Customer Reviews

The Other Family: A Novel

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Trollope's forte is what I think of as domestic dramas: in her dozen or more novels, her characters (usually women of a certain age, from their 30s to the 50s or 60s) confront some kind of crisis in their lives that forces them to re-examine all they had taken for granted. Her focus is the family, in all its myriad permutations. She has a keen eye for both the poignant and the absurd, yet never allows her narrative to topple over into sentimentality or banality. These are stories of messy lives and human frailties -- not literature a la Jane Austen, certainly, and at the same time, these are the same kind of people and the same kind of outwardly-seeming banal domestic situations that Austen tackled in her time. Trollope, when she's in top form, has a keen eye for character that propels her novels from 'chick lit' territory into something better.

Happily, in this novel, she seems to back in form after several disappointing (to me, at least) novels. (I never managed to finish her last, Friday Nights.) The focus of the story is Chrissie, who lives in London with her long-time partner, Richie Rossiter, an older man and an aging pop star that women of a certain age still swoon over, and their three daughters. She wears a wedding ring -- one that she bought for herself, since Richie doesn't want to divorce his first wife, Margaret. (Although he was happy to leave her behind in Newcastle when he headed south with Cassie in search of new horizons and new audiences, decades earlier.) Left behind also was Richie's son, Scott, who becomes the focus of Margaret's life. Margaret also wears a wedding ring -- a real one -- but has no husband to go with it. And then Richie dies suddenly of a heart attack (this is where the book begins), leaving two unanticipated bequests to his old family and a large hole in the center of his new family.

In Trollopian tradition, Richie's will ends up forcing the two families together in a way that both resist and resent, and requires all of them to find a new way to exist. Without realizing it, all five have slipped into ruts of various kinds, and in an effortless way, Trollope points this out while allowing each to make the first tentative discoveries and take the first steps toward change.

It's a predictable kind of novel if you've read her books before, but still satisfying and an enjoyable weekend read. It's a solid 4-star book, extremely well-written. Nothing revolutionary, but recommended to anyone who has enjoyed some of Trollope's better novels (mostly her earlier books; my favorite remains A Spanish Lover: A Novel)

I am about halfway through this book and I'm not planning to finish it. I have read almost every prior book Joanna Trollope wrote and have liked them a lot...but not this one. I don't find the characters engaging--they're too one-dimensional, too undeveloped, too flat. I just don't care enough about any of them to bother to finish the book.

The story has the potential to make a good novel, but it misses the mark. The intertwining of the two families and how they all reacted to Richie's death could have been an engrossing tale, but it just doesn't get off the ground. There needs to be a little more introspection and a little less whining and self-pity.

But I'll probably read her next book. She's capable of brilliant writing. Nobody writes a masterpiece every time.

I couldn't even make it through three chapters and was bored. After the first chapter of boredom I told myself to stick it out and it would get better, but I just couldn't get myself to read this book when I have a list of other books I want to read!

I resented the time I had to spend away from this novel (pesky things like jobs and meals!) and was disappointed when it ended! I must admit, my sympathy is all with Margaret and Scott and even Amy. I mean, Chrissie is what the girls would call a "cow" about his first family - conveniently managing to forget it was she who deliberately broke up that family, and Tamsin and Delia are such self-absorbed, self-centered little twits. If I feel strongly, it is because Trollope has drawn such interesting characters, and placed them into such an interesting situation. My only idsappointment - the attourney and his family - she drew them so well, too, I wished to know more about them, too! And, as always, Trollope's sense of place is so captivating! I even loved the cat!

Joanne Trollope's novels are about the way people deal with what life gives us. We all may be wanting something else, but we learn we have to deal. Some adapt well and others, well, that is the rest of the story.

In this novel we find Chrissie and her three daughters trying to recover from the loss of their father and in Chrissie's case, significant other. Richie Rossiter, the father was a vocalist and musician. Chrissie managed his career, and they have been together for awhile. The issue falling before them, is the other family. A wife, Margaret and son, Scott, that Richie left in the north of England in Newcastle. So, here we are with the three daughters and mother in a sort of Cinderella story. The other family the ugly stepsisters. They have never met and each side wants it left that way. The two elder daughters, are spoiled. Chrissie, has made life too easy for her man and for them, even buying her own simulated diamond ring rather than force the issue of marriage. The younger daughter, Amy is adventurous and filled with common sense. At the reading of the will it is discovered that Richie left his piano and the rights to his songs to his wife and son. A storm arises over this and goodwill is not a part of either family's make-up.

Margaret, has always carried a hope that her husband, would come back, and Chrissie, couldn't get Richie to marry her. They have been abandoned. Margaret is a believable woman. It seems to be a goal to have Richie's women end up realising that it is better to stand on their own feet. This is a Chekhovian novel. The characters can't move on, it seems. By the end of the novel, some solutions have been found.

