If You Had a Family: A Novel [Paperback]

Barbara Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 27, 1996

25 years after the death of her mother, Cory is still trying to come to terms with her childhood. Through her relationship with another woman and the rediscovery of the creativity and the joy of her past, Cory gains a new understanding about what a family is and can be.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Barbara Wilson has received critical praise for her mystery novels--including the great Murder in the Collective--and her award-winning translations from Norwegian. If You Had a Family is her first non-genre novel, and it is wonderful. Warm, empathetic, and knowing, If You Had a Family details the childhood and adult life of an artist coming to terms with the loss of her mother, her emerging lesbianism, and her attempts to locate herself in the world of adult emotions and responsibilities. Wilson is a writer of enormous intelligence and compassion, both of which shine through in this novel.

From Publishers Weekly

Cory, the protagonist of this well-meaning novel has written a well-meaning novel herself, one that she looks back on years later, relieved that it remained unpublished. This novel lacks the imaginary one's mushy sentimentality, but it too relies on overly familiar circumstances (recovered memories of incest here, coming out as a lesbian in the novel-within-the-novel) that drag it down. Of greater interest is Cory's childhood in California in the 1950s. Wilson creates a winsome child's view of a family that occasionally veers into overripe perfection (Cory's childhood games with her brother Kevin lack even a hint of meanness) and her Christian Scientist mother is sweetness incarnate. But there are affecting moments, such as Cory's confused refusal to be vaccinated in elementary school. After her mother's death from treatable cancer, the story jumps ahead several years to find Cory an emotionally cold, 35-year-old lesbian accountant living in Seattle. She resists the overtures of Rosemary, who doggedly pursues her, until the two finally stumble into a relationship, although Cory remains uncommitted. Early on, Wilson indicates that Cory was abused by an uncle, and much of the narrative is spent waiting for Cory to deal with it. She eventually does so through therapy and the help of friends?a resolution that may be realisitic but isn't terribly dramatic.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 282 pages
• Publisher: Seal Press (August 27, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1878067826
• ISBN-13: 978-1878067821
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,379,010 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A touching story of a woman's search for family, February 29, 2000

By 

"kathrynlively" - See all my reviews

This review is from: If You Had a Family: A Novel (Paperback)

Barbara Wilson paints a beautiful story of realization in "If You Had a Family," a novel that clearly hits close to home (Wilson herself was raised in a Christian Scientist home, as was the family of the main character). Cory's struggle to accept the past and painlessly integrate her memories into her present is portrayed in a gentle and loving manner; though nearing forty, Cory is still a child, still in need of a family and feeling the effects of living alone in a world full of mothers, none of them hers.

We sympathize also with Cory during her awkward attempts at finding a surrogate outlet for the emotions that have been repressed within her for decades. A blossoming relationship with activist lawyer Rosemary Reardon (who is a good contrast character to Cory's--one of a brood of Irish Catholic children, she is bubbly where Cory is blase) provides solace for Cory, as does her acquaintance with her brother's children, who in a sense are also hers.