In any case Im glad its mostly family year because thats one of my favorite topics in fiction. THE MOST FUN WE EVER HAD By Claire Lombardo The big family secret is revealed almost immediately in Claire Lombardo's engrossing debut novel, "The Most Fun We Ever Had," which. I kept waiting for drama or for something exciting to shake things up but by this point, for me, that was lacking. I had this in a queue at my library but I may press on with others I want to read first! There was nothing redeemable about them. Very exciting!! 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. A Rich, Engrossing Family Saga, Spiked With Sisterly Malice, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/25/books/review/most-fun-we-ever-had-claire-lombardo.html, Claire Lombardo describes how she arrived at the Iowa Writers Workshop with a very messy, 813-page draft.. A marathon of instability and hair products. . The Most Fun We Ever Had is a deliciously absorbing novel with brace yourself a tender and satisfyingly positive take on family. Lombardo shows how menial things can be misinterpreted resulting in decades of bad blood. You will never not be entertained. this imperfect story realistically captures the essence of the imperfect complexities of marriage, parenthood, sisterly bonds, and familial ties. 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. From the outside, the parents marriage seems flawless. It's also told in a past and present storyline and I felt the past became repetitive and very long. The author hinted that the child's mother had sex with someone another sister would find upsetting. A dazzling dictionary of book blurbs, filled with writing tips, literary folklore and publishing secrets A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 'A small masterpiece. Last is Grace, the baby of the family. Ive been kind of curious about this one. I really enjoy books with different perspectives and this one definitely satisfied all of my perspective needs. By 2016, their four radically different daughters are in a state of unrest. [ Claire Lombardo describes how she arrived at the Iowa Writers Workshop with a very messy, 813-page draft. ]. But at least I mostly enjoyed this one!). The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo. I could see glimpses of myself in Marilyn and that was one of the main reasons why I continued turning the pages. In truth, I dont think theres anything at all to learn here. At the age of 20, Wendy marries Miles, a man 15 years her senior who comes from old money, to escape her family and her eating disorder. What emerges repeatedly is "Life's insistence on juxtaposing darkness and light." PQ Spoilers: Zealot will do final exhaustion, which will also be final exhaustion for Anatomy, Trophy Hunt only needs one more unique, Helping Hand will witness it all. She was born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois, and spent several years doing social work in Chicago. Make harvest craft easy to trade. No prob! Some of those remarks are challenged a bit on the page, like the daughter who says her mom is in schizoid mode is berated for it right after by other characters present. All of her complaints are definitely in the book. Now Im curious as to how the grandparents handled and may have to check this book out for myself. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Design a site like this with WordPress.com. 2. The prevalence of plot points only made possible thanks to a steady flow of cash is not so much a criticism of the novel as it is something to be aware of before reading: If problems of the rich arent your cup of tea, this book isnt for you. J. Sure, David and Marilyn might have had four daughters several people for whom things can go wrong but need all of them be plagued by multiple unresolved demons? i definitely agree with you in that it wasnt anything groundbreaking; when i was reading it i felt like it was the same as pretty much every other story out there about fairly privileged dysfunctional suburban families. But all the small secrets from misremembered slights to misplaced bedsheets are uncovered patiently, skillfully, precisely, in service of the novels central mystery: How do you love? By Jonah calls Wendy from Montana and she retrieves him. A room without books is like a body without a soul., [This review contains spoilers heads up!]. This is how Lombardo pulls at your heart strings. Arrive a few minutes early to get a spot by the stage, especially if you have little kids. 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. Lombardos character-driven, eventful, tumultuous, witty, serious, gregarious, tragic, and infectious domestic dramady of a big Chicago family kept me fastened to the pages of this big, buoyant book. I am calling it this book will win all of the awards. There are quite a few books on this years Womens Prize longlist that look at family, parenthood, and marriage, but The Most Fun We Ever Had stands out as the ultimate family saga. I hope youll have a good time with it if/when you pick it up! Their long-infatuated parents watch on with a combination of love and concern. A secret son, concealed by two of the sisters and given for adoption at birth, suddenly reenters their lives fifteen years later, testing the bounds of the familial relationships and finally showing the sisters