At a family wedding, the four Sorenson sisters polka-dot the green lawn in their summer pastels, with varying shades of hair and varying degrees of unease. Brilliant review, Emily! They are a healthy, but imperfect family of four daughters, who are all jockeying for their place in the world. Find ratings and reviews for the newest movie and TV shows. 2019 En lyckligare tid. There are 3 books also on the Womens Prize longlist around 200 pages, to balance out the two longer books, Im sure! But Ridge cant hide his feelings for Sydney longand they face their dilemma with refreshing emotional honesty. Some of them bothered me as well, but a lot of the problematic things the characters say and do I took as criticisms of them; I dont think the author was using horrendous digs at less fortunate people out of a place of ignorance, but as a way of showing how privileged and ignorant her characters are. Perhaps someone with stronger sibling ties might get more out of this one than I did, or find more to identify with at least. Here it is in writing, in January of 2019, and I can't wait to look back on this and know how right I was. Why do we need to know about it?? Ah, I saw Fatmas review a couple days ago as well. That was the feeling I had with The Most Fun We Ever Had and it was spot on. The flashbacks and cast of characters large enough to people a sitcom give the reader someone to root for, and one could read all 500 pages in a week like one might binge a soap opera. But she became comfortable with her body in adulthood after her husband, after her abbreviated pregnancy in a way that surprised her.. Youd think his arrive would upset everything, teaching these children more about their parents than they thought the parents capable of. Voracious reader and reviewer I have two brothers, but were not close. Additionally, Lombardo breaks the work into four parts, named after the seasons, beginning with spring. Now Im curious as to how the grandparents handled and may have to check this book out for myself. She was born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois, and spent several years doing social work in Chicago. Oooh I hadnt noticed the emphasis on motherhood, but now that you bring it up I can definitely see it popping up in a lot of the longlisted books and yeah, I also agree I wasnt too enthused about the Womens Prize longlist this year, sadly. Feeling betrayed by the adults in her life, Clara marches forward, acting both responsible and rebellious as she navigates her teenage years without her father and her aunt, while Jonah and Morgan's relationship evolves in the wake of the accident. Claire Lombardo's The Most Fun We Ever Had debuted on the New York Times bestseller list an impressive start for this first-time novelist who started life in Oak Park. this imperfect story realistically captures the essence of the imperfect complexities of marriage, parenthood, sisterly bonds, and familial ties. Liza has her baby and David, initially standoffish, agrees to watch her when Liza returns to work. Oh man, I appreciate your honest review!! We get it. The central story unfurls over a single event-choked year, begun by Wendy, who unlatches a closed adoption and springs on her family the boy her stuffy married sister, Violet, gave away 15 years earlier. I hope that if you pick it up at some point youll find it worth the page count! "The Most Fun We Ever Had" is a novel about a family and follows in the footsteps of other reknown novels the chronicle the intricate complexities of close relationships. Marilyn wonders, "Didn't her daughters know that what she and David had took work, had always taken work? We had one narrator but once I got used to the story, the flashbacks stopped confusing me. (The year 1996, an annus horribilis in the Sorensons' marriage following an office flirtation, seems particularly endless, as David notes.). The usage of the word "retard" was questionable and I don't know how it was made through the rounds of editing. Why do we have someone watching a couple have sex/make out so often? A marathon of instability and hair products. . This sounds exactly like the kind of book Ill enjoy, even if it was fine but not perfect for you. The golden couple David Sorenson and Marilyn Connelly seem to have that figured out. It may not be the most fun youve ever had, but it has to be darn close. Thats where I thought Lombardos writing shone in this book- the characters arent always sympathetic but they do feel like complex, well-thought-out people and it was so interesting to see how their lives and decisions would intersect. This big, chewy, multi-generational tale rings so true, handles multiple characters so deftly, and moves back and forth through its own history with such assurance that one would expect Lombardo to have half a dozen practice runs under . It's really hard to believe that 'The Most Fun We Ever Had' is a debut novel. In this "rich, complex family saga" ( USA Today) full of long-buried family secrets, Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s, blithely ignorant of all that awaits them. David is trying to adjust to retirement, while Marilyn has become the owner of a hardware shop. Gingko leaves and trees show up many times during the course of the novelduring the opening scene and when David and Marilyn first fall in love, just to name a couple. I think they mean that the characters all met their retirement goals during the same scenario, not that they met them after playing only one scenario. The class calibrations are divine even as the utter apolitical whiteness of the Sorenson world becomes hard to fathom. 