First up, Literary Wives has had a rebrand – we are now The Marriage Plot. We decided that a new name was in order to be more inclusive, and broaden our definition and consideration of roles in long-term partnerships.
So, to the club selection – Family Family by Laurie Frankel. Even with our rebrand, this book didn’t fit our intended focus because there are no core partnerships in the story. Instead, Frankel looks at how families are formed and what counts as ‘family’.
The story focuses on an actress, India Allwood, who has a considered approach to adoption (during her youth she places two babies for adoption, and as an adult, with an established career, she adopts Korean American twins). India describes her approach as:
Benevolent fertility. Fertility with an inclination toward charitable giving…
Although India’s maturity and rational approach to her unplanned pregnancies is a little difficult to believe, flashes of teenage impetuosity (such as choosing a mother for one of the babies based on her comments about musicals, and fathers for the others because she liked the photo of their Christmas tree) made it work.
Without spoilers, the story moves between the present and the past to highlight the fact that adoption can be a deliberate choice rather than being viewed as a last resort or only option.
In considering what constitutes a family, her children (adopted and adoptees) ponder the idea that –
Sometimes less is more, but not with family. With family, more is more.
Although I found much of the plot fairly basic and predictable, what Frankel did very well was explore the idea that something can have both positive and negative elements at the same time, and that these don’t necessarily negate each other but rather, coexist –
…[she] knew miracle and loss were swings not seesaws. They went down as well as up, yes, back as well as forth, but in tandem, up together and down together, or at least not always in opposition.
See Rebecca’s, Kay’s, Becky’s and Marianne’s reviews, too. And if you want to join in, our next book (December 2026) is The Eden Test by Adam Sternbergh.
2.5/5
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We felt similarly, overall. I can’t recall how it made it onto the list of options, but Frankel is very readable at least. I do always appreciate the theme of chosen family, which resonates with me personally.
We’ve had this problem before. It’s sometimes hard to figure out from a description whether a book is really about our topic or not. I liked the exploration of the meaning of family, though.
I get the feeling I liked this book more than you did. Maybe I didn’t find it as predictable as you did. I like your point about positives and negatives co-existing. I think too often we think in terms of black and white.
I also like the remark about positive and negative thinking. Since I only just joined, I did not participate in the choosing but I think I would have liked the description. As I said on my post, I read another book about adoption at the same time and could see what can go wrong.
Thanks for such a great input.