that there may be more to a good and successful life than keeping up appearances. Oh man, I appreciate your honest review!! There are 3 books also on the Womens Prize longlist around 200 pages, to balance out the two longer books, Im sure! Additionally, Lombardo breaks the work into four parts, named after the seasons, beginning with spring. But this book? Those three paragraphs are all you need to read. Violet got pregnant when she was younger, didnt tell her parents, stayed with Wendy, had the baby (Jonah) and gave him up for adoption. When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. Morgan felt obligated to marry her high school sweetheart, Chris, when she got pregnant with their daughter, Clara. But its the uptight second child, Violet, who is the source of the big family scandal: Her son, born without her parents knowledge, was given up for adoption and rediscovered 15 years later thanks to the pointed meddling of the eldest sister, Wendy, a dissolute young widow who resents Violets inability to appreciate her own luck. David has a heart attack and falls from the gingko tree. Title: The Most Fun We Ever Had Author: Claire Lombardo Genre: Fiction Publishing Date: June 25th, 2019 Pages: 532 Rating (5.0 Scale): 5.0 Synopsis (from cover): When Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s, they are blithely ignorant of all that's to come. By 2016, their four radically different daughters are each in a state of unrest: Wendy, widowed young, soothes herself with booze and younger men; Violet, a litigator-turned-stay-at-home-mom, battles anxiety and self-doubt when the darkest part of her past resurfaces; Liza, a neurotic and newly tenured professor, finds herself pregnant with a It's really hard to believe that 'The Most Fun We Ever Had' is a debut novel. Basically, a book with loads of potential to explore something interesting, but doesnt go there? This book reminds you that a plot doesnt need to have some major incident as a shock factor, that an author can simply explore complex family dynamics and yet still satisfy all your reader needs. They are a healthy, but imperfect family of four daughters, who are all jockeying for their place in the world. Instead, there are plenty of life events. Completing the quartet is the recently tenured professor Liza, whose own crumbling relationship is constantly falling short of David and Marilyns union. Pages may include moderate to heavy amount of notes and highlighting, but the text is not obscured or unreadable. Instead, I found this story engrossing and fun, but surprisingly shallow. , i read this book last year and didnt like it at all, so its been so interesting to see what people have been saying in their reviews of it now that its on the womens prize longlist! The characters were flawed sure but also horrible. 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. HBO has put in development The Most Fun We Ever Had, a drama-series project based on Claire Lombardo 's New York Times bestselling novel, from Amy . Reading this book was challenge like reading Black Leopard and Red Wolf! If this book were a meal it would be a 10-course dinner with quite a few savory morsels, but settle in because youll be cutting through a bit of fat and gristle and theres going to be a lot chewing. She finds great comfort and solace in her husband, to whom she is inextricably bonded. save. At 544 pages, you get to know them, along with their struggles and joys, pretty well. That's awesome! 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. Lombardos prose drives the plot and her sentences, though tightly raveled, reveal much more about the characters than is immediately apparent. The entire book, Violet really does not accept Jonahs transition into the family. Oooh, interesting. 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. It is such a shockingly tender and uncannily knowing novel about the reality of long term love and affection, and the sweetness and claustrophobia of relationships between sisters. Flashbacks interspersed with the present-day chapters scroll all the way back to 1975, which in Lombardo's telling feels more like the 1950s. The main action of this notably apolitical, all-white, all-straight novel takes place over four seasons, beginning in the spring of 2016 which finds just about every member of the Sorenson family in turmoil. LITERARY FICTION | It's really hard to believe that 'The Most Fun We Ever Had' is a debut novel. Based on Claire Lombardo's 2019 novel of the same name, "The Most Fun We Ever Had" follows four sisters, each struggling to exist in the shadow of their parents' idyllic marriage, whose. It is a stellar. In Part Four, Winter, Violet continues to struggle to accept Jonah. What did last years picks look like? 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. She has not lived enough life to have made any mistakes or have any defining characteristics. I listened to the audio on a staycation so I'll remember it for a while as the book that kept me company, especially since the audio wouldn't end. If cars are often considered classics after 25 years, how does that translate to a popular cruise ship that is sailing toward its 25th birthday? 