Customer Reviews

Family Tree

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

FAMILY TREE by Barbara Delinsky
July 28, 2007

Amazon Rating: 4/5 stars

I hadn't read a Barbara Delinsky book in quite a while (years) so this one was a treat. In FAMILY TREE, Dana Clarke is pregnant. She and her husband Hugh are expecting their first child with much anticipation. She is looking forward to raising her own family and creating a loving home, something she didn't have when she was growing up.

When she finally gives birth to her daughter, there is a big shock. While Dana and Hugh are both obviously white, their newborn daughter is not. She's definitely of African American descent, and now Dana is wondering who in her family was black. Hugh is able to trace his ancestry several centuries back, but there are a number of unknowns in Dana's background, including a father she knows nothing about. The birth of her daughter has now forced Dana to go in search of her roots, because it seems that Hugh isn't even sure he can trust Dana, accusing her of having an affair, possibly with their neighbor.

FAMILY TREE is about racism, and whether color has anything to do with what a person is really all about. Hugh loves his wife, but Dana feels that because he thinks she's part black, he is treating her differently. Her in-laws also find more reason to fault her, as they didn't quite welcome her with open arms to begin with. I enjoyed the book a lot, as I found the search for Dana's roots interesting. There was a lot of tension between Dana and Hugh as they try to find out where the missing link in the family tree is coming from. There is a big surprise towards the end of the story, however, and while I suspected it at first, it still came as a shock to me when it was revealed. FAMILY TREE was a fast read and fans of Barbara Delinsky and women's fiction will be sure to enjoy this one.

In this enlightened year of 2007, intelligent, educated people accept people for who they are, right? So what if you happen to be mixed race. Well, as long as it isn't in a blue blood family. Barbara Delinsky puts a new twist on the term "reaching back". That term refers to how a baby can reach back and take on the physical traits of an ancestor. This is what happens when Dana and Hugh, a white couple, have a baby girl who comes out with obvious African features. Hugh comes from a Brahmin New England family. His father, a professor, proudly writes about his forebears aristocratic bearing.

The premise was good,however, I found the execution to be flawed on so many levels. The condescending manner of most of the white characters and the self-deprecating manner of the token Black characters were very irritating. Another thing, all the "Black" or African American characters were bi-racial. I kept scratching my head. It's like Delinsky didn't know that Blacks could be mixed without being biracial.

David, the neighbor, left a bad taste in my mouth. He was a self-deprecating, self-hating person. He wished his half-white daughter was all white. "Life would be easier for her," he wishes he were white and, he is in love with Dana, the protagonist, and basically lives white. We find out later he is indeed biracial but his description does not lend itself to that. He was a pitiful character, whining about being black and mooning over Dana. The characters were obviously drawn from a white writer who has limited experience with blacks and therefore the integrity of the storyline was compromised. She could have asked somebody.

As a genealogist and researcher of African American culture, I am well aware of the dynamics of mixed blood and how it is played out in America. I know there are some white families who have black ancestors; a secret that some of them do not want brought to the light. As an African American, I know that we are not a monolith and we do not all subscribe to the theory that to be white is the ultimatum desire.

The story was predictable; there was a foreshadowing that predicated the end result. The best part was determining who was the "culprit"; the carrier of the dreaded African gene. I do not know where Delinsky was going with this or what, if any point she was trying to make but I expected more substance. There were too many stereotypical, clichéd characters, therefore leaving those readers who have little experience or contact with African Americans with misconceptions. The ending was a little too kumbaya but it was a quick read that some may find entertaining.

P.S. Earlier this year, I read and reviewed When She Was White by Judith Stone, a nonfiction account of a black child born to white parents in Apartheid South Africa.

Dera Williams

I'm a huge Barbara Delinsky fan, but FAMILY TREE simply didn't live up to my expectations. As another reviewer said, I couldn't identify with these characters. The premise was fantastic -- in fact, my first thought upon reading about the book was, I wish I'd thought of it first. :) I especially had problems with Hugh. From the moment he insisted upon DNA testing, I disliked him, and nothing he did after that redeemed him in my eyes. Dana, too, gave me problems. Why she acted the way she did about finding her father mystified me. And the way she behaved AFTER she found him made me dislike her, too. In fact, no one in this book behaves in a reasonable or sensible way. And no one is very likable.

The prose is pure Delinsky -- clean and spare -- always great. But it's really frustrating when I plunk down cash for a hard cover novel by an author I expect to really enjoy and then the story and characters disappoint big time.

However, I'll still keep buying Delinsky in hopes that FAMILY TREE is simply an exception to her usual skillful and enjoyable stories.

I normally love Barbara Delinsky books (read my review on "Summer I Dared), but this was an exception. Ms. Delinsky comes across as wanting to write a "serious" book about "serious" issues and the whole thing fails miserably. It feels very, very forced. The characters are contrived and they behave in ways that make absolutely no sense. Some of the characters change positions without any warning or explanation. All of the characters act like small children wanting their way and oblivious of those around them and how they feel. This would make sense for some characters, but NONE of them act like the mature/successful/intelligent people Ms. Delinsky describes them to be. It feels like the characters do and say things to make a point Ms. Delinsky wants to make rather than that being how the character would think or behave. I found myself thinking "you have got to be kidding" more times than I can say as I read this book.