91% Upvoted. As for the audiobook, the narration was decent or I would've dropped the audio even if I had nothing else to listen to. ( Reading Goldfinch was not challenge, it was long and all those amazing sentences needed to absorb slowly like sipping a cold, splendid, special drink which burns down your throat and awakens all your senses! I wouldve loved to see a bit more variety in content this year and a few less books about motherhood! The novel is absolutely a pleasant and enjoyable read, but is in no way gritty.. Too long for the lack of plot and underwhelming and boring characters. I did like the relationships between the characters and seeing how their choices panned out, effecting the whole family in the end. From this glimpse alone the reader can see that there is plenty of interest going on beneath the surface of this happy family, though we soon come to learn that their mother doesnt know half of it. They're capable of coming to each other's rescue, but not dependably. The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo The length is a stopper: 532 pages. Wendy has asked to meet Violet for lunch but much to Violets shock and horror, Wendy is sitting at a table with Violets adopted son whom she gave up at birth. The project is based on the. The Most Fun We Ever Had is a well-structured story that shares the characters' backstory adroitly, never all at once, but in reveals that feel well-timed, well-placed. When we picked Press J to jump to the feed. Be the first to contribute! At times, it feels as though there are too many details, too many implausible things that go wrong, tied up with all-too-convenient deus ex machinas. Newcomer Lombardo brews all seven deadly sins into a fun and brimming tale of an unapologetically bougie couple and their unruly daughters. That book, which. It kept me interested enough to finish it but the ending wasn't worth it. Into this churn, Lombardo adds cancer, infidelity, a heart attack, another unplanned pregnancy, a stillbirth, and an office crush for David. But The Most Fun more strongly evokes Anne Tyler's explorations of long marriages in meticulously observed domestic novels like Breathing Lessons (1989), The Amateur Marriage (2004) and A Spool of Blue Thread (2015). This big, chewy, multi-generational tale rings so true, handles multiple characters so deftly, and moves back and. Only a few pages into the novel, and the reader already knows about Wendys vulnerability, characterized as vestiges of her teenage habits appeared only fleetingly for her now she still, on occasion, flirted with the idea of purging, and once in a while shed try a diet that she read about in US Weekly. From here, the narration jumps ahead sixteen years to follow a years worth of family drama, divided into seasonal sections. Wendy offers to take in Jonah, but the two hid the pregnancy from their parents so they must tell David and Marilyn about Jonah. It does seem like a rather safe and repetitive set, as a whole. When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. Though this year is presented chronologically, the book also delivers numerous flashbacks that showcase virtually every significant moment in each characters life, from the parents origin story, through their four daughters childhoods, and into choices each make as adults, all leading up to this one eventful year. Your email address will not be published. Lombardo's novel is divided into 34 chapters, with dated flashbacks interspersed throughout in order to provide deeper exposition on the relationships between characters. Other than an event which I found hard to fathom, this is a realistic and intimate look at an affluent Chicago family as they love, laugh, annoy, clash, and support each other over the course of forty-odd years. The book opens on one of the daughters weddings, from their mothers perspective. Across all of these moments, The Most Fun We Ever Had demonstrates the duality of affection and pain in familial relationships, showing that what holds people together can also drive them apart, and that it is after all easiest to hurt the ones we love. How they lived and loved became all-important to me as I folded myself into their days and years. Grace confesses her lie and returns home to live with Marilyn and David while she contemplates her next move. This is a character driven story of a present day family on the north shore of Chicago. So, one of the daughters has a son when shes very young, with no father in the picture, and hides the entire pregnancy from her family. I thought I would have a better time of it but Im discovering theres a limit to my interest in family sagas, haha. Violet is the daughter that did everything right. She went to college, became a lawyer, married a nice man and has two young children. Liza is considering how to help her boyfriend when she becomes pregnant with his child and decides that the best way to deal with that is to cheat on him with a coworker. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. A family of six subsisting on one doctors salary didnt exactly equate to the lap of luxury for the four girls while growing up (which isnt to say they wanted for anything), but most of them were able to improve their circumstances even further as they reached adulthood- their own children are well-situated indeed. We already have a strong community, but this event brought us even closer as we cheered and grinded it out next to each other! The "shining unfathomable orb of their parents, two people who emanated more love than it seemed like the universe would sanction," sets a powerful but daunting example for the couple's children. help you understand the book. Lombardo flings a full deck of narrative cards at us all at once, which she spends the next 500-plus pages patiently putting in order. Strong and fierce, but sad and lonely. In fact, it creates opportunities for sexy nonverbal communication and witty text messages: Ridge tenderly washes off a message he wrote on Sydneys hand in ink, and when Sydney adds a few too many es to the word squee in her text, Ridge replies, If those letters really make up a sound, I am so, so glad I cant hear it. While they fight their mutual attraction, their hope that maybe someday they can be together playfully comes out in their music. By PQ Titles: Study of Anatomy, Trophy Hunt, Zealot of the Blood God, A Helping Hand. Claire E. Lombardo is a fiction writer from the Chicago area. I was frustrated that Violet acted like a complete child throughout the whole book and that the 16 year old kid was acting like more of an adult than her. Still, the deft touchesa neighborhood fundraiser for a Little Free Library, a Twilight character as erotic touchstonedelight. Wendy also has a knack for speaking her mind and exhibits no shame in any of her actions. On the heels of Wendys birth, Marilyn becomes pregnant with Violet and the tumultuous child-rearing years begin. I also have a brother and though were close, I find sister relationships (at least the way theyre portrayed in books) to be an entirely different thing. 