Host Family [Paperback]

Mameve Medwed (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2001

Daisy and Henry Lewis have welcomed foreign exchange students studying at Harvard into their home for twenty years. Along with their beloved son Sammy, Daisy and Henry have always thought of themselves as a model American family unit. That is, until Henry leaves Daisy for a French exchange student. All is not lost, however, as Daisy finds romance with a Harvard parasitologist named Truman. Daisy's son and Truman's daughter become lovers, making the circle of love complete. But when another international student enters the scene, partners split apart and come together in all sorts of symbiotic combinations.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Mameve Medwed's second novel follows the breezy Cambridge formula of her popular debut, Mail. Daisy Lewis is a warmly practical, solidly attractive supermarket ombudswoman whose 20-year marriage to Henry, a computer-virus expert, is comfortable and familiar, though no longer exciting. If Daisy grits her teeth a bit at Henry's pretentious passion for all things Français, she's still happy enough, and the Lewises enjoy playing "host family" to a series of slightly forlorn international students. Even when Henry is led astray by a très belle mademoiselle and announces to Daisy that he's writing finis to their marriage, Daisy is more surprised than devastated: "If her marriage ends, the toilet will never get replaced, she supposes. As soon as she thinks this, she is amazed. Her world as she has known it for twenty years is falling apart, and she focuses only on the most inconsequential domestic details. The loss of a power flush rather than the loss of a husband. But it makes sense. She can wrap her mind around a toilet. Marriage, husband, love, life are territories too vast to get a purchase on."

Happily, Rebound City is just around the corner. Henry's laid low by food poisoning that same night, and on a visit to the hospital Daisy meets Truman Wolff, a parasitologist whose ex-wife ran away with a French pastry chef. Drawn together by a series of such small coincidences and serendipities--including the fact that her son and Truman's daughter are madly in love--the two begin living together, though Daisy refuses the doctor's frequent proposals of marriage. When they agree to host an Italian student named Andrea, all hell breaks loose in some very funny--and very uncomfortable--ways. Will Daisy and Truman find their way back to the relationship they're clearly meant to have? Yes, of course, and there are a few other surprising reconciliations along the way. Host Family gives a warm and funny, if not entirely new, twist to the idea of symbiosis. --Barrie Trinkle --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

Cambridge and the outskirts of Harvard life are again the settings of Medwed's (Mail) new novel, a cuttingly funny yet heartwarming tale full of hilarious twists and practical wisdom. Henry and Daisy Lewis, who have been serving as host family to international Harvard students for the past 20 years, find themselves at a crisis in their marriage. It seems that the series of visitors from the Third World has exhausted Henry's patience. In reaction, he becomes a voracious Francophile and falls for their latest exchange student, a French beauty named Giselle. The breakup of the Lewis's marriage coincides with the departure of the couple's cherished son, Sammy, to college (Harvard, of course), but 42-year-old Daisy, a community relations manager for a grocery chain, learns that change can be a good thing when she fatefully meets Truman Wolff, a parasitologist whose studies of "virus-host relationships" seem particularly apt. In this novel of comic connections, Daisy's son and Truman's teenage daughter, Phoebe, fall in love. For a couple of years, the two pairs sustain their respective relationships, though marriage-wary Daisy remains unwilling to spoil a good thing by accepting Truman's proposals. The introduction of another foreign body--this time a handsome young Italian man--threatens this stability when the studly student and Phoebe fall in love, causing Daisy to reject Truman in a fit of allegiance over Sammy's broken heart. But tables continue to turn; characters forgive, forget and move on; and Daisy finally realizes that it's time to go after a love "every bit as identifiable and tenacious as one of Truman's parasites." Medwed balances broadly drawn characters, such as the ludicrously pompous Henry, who sports a beret and calls himself "Henr!," with Daisy's perspicuous insights on the nature and possibility of lasting romantic commitment, expertly combining here the larger-than-life and the true-to-life. Agent, Lisa Bankoff. 4-city author tour. (Feb.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 309 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books; Reprint edition (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446676616
• ISBN-13: 978-0446676618
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,565,374 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good summer read..., June 23, 2000

By 

Dianne Foster "Di" (USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Host Family (Hardcover)

In the early part of the 20th Century, Virginia Wolfe wrote in "A Room of One's Own" that women needed to kill the Angel in the house. She was referring to a woman's propensity to care for family members at the expense of herself--and in Wolfe's case--sacrifice her writing.

Although middle class women don't have a lock on being the "Angel" in the house, they are the audience Wolfe was speaking to -- educated women who might want to do something with their lives other than be the chief cook and bottle washer in charge of maintenance and repair.

Daisy Lewis eventually learns how to take care of herself, but she certainly takes her time getting there. When Daisy isn't handling complaints at the supermarket where she works as ombudsman ("Why not ombudswoman?" asks her friend), she's organizing food banks, washing her college son's dirty laundry, cleaning up her husband's vomit and other excrescences, or hosting foreign students for Harvard.

On one level, the book title refers the family that hosts foreign students, but on another level, it refers to the "hosts" that attract parasites and viruses--organic and manmade. Daisy's ex-husband Henri (nee Henry) is a computer virus expert and a bit of a parasite himself. Daisy's new beau is a parasitologist who isn't a parasite but he brings them home.

I found the book entertaining, and read it in two sittings. I laughed out loud once, but the text is amusing and others may laugh more. I love wordsmithing, and was most entertained by Medwed's command of English (English majors should love this book). Her wordplay is as graceful as a trapeze act. A familiarity with literature, world affairs, and internatinal cuisine will probably make many of the book's wry comments and asides more understandable.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious, Delightful, De Best!, April 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Host Family (Hardcover)

This book is so funny, so poignant, so intelligent. I wanted it to go on for ever, and even though I finished it weeks ago, I'm still thinking about the characters, wondering how Daisy Lewis and her extended family are doing. Absolutely a must read.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I LOVED THIS BOOK!, April 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Host Family (Hardcover)

Mameve Medwed is a witty and wonderful writer. HOST FAMILY, like Medwed's first novel, MAIL,is filled with humor and heart from the first through the final page. If you haven't read it yet,and if you like funny, intelligent novels, don't wait another minute to read it.