I can't go into plot line without having "spoilers" which will prevent this from being posted, but just let me say ..... if you want to read it, go to the library. Please don't spend your hard-earned money on this !

I guess I identify with characters who react to situations as I would. I feel frustrated by characters who know that digging out answers will solve their problem, but, for some reason, don't feel ready to do the digging..so postpone and mess around until you want to scream, "For heaven's sakes, just do it!" I also feel frustrated by side stories that distract, and really don't add to the main action. And, the knitting dialogue, which goes into needless detail...puleeze.... I love the warmth of a knitting shop as much as the next person, but, unless a particular yarn or pattern figures into the story, don't bog me down with it! The premise of this book is intriguing, and calls upon us all to think about how we would react to a similar situation - but when our main characters drag their feet and parse the problem to an excrutiating extreme, one wants to yell, "Enough!" Deal with it, get on with it. Life's too short. By the way, I'm a Delinsky fan...but this one left me cold.

This book is one of Barbara's best. The story line grips you and holds you all the way through the book. Her characters are real, have depth, and develop through the turmoils of the story. It is a fast read but only because you do not want to put it down. It will keep you reading until you get the end. I didn't want to put it down.

It is not a romance story so if you want lots of romance and sexy scenes, you are not going to get it in this book. On the other hand, it is a love story. Love between husband and wife and parent and child and love or lack of love with other family members.

I don't think the added story line about Earl took away from the story but rather added to it in that it kept you guessing. And the story line with Corinne was not a distraction either. It showed another angle of love and trust among husbands and wives.

I highly recommend this story and if you haven't read Barbara Delinsky before, start with this one and then read "Together Alone" and then "For My Daughters" and keep on going. She is great author.

The premise was interesting enough but the execution was painful. The characters were so contrived and the dialog so pedantic and heavy handed and false. "Did you know that it can be Difficult To Be Black Or Otherwise Different In the United States?" I mean, the level of condescension was unbearable. How stupid can these people be? Also, what's with the characters who suddenly decide they are "African American" because one ancestor was black and then they have to rethink their whole identity. They grew up feeling white, they don't have one single issue that African Americans have to cope with. Face it, just about every single one of us grows up with various ethnicities in our history, whether we know it or not, and it doesn't change your identity, it's part of who you are. I hated these people.

Also, like another reviewer, the knitting plot bugged.

I must admit that although I agree with much of what the other reviewers have said about `FAMILY TREE' that I did enjoy it despite it's obvious flaws. The thing that made this story enjoyable was the concept, a child with clearly African-American traits born to a white couple with no knowledge of African roots on either side. The fact that `FAMILY TREE' is an easy to read novel where everything unfolds pretty quickly helps make the story all the more enjoyable.

Being that I myself am African-American, I am not sure how a white couple brought up a certain way would react to this particular situation and although I thought that many of their reactions, as well as those of their friends and family, were unbelievable I did think that Hugh's (the child's father) initial response was the most genuine. Although I disliked his character's behavior immensely after the birth of his daughter I am sure that many men in his situation would have reacted similarly in wanting a DNA test. However, it was the reactions of the people affected by the revelation of where the child's African-American traits came from that were the most outrageous to me. While most of me wanted to tell them to get a grip, part of me believes that there are people who would feel similarly and not know what to do with the knowledge that they were anything but 100% white.

Overall `FAMILY TREE' has an interesting plot line and is very easy to read and enjoyable to boot. Definitely a great book club selection, 4 stars!

Books like FAMILY TREE are always difficult for me to review. On the one hand, I was interested in the story and wanted to see how it played out. On the other hand, there are so many problems with the book that I really shouldn't have been that interested in it.

Right off the bat, I disliked the character of Hugh. The way he was portrayed in his interaction with Dana on the day she gave birth was reprehensible. (I found it interesting that he would take the case of a woman who claims a US senator fathered her child based solely on her word, no investigation on his part, yet he is suspicious of his own wife.) Nothing he ended up doing in the rest of the book redeemed him in my eyes.

I wasn't entirely thrilled with any of the other characters either. They were very clichéd and I had trouble connecting with them. Also, the knitting theme was apparently supposed to be a metaphor for...something, but darned if I could figure that out.

There was real potential here. This could have been a great book about interracial bloodlines and how they effect/impact future generations, but this read more like typical "chick-lit." I've read other Delinsky books in the past and have enjoyed them. She's a good writer, but this one just wasn't up to par.

I read this book in one sitting and found it to be both touching and thought provoking. This is a book I will think about for days and mull over the questions it asks about race, unconditional love, family and loyalty. I highly recommend it to someone looking for a story with some depth...if you like Nicholas Sparks or James Patterson's bittersweet novels then this would be a good choice for an afternoon read.