This is an incomplete novel. A wonderful story, but the characters are not fully realized. Why would the son, Scott, who has not seen his father in 25 years be such a positive character in this novel? How does this family full of selfish young women come to understand the issues? Amy, the younger daughter is more mature and sensible than any of the rest of the family, and she and Scott seem like minded. The rest of the family on both sides need more meat in their characters, they are not likable nor full.

Recommended for the story. prisrob 01-04-11

Second Honeymoon: A Novel

Friday Nights: A Novel

During the first few pages, I was impressed by the strong writing. The descriptions are crisp and the opening reminded me of a Rosamunde Pilcher novel. There,however, the comparison ends (unless we're talking about a bad RP novel). None of the characters are warm, interesting, or likeable. Books don't have to be all hearts and flowers, but readers need to be able to engage with at least one character at some level, and this didn't happen for me. The most likeable character is probably Amy, and she really comes across as a very predictable stereotype of a young woman finding her way. There are no real surprises here.

Nothing much seems to happen in this book. The first 50 pages---almost 20 percent of the book---are centered around a funeral. The author captures grief well, but the pace remains slow from there on out.

Even the discussion questions at the back, presumably written by the publisher, are flat--a real reflection of the book. "Does Chrissie seem like a good mother to her daughters throughout their struggle? In what ways does she change or improve as the story continues?" These sound like essay questions for kids in junior high, not prompts to inspire a lively book discussion.

And that's just it--The Other Family simply does not feel alive, and not just because it's about people who are grieving. At the very end of the book (p. 311), one sister says, "might this, might that. Why don't you ever *do* something." I'd guess (strongly) that the whole point of the book is that these families have been sleepwalking their whole lives and the death has fueled a bit of a spark to reawaken them. But the spark is simply too small, and the characters are so unlikeable, readers probably just won't care.

I have enjoyed most Joannna Trollope novels, especially those dealing with family situations. But several of the main characters in The Other Family were so completely unbelievable that this book was difficult to read. The main character, Chrissie, and her two older daughters, were so selfish and so lacking in warmth and understanding that they seemed simply ridiculous. I felt that I was supposed to have sympathy for these women, but that was impossible. They were just irritating. Trollope's smooth writing style and a few more rounded characters ( the "other family") helped to save the book.

A quiet and lovely book that explores the themes of loss, growth, love, loyalty, decency, and the meaning of family. This is contemporary women's fiction at its best, and a joy to read.

Richie Rossiter has died suddenly of a heart attack. The popular British singer/songwriter/pianist had left his first and only legal wife Margaret, a talent agent, 23 years ago when their son Scott was 14, and formed a new family with Chrissie, his much younger manager, with whom he then had three daughters, the youngest now 18. Now some totally unexpected and life-changing surprises are about to pull the rug out from under all six of his survivors, thanks to a couple of "little changes" Richie made to his will that nobody but he and his lawyer knew about. This novel is about the aftermath of all that.

My problem with the story is that I could only get really interested in two of the characters, the 37-year-old son and the 18-year-old daughter, though I eventually came to care a bit about the first wife as well. Unfortunately, the main focus of the novel is Chrissie--the woman Richie never got around to getting a divorce to marry--whose resentments here are understandable and in many ways deserved but whose relentless self-pity and lack of empathy for others hang over the story like poisoned cloud. As the story went on I found myself resenting having to spend so much time with her and her two older daughters--one of them truly awful, the other merely uninteresting. If only the novel had been centered on Scott and Amy, the two half-siblings who seem to have inherited the family's total store of wisdom, wit and character, I'm sure I'd have loved it. But it wasn't and I didn't.

Note: The book includes a reading group guide.

I almost gave up on this book, and would have if not for my policy of finishing every book I buy. The first chapter or two were incredibly slow, and, I'm afraid to say, somewhat poorly written. But the rest of the book began to build momentum until reaching its satisfying conclusion.

Set in London and Newcastle in the current era, the book tells the story of how two sides of the same family cope after the death of a a man---husband, father, and musician who was past his prime. One side of the story is told from the point of view of his first wife Margaret and her son Scott; the other side deals with his second wife and their three daughters.

This book was going to get a two-star review from me based on the first few chapters. One example of the not-so-well written dialogue at the beginning of the book was that the phrase "nor me" appeared in just about every paragraph. But somehow Trollope managed to pull off a magic trick throughout the rest of the book, delivering an infinitely better-written and warm tale of adaptation to massive life changes. Some of the prinicipal characters were more likeable than others, but by the end of the book I cared about what happened to each of them. Bottom line: hang in there.