Customer Reviews

Family Happiness

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I first read Laurie Colwin's _Family Happiness_, years ago, and it just gets better.Polly Solo-Miller Demarest is an outwardly conventional upper-middle class Manhattan wife and mother.She has looks, brains, social graces, money, and a secret life.She unexpectedly fell in love with the dashing Lincoln Bennett, a semi-monastic, and very good artist.Her inner conflicts drive this beautifully written, engaging book.This is similar, in theme, to Anne Tyler's _Back When We Were Grownups_, but Colwin's characters are far more interesting and personally appealing, and there is more resolution.This book is for anyone who has a complicated, hard to define inner life.

This is a wonderful book. I'm always sad to go the Laurie Colwin section in my library and know there will be nothing new, but knowing this book is usually there makes me feel a little better.

Polly's conflict is age old. In the middle of a seemingly wonderful life, the ache she feels is really touching. I think the search for her real self and the chaos it creates to the people around her is so funny and sad at the same time. It askes the question: Who am I really?

I love Polly's family and the way she relates to each member. As just their Polly, she is ultimate diplomat. The toll this task takes, I think, I something many women can relate to. I know I can. And while I'm not sure an affair is the answer, it fills the emptiness and helps her to realize that she is a person with needs too.

I love all of Laurie Colwin's books. This one, though, is my favorite.

This book has the very big problem of not having a single likable character in it. The protagonist, if you can use that word to describe a character who seems intent on not doing or changing anything, is a boring, whining milquetoast, and her lover is a selfish, arrogant piece of work. Her parents and siblings are nothing but caricatures. Her husband is the only decent person in the story, but the protagonist seems intent on treating him like dirt. On top of the problems with the characters, the plot plods and the author repeats herself time and again. Saying once that the brother and his wife wear the same clothes is funny; saying it three times means that the author either has nothing else to say about the character or else thinks the reader isn't smart enough to remember the first two times. The former possibility is sad, and the latter is insulting. Don't waste your time with this one.

Let me start by saying I love Laurie Colwin's writing most of the time, but this book disappoints towards the end and that kind of ruined it for me. Ms. Colwin repeats parts of her story again and again. It's almost as if she is trying to "stretch out" the book and cannot think of anything new to write. It gets extremely tedious and I lost my interest and just wanted to finish the book and get it over with. Not her best effort. She should have shortened the book and it would have been much better. In my opinion the author lost sight of where she was going with Polly's character.

Pat Murphy

Laurie Colwin died of a heart attack, not cancer, which I think about whenever I prepare on of her butter-loaded recipes from the Home Cooking books. But I make them anyway, and read her books over and over again. She clearly had the wisdom, open-mindedness, and generosity of spirit it takes to be a great cook as well as a great writer. There's no one else like her.

I wish I hadn't wasted my time with this book. It offered nothing new to a subject that's been written to death. Yes, extramarital affairs cause pain and have no happy resolution. No surprise there for anyone who has ever read Dear Abby or watched soap operas. At least Dear Abby used to make me laugh once in a while--this book was repetitive and depressing. The editor should have cut it by half. Some of the characters were intended to be annoying, but the most annoying was the heroine. The author's detached point of view made it impossible to have empathy for Polly, who is a holdover from the 1950s searching for a backbone. She was apparently asleep through the 1960s and 70s. Anne Tyler does this subject so much better.

A very good novel that deals with a complex situation.

The protagonist is the type of woman that has become more and more prevalent within society; someone who has utilize sleaze and deception to achieve happiness. Poor Polly is pretty pathetic. She may have a lot to issues with the attitude of her family, but at least they are (to the extent that we are shown) honest.

And as for Lincoln being "her champion, the person who spoke against others in her behalf", that is pretty easy to do when your threshold for heroics is a sweaty afternoon between the sheets and some strong words against those who aren't around to defend themselves. Bravo!

Very good book. It got a rise out of me. 4 stars.

Laurie Colwin's urban pastorals have delighted city folk for years; they're witty, intelligent, touching, and happy. Colwin's loss to cancer was a loss for American letters.

This book touched me like no other book, I went through the same expierence eleven years ago, that was the most painful, enduring task I have ever gone through.