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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Mona understands the wounded impulse to make the loudest noise in your power...", April 4, 2006
Beware. This book is a sleeper. What first appears a simple family drama, two brothers facing life with both parents' dead in a short period of time, is actually a moving account of the nature of loss, the fragility of emotional connections and the importance of family. When their mother dies just five years after their father, Connor Reed, only fifteen, is left in the care of his handsome older brother, Jack. A young man following in his father's footsteps in an Ohio law firm, Jack is unprepared for the responsibility, a decade older than Connor. Connor grows into manhood, Jack his only example, while Jack goes through one girlfriend after another until he meets Mona. After Connor leaves for college, Jack is increasingly anxious in the empty house and invites Mona to move in with him. In such an arbitrary manner, Jack and Connor go their separate ways, seemingly disconnected and unable to express their feelings for one another.
Without extended family for guidance, the two brothers float in and out of each other's lives, Connor married first, with two children, Jack skating on the brittle edge of commitment with Mona. Through her inspired, yet subtle characterization, the author defines the brothers and their respective mates, the failures and triumphs in the world at large, but more significantly through the more treacherous waters of isolation. Jack and Connor are uniquely crippled by their early losses, recognizable in the partners they choose, their inability to reach out for comfort or offer any and their sad fumbling toward meaningful relationships. Difficult times draw the brothers into unfamiliar territory, unexpected moments of revelation that create an unbreakable bond that is inexplicably sustained through the years. Carefully crafted, Goldhagen's characters navigate a success-driven modern world, plagued by the usual disconnections, each managing to bridge the abyss to embrace family and brotherhood. Luan Gaines/ 2006.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Deeply touching, April 12, 2006
I received this book in a gift bag at an event for BAM in Brooklyn, and didn't expect to have time to read it. But once I had glanced thru the first few pages, I was completely hooked. I feel like I've known the characters in this book my whole life.
Life-affirming, sad, tragic and -- unexpectedly -- extremely funny, this book was an incredibly pleasant surprise. I cannot recommend it enough.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"I meant to be so much better.", April 16, 2006
"Family and Other Accidents" is the episodic story of Jack and Connor Reed, told over a span of twenty-five years. By the time he is twenty-five years old, Jack's parents are both dead. He has given up a terrific job to move back to the family home in Cleveland in order to take care of his adolescent brother and work in his late father's law firm. What kind of example does Jack set for Connor? The devastatingly handsome Jack picks up girls, has brief flings with them, and subsequently discards them like disposable tissues. Connor comes and goes as he pleases, fools around with his girlfriend, and tries not to think too hard about his past or future.
Each chapter moves forward to another stage in the Reeds' lives, but there are occasional flashbacks, as well, each one illuminating some aspect of the brothers' personalities. Years pass and Jack seems to be settling in with a journalist named Mona Lockridge, but he never fully commits to her. When Connor is in Harvard graduate school, he has a fling with a woman named Laine, and she becomes pregnant. Tough decisions must be made. Should Laine and Connor keep the baby? Should they move in together or get married?
Shari Goldhagen's novel is a celebration of life with all of its messiness--the good and bad choices, the joys and sorrows, the relief and regrets, and the fulfilled dreams and dashed hopes that everyone experiences at one time or another. The one constant in Connor's and Jack's lives is their unshakeable bond. Ironically, long periods of time go by when the two barely communicate, but Jack and Connor know that they can depend on one another for help and support during times times of tragedy and heartache.
"Family and Other Accidents" is warm, sexy, funny, intimate, and intensely human. Although there are many soap opera elements in this novel, Goldhagen is careful never to cross the line into melodrama. Jack and Connor are extremely flawed individuals who are far from heroic. In fact, they are often selfish, faithless to the women in their lives, immature and obnoxious. So why should we care about them? Goldhagen makes her protagonists so appealingly clueless that we hope a light bulb will go on over their heads, and that they will learn to appreciate the devoted women who stand by them. "Family and Other Accidents" demonstrates the importance of never taking for granted those who share our history--siblings, parents, wives, and children. Since life is so unpredictable, a devoted family member may be a person's most precious asset.
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