Customer Reviews

Family Resemblances

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

 

 

This is a very good novel about a fifteen year old girl who spends a summer with her
'individualistic' aunt and learns about love, happiness, conflict and loss. She also
learns how life involves sacrifice, striving and constantly coming to grips with what
exists within and without oneself. Secrets are shared and norms changes.

All of this is written from the perspective of the fifteen year old and makes for easy
and insightful reading.

This book will appeal to girls between the ages of around 12 and 15. It has the experiences of a girl who feels unwanted. For the younger readers, it will have a few squeamish bits for you. Overall this book is great. It has the teen girl, the love interest and the stories of her Aunt Augusta.

Difficult to see how this could rate lower than five stars, or to understand the one reviewer's remarks about George relative to the rest of the novel. Funny, too, that this is seen as a teen novel by some. Yes, it would be good for teens. But I have passed it around for years, particularly to women who grew up in the midwest during the period. All agree that it is right on the money with characterization, setting, etc. Bottom line: It's a wonderfully written and realized story, and one wonders why Pei has not published more. He is a sensitive, lucid, and evocative stylist with a wry, warm, expansive vision of humanity. Do what you can to get your hands on a copy--or copies--and pass them around.

There are far better coming-of-age novels, and I almost gave up on this book after about 100 pages or so. But I went back to it, and was very glad I did. On page 147, the character of George was introduced, and gave the book some much needed life. If I could have communicated with the author I would have advised him to tell the story from this character's perspective; I like to imagine that this character might be Pei's alter ego, but of course have no way of knowing that. I'm glad I stuck with the book because I got to "meet" George; I liked the sweet, sensitive, smart George so much I even went running to check out his favorite book, Robert Penn Warren's "All the King's Men." If you just read the book from the page where George is introduced all the way to the end, you wouldn't be missing much, unless you like endless descriptions of household chores, errands, and especially, home repair.

Without George, I would have rated this book two stars. I'd like Pei to write another novel, and bring back George, this time as the protagonist.