Customer Reviews

Good Family: A Novel

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like author Terry Gamble, I spent my childhood summers in the same town as the author in Northern Michigan: the millionaires' summer resort of Harbor Springs, with its lavish "summer cottages" (sprawling mansions) and yacht club, inspiration behind her first novel "The Water Dancers" and her sophomore effort "Good Family." The natural beauty of this area is lovingly brought to life as the setting for a family reunion upon the death of its matriarch. Like the thinly veiled settings of Harbor Point, Harbor Springs, and Petoskey in "Water Dancers," "Good Family" seems a juxtaposition of the turn-of-the-century cottages on Mackinac Island, the elegant mansions of Harbor Point, and the turn-of-the-century Methodist summer community of Bay View in Petoskey.

The Addison family, made famous by its early pharmaceuticals, owns the Aerie, a sprawling, run-down cottage on Sand Isle, where cars are forbidden and transportation is by horse, carriage, and bicycle. The family's many eccentric relatives are drawn back together at the imminent death of its matriarch.

The novel's narrator is Maddie, a struggling filmmaker in New York who is recovering from years of alcoholism and traumatic earlier events. The last place she wants to be is the Aerie, haunted by ghosts both real and imagined. Memories of earlier summers, of her mother's easy elegance and later neglect, of forbidden crushes, of life-altering tragedies all come flooding back, and Maddie must assess where she has come from and where she is going. Maddie, her sister (the faithful, staid Dana) and cousins (the mystic Adele, rebellious adopted Jessica, alcoholic thespian Sedgie, artistic Derek) come together for the first time in a decade to figure out the etiquette of dying. Maddie must tangle with the ghosts of her past and make peace with the events that so drastically altered her life (the death of a child and a divorce, her alcoholism, near-incest), while bringing closure to the family's tumultuous relationship with its matriarch.

Clearly, many elements of Ms. Gamble's childhood summers on Harbor Point seem autobiographical: the train rides to Northern Michigan, the sprawling, run-down, once-elegant summer mansions that have fallen into disrepair, the rivalries and vicious backbiting of the country club elite, the flippant disregard to spending large sums of money on keeping up appearances, the inherent racism of an earlier age (the invisibility of the "colored help," black lawn jockeys, etc.), and the Native American mysticism that is as old as the land: the Odawa (Ottawa) tribes that live around Little Traverse Bay, on hard times but still maintaining a cultural presence (a theme explored in more depth in her debut "The Water Dancers.").

As a sophomore follow-up to "The Water Dancers," "Good Family" is much improved, featuring a more tightly-knit cast, a seamless interweaving of past and present, and a much stronger, more realistic storyline. Instead of a picture-perfect world of millionaires and easy living, Ms. Gamble's characters wallow in the mundane sorrows of living: a damaged Vietnam vet (cousin Edward, in and out of different institutions until he finally disappears), alcoholism (Maddie, her mother, Sedgie, and her gay best friend Ian), failed relationships, dead babies, and the price of apparent success. The country club lifestyle that so dominates Northern Michigan resort towns is systematically picked apart to reveal its earlier racism, elitism, and falsity of appearances and substance.

A spellbinding read that once again transported me to the beautiful landscapes of my childhood, dominated by the cry of gulls, the shifting moods of Lake Michigan, the elegant, faded mansions of Mackinac Island, Bay View and Harbor Point, the small boutiques of Harbor Springs with their colorful striped awnings and resplendent windowboxes of petunias, pansies and impatiens, and the sense of home.

I gave Good Family two stars because it is well written enough that there is no problem finishing it. It does not make you laugh or cry nor will I remember the characters a month from now. The summer cottage is a very large house on an island. Watching Michigan sunsets and playing in the water is very lovely, but does not seem to make happy people. All of the characters are in some way flawed. It appears that having inherited sufficient money to not have to work for a living may result in identity issues. Yes, they have had problems and losses. If you live long enough who hasn't? The family is concerned that one cousin may not come for the death watch, because there is no cook on the premises. In the distant past the family arrived with an entourage: of cook, nurse, maids etc.. Times have changed and they have to prepare their own meals. This book brings to mind news stories of today's children of famous old families who contribute little to society and come to bad ends. If these folks had to show up at work 350 days a year they might be better people. As power does so does money corrupt.

This was my most favorite novel that I read all year. I still miss the characters, especially Maddie and Ian, and marvel at this author's ability to capture such a wonderful sense of place. I wish they'd make a movie of it!

I enjoyed how the story was told present-day, with flashbacks to give the reader more in-depth info.
Very good character study of the main character with a readable plot.

Thank you, Terry Gamble, for this wonderful book. The first sentence blows you away and then it keeps getting better. This is a great summer read, or if you want to feel summer, because she totally captures that rather aimless, warm, sandy, good-eating, kind of sun-burned feeling of gathering with your family by the lake. But it's so much more. The characters--the mother dying in an upstairs room while below her life teems, Maddie's rather eccentric cousins and their families, Ian, the gay Lutheran addict from Minnesota! Loved Ian! The house itself is a character with its ancestor ghosts. I loved Maddie and her journey and Gamble writes so evocatively, that it's hard to put the book down. Her descriptions of Maddie`s new baby, and the love she feels for her, are some of the best I've ever read. A beautiful, beautiful book.

In Good Family, Terry Gamble delivers the complex and often tortured relationships we have with those we are closest to in the way that the best of writers do. The fascinating characters in this novel are delivered in lovely prose, and the old-moneyed family lake house setting is rich and evocative. I just loved this book!

Terry Gamble has written a hauntingly beautiful, lyrical book. We follow Maddie returning to her family's summer home after a long estrangement. As her mother's health fails and her siblings & cousins gather, Maddie grapples with the family "ghosts", her memories of summers goneby, her failed marriage and uncertain direction. This is a story about death & re-birth, the strength & frailty of family ties, pathos & ultimately, redemption. It is a funny, rich, multi-layered tale. A treasure.

Thanks to Ms. Gamble for the most unforgettable read of the summer, and indeed, recent memory. This is the most unusual book, a vivid and sideways glance from the eyes of Maddie Addison. I not only loved the point of view, but was frankly fascinated with the glimpse into the lives of an old money family; and the visual flashes to and fro from turn of the century Northern Michigan; the vacation place of early industrialists, the losses and loves, to Maddie's struggle to maintain equilibrium after the devastating loss of a baby. These characters stay with you; and the lake and the lavender scented house are two of them.

In depth character development warrant this novel 5 stars. Although there isn't a lot of action, it doesn't matter because the characters are so compelling. Gamble's beautiful prose draws you into the family and you feel like you are a fly on the wall in the big old summer cottage on the lake. I too grew up in northern Michigan and still spend my summers there, and the author captures the up north appeal completely. I've read a lot of books this summer, and this is one of the best.

I really enjoyed this book, but I can't name a specific reason why. Part of it was the appeal of the family lake cabin and the memories I have of our family cabin, part of it was the characters and who knows what else.

At times, I felt like I was reading a true story and I definitely developed a compassion for the characters.

The only downside was that there were so many characters, that I had a hard time keeping them all straight. Thank goodness for the family tree, as I was constantly flipping back to it.