Family Drama

Read for a book club. A fiction book about family relationships. It got better as I read, but quite fluffy. ( )

This book was nothing like I imagined it would be based on the back cover blurb. Charlotte really didn't have as much to do with the shift in the family as the blurb made it sound.

My main thought through most of the novel was "what a miserable family". I do think each of the couples loved each other in their own way--but lack of communication abounded, and when there was communication, it was often between the wrong people.

Anthony and Rachel: Rachel's defined herself as a mother and a hostess. Anthony has his drawing and his teaching--he even has a studio to retreat to. The novel opens with their third son getting married and this changes the sons's dynamic with their parents. For whatever reason, Rachel has never learned to be tactful and often just seems to blurt out whatever she wants to. This causes some tension with her third daughter-in-law, Charlotte--a tension that spreads to the rest of the family. Rachel also always wants to be "in the know" on what is happening and to be doing something to "fix" whatever she perceives is wrong.

Edward and Sigrid: They have a daughter Mariella. Sigrid suffered severe depression around the time of Mariella's birth and did not want anyone but Edward and her own parents to know. Edward tries but can't stop his mother from guessing the truth--and then when his mother presses the issue with Sigrid once she returns to England, Sigrid feels betrayed. It takes a while for the two of them to return to a better relationship. Even later in this novel, Sigrid flees with Mariella to Sweden for a "holiday". I was glad to see her mother gave Sigrid good marital advice and also some insight into her mother-in-law.

Ralph and Petra: They have two boys: Kit and Barney. Petra was once a student in Anthony's classes and was kind of folded into the family. She's always been a bit of an odd duck. Maybe it's a bit weird to have two odd ducks married to each other.

Ralph was once employed by a bank in Singapore and when he left there, he thought he wanted to be self-employed. Maybe if they'd stayed on Shingle St. his business would have performed differently--it's hard to say. Ralph seems to find that he misses working for someone else when he's given the chance to return to banking.

Ralph and Petra let his parents convince them that they need to move from Shingle St. to a bigger place because of the children. Ralph's business fails and instead of telling his wife and including her in planning, he just makes a plan and then is stunned when she doesn't feel it is the right one for her.
The two don't communicate well to each other and Ralph's need to feel "free" translates in Petra's mind into the two of them being free to see other people--and this leads to an estrangement.

Luke and Charlotte: Newlyweds, they soon find they are expecting--something that's so against Rachel's ideas of their life that she blurts out some things that hurt Charlotte's feelings and cause a rift in the family as most side with Charlotte. Even Anthony feels that what Rachel said was wrong, but he is somewhat loyal to his wife as well--and it does open the two of them up to some honest conversations and to Anthony putting his foot down in some situations that Rachel wants to orchestrate. Charlotte seems to favor her family over Luke's. Apparently, Charlotte was treated as a princess in her family--and she seems to sometimes feel that "happily ever after" should just happen in her life without a lot of effort. Charlotte seems to favor her family over that of her husband (even before the tiff with Rachel). I still haven't decided if that was just because she felt more comfortable with them or if it was something more. I was glad to see that Charlotte and Luke do communicate better than his siblings do and that Luke was intent on the two of them working together to make their marriage and life work rather than relying on Charlotte's mother to give them a nanny and a bigger place.

So along the way, everyone grew to new understanding. Sigrid learned to see the other side of the coin and to appreciate Edward. Ralph and Petra both grew up and learned to appreciate one another and hopefully have learned communication skills. Luke and Charlotte are learning how to be a family. Anthony learns to confront his wife in love and Rachel learns there are times she needs to hold back and not insert herself as well as that she needs to find something to occupy her time that is hers. ( )

This is my first Joanna Trollope and I am glad to have picked it up. Trollope's novels as I understand now revolve around families and relationships and in daughters-in-law as the title obviously suggests it is about the son's wives and their roles in the family. Trollope does a very good job of painting excellent characters. All her characters are well rounded and speak for themselves.

They are very well explained, the subtle shift in the relationship between parents and the son after the wife arrives, the way family works its way around a crisis, Trollope does offer some interesting insight and dimensions to her character's minds.

Storywise, there isnt much to it, however it is the way Trollope handles the characters and the shows the tensions between them, that make it worth your while.

Go on then, if you are in the mood for some family drama. If you like Amanda Brookefield and her family dramas, then you will like this one too! ( )

Very good exploration of family dynamics. The given description (from the book cover) is quite misleading; makes me wonder if the person who wrote it actually read the book. ( )