Customer Reviews

Departures

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Departures tells a nice little story of teen angst that revolves around the Vanderzee family, in particular, their two oldest children--a boy and a girl currently in high school. Each struggles with his or her newly discovered [physical] identity. The story is warmly comic and the characters are interesting. There was nothing in this novel that really wowed me, I have to say, but it is an enjoyable read.

Lorna J. Cook has done a wonderful job giving us a peek into the VanderZee family and into the hearts and minds of its family members. Her writing reminds me a bit of Anne Tyler in that while nothing big happens, by the end of the novel you feel you know the main characters so thoroughly, you feel a part of the family. Cook takes a look at the different roles each member plays, what their hopes and dreams are and how differently they can perceive one another, often times completely misreading each other. This is a charming story about family life, a snapshot into one growing phase of the VanderZee family. Cook is an excellent writer. I look forward to reading her future novels~

This book read very much like the Academy Award winning movie American Beauty - an outsider's chance to peer into a normal family life and find out (by looking closer) all of the inconsistencies in their nuclear lifestyle.

The story follows the VanderZee's, a family with two parents (Malcolm, a university professor, and Esme, a former artist turned stay-at-home mom) and four children: Suzen, Evan, Hallie, and Aimee. Suzen, aged seventeen, and Evan, fifteen, take turns alternating the story in brief tableaus rather than chapters - describing scenes from their personal lives, their social lives, their inner thoughts, and during events in which they are both present.

Suzen is bitter and resolved to distance herself from her family - losing herself in her work at a local nursery. She dreams of living in the english countryside, and falling in love, and as the book travels along she begins to question just who she should be looking for love from.

Evan is more similar to Suzen than either of them would like to admit - he is also angsty and distanced, but in a much less obvious way. He lives in a dream world, like Suzen, but his consists of drama, glamour, and aspirations to live in Europe, or to at least hook up with a cute girl in one of his classes.

The story weaves each of the six family members lives together over the span of a few weeks - with everything from a near-death experience, a suspected affair, and secret plots and twists developing in each character's life.

While Cook manages to create a realistic portrayal of family life, without being too cliched or over the top, she fails to conclude all of the little hints of storylines she drops in the three quarters of the book. The climax of the novel is messy and not particularly relevant to Evan or Suzen's lives - it is merely the event which spurs Evan and Suzen to come to their own personal epiphanies.

All in all this is a good read, where Cook manages to take ordinary people, and ordinary situations and conflicts - and make them entertaining, engaging, and captivating - albeit, a little but unfinished. Then again, perhaps Cook's point is life cannot be summed up in a book - after all, you only see the story from two character's perspectives, which might not even give you the whole story.

To parents, teenagers can seem like imposters; rude or moody versions of their previously sweet and affectionate children. To teenagers, parents are often alien; illogical and oppressive human-like creatures. Each is trying to negotiate the relationship with sometimes good, sometimes awful, and usually unpredictable results. This navigation of parent-teenager relationships is the subject of Lorna J. Cook's novel, DEPARTURES. A coming-of-age story told from the perspective of teenage siblings Suzen and Evan VanderZee, DEPARTURES is a glimpse into a somewhat atypical family at the moment the oldest children are asserting their emotional and physical independence.

Seventeen-year-old Suzen, who prefers spending time at the nursery where she works and with her boss Mary, is withdrawing into herself. She sees her friends less and less and doesn't miss them much. She rarely talks to her parents or her three younger siblings. And when people ask her about boys, she feels something like emptiness inside. She dreams of the misty moors of England and the polite and corseted lives of the Brontes. Her younger brother Evan, fifteen, is restless. His efforts to get his father to take a sabbatical in Italy are proving fruitless. He escapes into old movies and narrates his life like he is the hero of one. When he meets the mysterious and adventurous Soci Andersson, it seems things may finally get interesting.

Parents Esme and Malcolm seem to feel their oldest children slipping away, but are at a loss as to how to communicate with them. Their youngest children demand more attention than Suzen and Evan do, especially after a near disastrous accident that leaves youngest Aimee a religious zealot and Hallie wracked with guilt.

Suzen and Evan find that their parents are frustrating and selfish or weak. As the two teenagers begin to view the world with more adult eyes, they also begin to take a very critical look at their parents. To Suzen, her mother's vanity and sexuality are more than embarrassing. Suzen is angry at her mother's womanliness and easy flirtations. Sexuality is an issue Suzen wrestles with, unsure of her feelings toward men and her interest in women. All of this is further complicated by a man who keeps calling Esme. Suzen is convinced Esme is betraying Malcolm and it gives her more fodder for her anger and doubt.

Evan's desire to see his father's dreams fulfilled are mixed up with his own desires to leave his hometown, see the world, find romance and explore his own sexuality. This is just what happened to Malcolm, Evan learns, when he left home for a trip abroad. Soon Italy becomes a symbol of escape and maturity for Evan.

DEPARTURES is interesting in its narrative perspective --- giving Suzen and Evan clear voices despite emotional immaturity and confusion. Cook's prose is lyrical and rhythmic, not always flowing easily, but often lovely. The VanderZees are intelligent, artistic, witty and attractive, not your run-of-the-mill family. Still, much of their experience is familiar. Cook's novel is bittersweet and thoughtful. It may not stay with you a very long time but it is still an enjoyable read --- observant, wry, honest and full of tension.

In DEPARTURES readers will find a good story of a family with children on the verge of adulthood and parents working to overcome complacency. Lorna J. Cook is a new author to keep an eye on. Her style will certainly mature into something unique and beautiful.

--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman

When I first picked this book up it was long, and I thought I'd hate it. After a while I started to enjoy it. The story is simple about family, and teenagers growing up, love, living together etc... I sometimes felt that Departures was a teenage book written for adults.

This book is a small gem in understanding teenage angst in modern family times. I really enjoy Lorna J. Cook's creative flair and attention to detail. By the time I finished it I wanted to pick it up and re-read it. Buy it! It won't be sorry you did!

In Michigan, Malcolm VanderZees married his college sweetheart Esme when she became pregnant. Over the years, they raised four children as he became a professor while she stopped painting. Still this couple has lived the American dream of being the norm with no deviation from the mean as acceptable.

Their oldest child seventeen years old Suzan is a throwback romanticist finding relevance with Thomas Hardy and the Bronte sisters while knowing dad is a mediocre nerd and mom is a loser getting kicks with a phone dude when she is home, which is rare. Fifteen years old Evan lives life through foreign movies until he meets New York transplant Soci. Nine years old Hallie is a recluse who debates philosophical issues with Cupcake her pet rat. Suzan eagerly waits the time she can fly; Evan considers running off to Chicago with Soci; Hallie wants to hide even further; and Malcolm considers escaping to Italy. However, it is five-year-old Aimee, hit by a minivan, who "flees" by reliving her near-death experience everyday.

What makes this insightful look at the typical American family avoid being maudlin and bland (what would you expect from the average family) is the narration of the two teens who see the world through a slightly different lens. Suzan and Evan seem very genuine with their reflections on life, their parents, their siblings, and their town; they see everyone else as pathetic middling. Every member of the VanderZees seeks DEPARTURE from a boring run of the mill world, but none seem able to take the first step outside their security blanket except Aimee. Reminiscent of Supertramps' Logical Song the audience receives an interesting glimpse at mediocrity.

Harriet Klausner