If ever there were to be a literary love child of Jonathan Franzen and Anne Tyler, then Claire Lombardo’s outstanding debut, which ranges from ebullience to despair by way of caustic but intense familial bonds, would be a worthy offspring.
Married couple Marilyn and David Sorenson have spent the past 40 years raising their four daughters. David is a doctor, while Marilyn has forgone the best years of her career to care for her family, not always without a little resentment. Now all her babies have reached adulthood and are experiencing varying levels of inner – and outer – turmoil.
The eldest, Wendy, is grieving the loss of both her husband and premature baby, indulging in an excess of wine and massaging an acerbic tongue. Uptight Violet has relinquished a promising law career for motherhood and has set herself the impossible task of achieving a perfect domestic life. Academic Liza has just been granted tenure, but with a baby on the way and a depressive boyfriend is struggling to align the various aspects of her life. Meanwhile, the baby of the family, Grace, is the only one who’s moved away from home, but when she fails to be accepted by law school, ends up fabricating a series of lies that must inevitably implode.
At the novel’s outset, Wendy has tracked down the adolescent child who Violet gave up for adoption 15 years earlier, an act by Wendy that could be construed as compassionate or provocative, depending on your point of view (and Lombardo is skilled at altering the reader’s perception of characters’ motivations and morality from one chapter to the next).
Jonah’s arrival shifts the prism through which each of these complex family members view their lives, forcing reappraisals and reprisals.
The problem, ironically, for this sororal quartet is that their parents have always been too much in love, setting a romantic bar that none of their daughters imagine ever being able to reach. As Wendy tells Marilyn: “We’re all emotionally stunted because you and Dad love each other more than you love us… It’s not necessarily a bad thing… I’d rather be fucked up because my parents are hot for each other than because they’re, like, keeping me chained to a bike rack overnight and feeding me raw oats. But you have to admit that there’s a gradient of preference.”
Lombardo has a keen eye and ear for dysfunctional family dynamics: sibling rivalry, marital disquiet, parental guilt.
This is a novel epic in scope – emotionally, psychologically and narratively. Combining a broad thematic canvas with impressive emotional nuance, it’s an assured and highly enjoyable debut.
• The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson (£16.99). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £15, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99
