in the 1996 Queen's Birthday Honors List for services to literature. She lives in England.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
38 of 41 people found the following review helpful
Characters who care April 5, 2011
Format:Paperback
Joanna Trollope's books have been derided for years by those who dismiss the homely tales as "Aga sagas", as if tales of heart, hearth and home were beneath readers and writers.

But the crazier the world gets, the more there are times when quiet compassion for the vagaries of the human condition is balm for the reader. This time, like every other, that is exactly what Trollope delivers.

Rachel and Anthony raised three sons. She's a vigorous, involved mother whose kitchen is the natural hub of the family. The two oldest sons are married and now the third has found his bride. Oldest son Edward and Scandinavian wife Sigrid have a daughter and an ordered life. Middle son Ralph's wife Petra was an art student of Anthony's who was taken under their wing and presented to their son; they have two very young sons. Now Luke has wed Charlotte, who also is the baby of her family.

Even during the wedding party scenes, the smallest ripples shimmer across the page to show that, although it appears all is well in these lovely lives, appearances are as deceiving as always. Everything and everyone at first appears competent, compassionate and capable. But they're nearly all hiding secrets of shame or fear of failing in ways that set each other off. Families, after all, always push the right buttons.

Things come to a head when one son's financial woes are taken on as a problem of the entire family and his wife has her own ideas about being led along by the nose to a solution. She strikes up a friendship with another man. It doesn't help that Rachel turns out to be the kind of mother-in-law who considers herself the head of the family, including the family of each of her sons. Her insistence that things be done a certain way and her ability to stick foot in mouth only add to the problems.

Then, just when it appears that each separate house of cards in the various families will collapse, Trollope's characters do what they usually manage to do. They speak openly and honestly to each other about themselves. They notice their own failings. They try to see situations from other people's points of view. And because Trollope writes about each character as if she or he were the main character of their own stories, the reader is able to see these other points of view as well.

Trollope's strength has always been this calm ability to treat characters as individuals who can actually carry through a line of thinking that encompasses more than themselves. Her novels are studies of minute shifts in people's perceptions of themselves and how they fit into their own worlds. Although their scale is small, their accomplishment is a great, good thing.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
British author Joanna Trollope is not as well-known in the US as she is in the UK, but I think as more readers discover her work, she'll gain more prominence here, as well she should.

Trollope, the author of about 10 or so previous novels, does not write "chick-lit". The characters in her books - all stand-alones - are extremely well drawn and the plots are not the simple, simpering plots of the average "chick-lit" novels. Trollope writes about families, in general; families that are facing troubled times, either by financial problems or interpersonal relationship problems. The women are not "beautiful", or "brilliant" or any of those empty adjectives used in most works of fiction to tiresomely describe any female. The men are not "handsome", "brilliant", or "fabulously wealthy", either. Joanna Trollope writes about families in England - usually middle class - who have many of the same problems as the rest of us have.

In "Daughters-In-Law" we find Rachel and Anthony, who have raised three sons, all now in their 20's and 30's, and all married off. Rachel - definitely a "mother-in-charge" of her sons, has found it difficult to relinquish the leadership role to the next generation. However, the two older daughters-in-law are, for the most part,content to keep the family dynamics pretty well the same. It is the addition of the youngest son's bride to the family that has added tension and stirred up problems the older two daughters-in-law have pretty well attended to. One of Trollope's great gifts as a writer is to make the secondary characters as interesting in their own rights as the main characters. We want to know what happens because we find all the characters "interesting". (That doesn't mean that an author only should write about "likable" characters; Tova Reich is a master of writing about interesting but venal characters, and her books are always interesting!)

Trollope looks at the interfering-mother-in-law problem from all angles. Grandparents, children, and grandchildren are all viewed in terms of causes or fallout from this problematical woman and her life and family going forward. Joanna Trollope has written a masterful look at the modern family.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By M
Format:Paperback
I was so disappointed with The Other Family and Friday Nights that I almost didn't purchase this. I'm very glad I did purchase it. It reminded me of Marrying the Mistress, which I've read several times.

I did think there was a lack of subtlety and imagination when it came to the situation with Charlotte and it was hard to be sympathetic to Petra because she came across as so unlikable.

I would also have liked to have Rachel's character (the mother in law) and motives more clearly defined earlier in the story but perhaps the late character development was done by design. We got to know her eventually the way the other characters in the story did.

One of the things I love about Joanna Trollope's books is her ability to show a family situation from multiple points of view but in this case there were so many family members and so many points of view that none of them really got the attention that they deserved.

I do wish Trollope would stop having her characters address each other by silly nicknames. In this case she kept having the brothers call each other "bro" which didn't seem to fit with their personalities or the dialogue. I can't help but wonder if it isn't an attempt on her part to identify with and portray people who are young, if so she's failing and needs to give it up.

All in all it was a good read with a satisfying if predictable ending. As both a daughter in law and a mother in law I found it thought provoking and entertaining.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Great book!
I love all her books. This one is so heartfelt and real. I felt I knew the characters. Her family stories have so much heart in them. I wish she was more well known in America too. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Fiona
oh yes, how yuo can identify with the characters!
I thought this was just going to be a quick read without stimulationg thought - how wrong! I found myself highlighting and underlining, going back to the characters and seeing... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Chrys Tsoflias
A GIFT TO LIVE INSIDE FOR THE TIME YOU ARE READING THIS BOOK!
Joanna Trollope's newest novel, "daughters in law," was fabulous, delicious, a rare treat. i would say i LOVED it. I devoured it. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Dana R. Casella
delight to read
Joanna Trollope triumphs again! This was a wonderful read and very though provoking about how families have to grow and fit together as the children leave the nest. Read more
Published 5 months ago by reader
Families, A Kind of War and Peace
I highlighted a number of passages in my Kindle edition of this insightful book about families and marriage. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Eileen Granfors
Quietly insightful about family relationships
I came to this Joanna Trollope novel without preconceptions, not having read any of her other books. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Brooklyn Browser
Must read
This will resonate with anyone who has a daughter-in-law. What a wonderful true story. I realized that I am Rachel. We only want what is best for our sons. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Renee
Marvelous writing, true-to-life characters
I've read other novels by Trollope and enjoyed them all. This one rang especially true because it was about a totally recognizable human issue that transcends the location in... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Book lover -Philadelphia
Too Much of a Soap Opera
This work contains engaging characters and introspective writing. Yet, it somewhat bizarrely winds up as a soap opera that really goes nowhere truly important. Read more
Published 11 months ago by JSmalls
Another Winner by Joanna Trollope
Like all of Joanna Trollope's books, this novel engages the reader from the start. I found it hard to put down!
Published 13 months ago by Chelsea Girl
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