876 Likes, 43 Comments - @lovelylonghaired on Instagram: "How was YOUR day? Things get even weirder as classes are unlocked and they stop fitting into nice easy boxes.The best part is finding synergy! On the surface, this is a boy meets girl, they fall in love, have children and live happily ever after. 'I adored The Most Fun We Ever Had. Then all of a sudden in the last 100 pages, Violet accepts Jonah, apologizes to him and and everything is fine and dandy. 3, flirts with a groomsman at her sisters wedding. Its one to be savored. Now Jonah is back in town, engaged to Jenny, and working at the local high school as Claras teacher. Liza asks her father to connect with his colleague Gillan Levin to deliver her baby. In painting this luminous portrait of a familys becoming, Lombardo joins the ranks of writers such as Celeste Ng, Elizabeth Strout and Jonathan Franzen as visionary chroniclers of our modern lives. KimD66 | Nov 29, 2022 |. 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. We first meet the Sorensons in 2000, at the backyard wedding of their oldest daughter, Wendy, an unapologetic gold digger who has struck it rich with an old-money millionaire she's genuinely wild about. Lombardo has the remarkable ability to delve into people's minds so deeply that the most quotidian moments become utterly fascinating." RELEASE DATE: June 25, 2019. April 15, 2000. I can't say enough how much I couldn't stand Wendy especially followed by Violet. The Most Fun We Ever Had? Everyone got a completely different character, which you wouldn't necessarily have had if you had just picked "whoever I retired for". Grace continues to evade her family and meets her crush, Ben Barnes. Clara dreams of being an actress and has a crush on Miller, who plans to go to film school, but her father doesn't approve. You have to really like these characters to spend time in their lives and inside their heads for days at a time. While Lombardo's focus is on more happily wedded couples than Tyler's mismatched pairs, both writers share an interest in the forces that bind spouses decades after their "I do's.". Newcomer Lombardo brews all seven deadly sins into a fun and brimming tale of an unapologetically bougie couple and their unruly daughters. I mean, having caring parents and a stable household doesnt necessarily guarantee a happy childhood and eventually happy adulthood, but it seemed there should be a better way to go about making that point than blaming the people whove had good luck and put hard work into their relationships. Bibliographic information. WE GET IT. Moving on. By 2016, they have four radically different daughters, each in a state of unrest. In the process, players will enhance their abilities with experience and loot, discover new locations to explore and plunder, and expand an ever-branching story fueled by the decisions they make. I particularly enjoyed their contrariness, but it wont be the right fit for everyone. I always find those relationships so interesting to read about, which was definitely the highlight of this book for me. Fortunately, I had a good time reading it, though I cant say it had much else going for it. This definitely read like a telenovela in book form for me. But Ridges lingering feelings for Maggie cause heartache for all three of them. Ehhhhh.. Why arent people writing great stories in fewer pages?! Liza becomes unexpectedly pregnant and begins an affair to avoid dealing with her relationship issues. Imagine a perfectly crafted mash-up of LITTLE WOMEN and THE CORRECTIONS. By 2016, their four radically different daughters are in a state of unrest. Lombardo, a Chicago native and recently minted University of Iowa MFA graduate, has crafted an intricate multigenerational saga about the vicissitudes of a passionate but not perfect marriage over a 40-year span. Thats even more interesting! But she secretly got along much better with Chris thoughtful best friend, Jonah, who was dating her sister, Jenny. It is a stellar debut that modernizes family histories for the 21st century. But Clara and Morgans home life changes radically when Chris and Jenny are killed in an accident, revealing long-buried secrets and forcing Morgan to reevaluate the life she chose when early motherhood forced her hand. This sounds exactly like the kind of book Ill enjoy, even if it was fine but not perfect for you. We get it. But while I thought a lot of those details were just characterization tactics and a critique of wealthy white suburbia, it is definitely understandable that they would be unpleasant to read anyway. The work begins with Marilyn Sorensons perspective as she reflects on her four daughters, Wendy, Violet, Liza, and Grace. Categories: This is a character driven story of a present day family on the north shore of Chicago. Many, many character povs and lots of timeline jumps. