Publishers Weekly says THE OTHER FAMILY is "smartly told, funny, and deeply poignant." Mary Gaitskill describes it as "a fine, astringent pleasure." The Christian Science Monitor finds it "polished, satiric," and "compelling." Newsday says it "takes our breath away." |
The Other Family"I believe in Proudhon's idea of free-floating units of children and adults who will group and regroup as necessary." That is what fourteen-year-old Joan Toolan declares in the late sixties at a fundraiser for her aunt, Iris Eberlander, who is running for the New York State Assembly from Brooklyn. But Joan is not too happy with the real-life regroupings going on around her. Joan's mother has abandoned her family and attached herself to the rich and accomplished Eberlanders. Worse, she has taken up with a hilariously awful boyfriend named Aaron Lemon who shifts his attentions between mother and daughter. Now even the Eberlanders-- fragile, idealistic Iris and her demanding psychiatrist husband-- seem to be unraveling. Joan visits the household every July 4th for four years and watches partners switch off. It is all a "delightful dance," as Iris puts it. At least in the beginning. Part of the deep delight of Jacqueline Carey's first novel, ''The Other Family,'' is the freshness with which she captures the flavor of the years between the Summer of Love and the Summer of Watergate. - Karen Karbo in The New York Times |
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