2. How do gingkoes function as a symbol in the book? CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE | However, compared to her sisters struggles, Grace is not quite on the same level. We picked entirely on the icons, and they went against type. Title: The Most Fun We Ever Had: Author: Claire Lombardo: Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2021: ISBN: 0525564233, 9780525564232: Length: 640 pages: Subjects: On the surface, this is a boy meets girl, they fall in love, have children and live happily ever after. This book pans back and forth between the family in present day and the growth of the family from the very beginning, when David and Marilyn first meet. Sydney and Ridge make beautiful music together in a love triangle written by Hoover (Losing Hope, 2013, etc. Art & Auctions Print Edition Books & Arts Books Bookshelf 'The Most Fun We Ever Had' Review: An Assured Debut Claire Lombardo's first novel gives a sympathetic but unsentimental look at. The ruthless competitiveness between these sisters is the driving force of the novel. The Most Fun We Ever Had? I always enjoyed picking it up despite the length, and yet when I got to the end I was a bit mystified that there wasnt more substance to it. I always find those relationships so interesting to read about, which was definitely the highlight of this book for me. I appreciated your probing more into the themes of the novel and how they didnt seem to illuminate anything beyond the specific situation of this family. Violet also makes amends with Jonah. THE MOST FUN WE EVER HADBy Claire Lombardo. This surprise, about which I'll only say that it introduces another convincingly complex character, brings out the best and worst in various family members and leads to the most moving scenes. Its one to be savored. This secret (which Ill talk about next) is what the book pretty much revolves around. What I love about this story is the way it is told, the back and forth of the years, the alternating chapters from the perspective of different family members, and the creativity in the layout of the unfolding story itself. When tragedy strikes, a mother and daughter forge a new life. Part One, Spring, begins with Chapter One, set in current day. Her capacious novel also encompasses the "vast hormonal hellscape" the couple has spawned four cattily close, constantly sparring grown daughters trying to figure out their place in the world as they measure themselves against their mother and each other. Bibliographic information. FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP, by The Most Fun We Ever Had: A Novel Hardcover - June 25 2019 by Claire Lombardo (Author) 4,877 ratings See all formats and editions Kindle Edition $13.99 Read with Our Free App Audiobook $0.00 Free with your Audible trial Hardcover $36.95 40 Used from $12.35 3 New from $26.47 Paperback $22.72 16 Used from $15.13 17 New from $16.99 Order our The Most Fun We Ever Had Study Guide, teaching or studying The Most Fun We Ever Had. As the work closes, David and Marilyn find contentment and comfort in one another as they marvel at the brood they have created, out of their extraordinary and enduring love. I also didn't like the timeline jumps. [This review contains spoilers - heads up!] It certainly made the book more bearable because I wouldn't have lasted till the 50% mark if I was reading the book. Still getting used to this book reviewing deal. Magazine Subscribers (How to Find Your Reader Number), Mantel, Woodson on Womens Prize Longlist. There are much better family sagas out there with better stories and fewer pages. In a narrative that shifts between past and present, there are complicated, flawed and tangled relationships, resentments, jealousies, births, marriages, deaths, turbulence, messiness, infidelities, mental health issues, secrets, lies, love, loss, surprises and life's challenges that their wealth cannot insulate them from. RELEASE DATE: June 25, 2019. Though it doesnt seem like much fun theyre considerate and selfish in equal measure, they do things for one another without mentioning it and then stab one another in the back its theirs. By 2016, they have four radically different daughters, each in a state of unrest. #haunted #haunting #ghost #mystery #strange. She also decided that his biological family should be the ones to provide that. Sorry, Ive been struggling with explanations lately I guess! Residents Demand Answers at Council Meeting on Police Killing of Sayed Faisal, Bob Odenkirk Named Hasty Pudding Man of the Year, Harvard Kennedy School Dean Reverses Course, Will Name Ken Roth Fellow, Ex-Provost, Harvard Corporation Member Will Investigate Stanford Presidents Scientific Misconduct Allegations, Harvard Medical School Drops Out of U.S. News Rankings. Wendy, widowed young, soothes herself with booze and younger men . This book give you unlimited access to everything, all the time. This definitely read like a telenovela in book form for me. And that sometimes they choose zero degrees. Jonah and Jenny eventually broke up, but years later they had a one-night stand and Jenny got pregnant with their son, Elijah. I dont have a sister, myself. This book makes you feel emotions you never knew you had. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. I just finished this and am already missing the Sorenson family. Which also happened to qualify as "sidequests" for that goal, Which triggered the personal quest "Have two team mates retire", And it was our 15th total scenariowhich triggered that personal quest. Briefly, I didn't enjoy this book nor do I recommend it. (LogOut/ everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of The Most Fun We Ever Had. I was confused at first, too! 49,240 Ratings A multigenerational novel in which the four adult daughters of a Chicago couple--still madly in love after forty years--recklessly ignite old rivalries until a long-buried secret threatens to shatter Want to Read Rate it: To work Im sure has her baby and David while she contemplates her next move a symbol in world... Here, the deft touchesa neighborhood fundraiser for a Little Free Library, a mother and daughter forge a life. Ridge cant hide his feelings for Sydney longand they face their dilemma with refreshing emotional honesty in the.... 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Character as erotic touchstonedelight, etc because I would have a better time of but...
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