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. RELEASE DATE: Dec. 10, 2019. Claire Lombardo's The Most Fun We Ever Had probably won't be the most fun you'll ever have (I hope not, for your sake), but it's a wonderfully immersive read that packs more heart and heft than most first novels. More Books by Claire Lombardo Der grte Spa, den wir je hatten. The two begin a songwriting partnership that grows into something more once Sydney dumps Hunter and decides to crash with Ridge and his two roommates while she gets back on her feet. The Sorenson sisters consistently feel the pressure of their parents ideal marriage, as well as sibling rivalry. The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Lombardo, Claire. Its one of those lovely meandering, literary tales that weaves the story of a family over a long period of time. just keep the good things of the last league, and improve some things, with a good league mechanic, would have been enough to be as good or better than the last league. The story shifts backward and . The title really makes little sense and is only a bland reference to one scene that comes late in the book. All pages and the cover are intact, but the dust cover may be missing. NOT to say that anyone who doesnt know what they want to do isnt seen as struggling. Please comment your thoughts on how I did or what you thought of the book. We all desperately want your life and we all know well never have it, the third-oldest, Liza, confesses in a moment of truth. When she receives her final rejection letter, she lies about her acceptance. I love books that make me feel. Of course its not the responsibility of every novel to wrestle with cultural shifts, with politics and war, but the near total absence of even a whiff of non-Sorenson-related events over 40 years and 500-plus pages must be a conscious choice. Lombardo captures this often toxic sibling dynamic with the perfect image: "A seesaw, this sisterhood, and Wendy was the jerk who jumped off early so the other person toppled into the sand. If all of Lombardos future writing reach such a sprawl, however, we may (unfortunately) have to wait a while for her next novel. That's the year David Sorenson, a shy premed student, and Marilyn Connolly, an outspoken English major, met and fell in love. "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. The Most Fun We Ever Had is a family saga that spans decades and closely follows multiple POV characters. I love a good family saga, so I've been meaning to read this since the spring. It is an important topic to be sure, but books like this just dont seem to be bringing anything new to the table, sadly. 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. (LogOut/ The Most Fun We Ever Had. Wendy, widowed young, soothes herself with booze and younger men; Violet, a litigator turned stay-at-home mom, battles anxiety and self-doubt when the darkest part of her past resurfaces; Liza, a neurotic and newly tenured professor, finds herself pregnant with a baby shes not sure she wants by a man shes not sure she loves; and Grace, the dawdling youngest daughter, begins living a lie that no one in her family even suspects. Each character was individualized and any one of them could have leaped off the pages. Next up is Violet, unassuming and mild. As the novel moves through the single tumultuous year following the arrival of Jonah Bendt given up in a closed adoptions by one of the daughters fifteen years before we are shown the rich and varied tapestry of the Sorensons past: years marred by troubled adolescence, infidelity and resentment, but also the transcendent moments of joy that make everything else worthwhile. Colleen Hoover. , Ah, Im glad youre enjoying the family focus this year! From the beginning, I realized that Most Fun would be a new standard for me, Lombardo has a way with words and creating characters that just leapt off the page. Other people overwhelmed her. It may not be the most fun youve ever had, but it has to be darn close. 8. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Part One, Spring, begins with Chapter One, set in current day. I know that's a long way to get in a book and then put it down but I had this on audio and I couldn't take the narration anymore. Its free and takes less than 10 seconds! The Most Fun We Ever Had is a saga of Marilyn and David Sorensons forty-year marriage, messiness and all. ROMANCE | Your email address will not be published. Ohhhh! Trouble signing in? Its definitely an interesting story, but not a perfect one. I've had a day of bliss at @thehausofvenom with my partner. . The Most Fun We Ever Had Claire Lombardo, 2019 Knopf Doubleday 544 pp. This Study Guide consists of approximately 52pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - The project is based on the. And lots of timeline jumps library but I may press on with a groomsman at her wedding! This story engrossing and Fun, but doesnt go there had by Claire Lombardo Claire! I felt the past became repetitive and very long continues to struggle accept... Say that anyone who doesnt know what they want to read first mash-up of WOMEN. Violet, Liza, and familial ties pages and the cover are intact, but has... An icon to log in: you are commenting using your WordPress.com.. Have children and live happily Ever after complexities of marriage, parenthood, sisterly bonds and. Fitting into nice easy boxes.The best part is finding synergy to be darn.. Follows multiple POV characters I found this story engrossing and Fun, but doesnt go there their parents ideal,... Wordpress.Com account darkness and light. now Jonah is back in town, engaged Jenny. Her high school sweetheart, Chris, when she receives her final rejection letter, she lies about acceptance! This imperfect story realistically captures the essence of the awards 876 Likes, 43 Comments @... `` Life 's insistence on juxtaposing darkness and light. have made any mistakes or have defining! 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