Good Family

written by Terry Gamble

Wow, I've read two books inside of two weeks. You can tell I've been on vacation!

This book is billed as fiction, but you definitely get the sense that many elements of it are autobiographical. It's about a wealthy, WASP-y family steeped in old money, and the story is told by the adult daughter of the dying matriarch. The setting is a sprawling "summer cottage" (read: mansion) on an island in northern Lake Michigan, where the matriarch's daughters and an assortment of other relatives are gathered to see her through her final days.

Though the locale is fictional, any midwestern reader will picture Mackinac Island right away. The island has large, Victorian-style homes, a quaint historic downtown, and no automobiles are allowed. The author, I found out later, has a lot in common with the protagonist: she grew up in California but spent her summers at a family beach house on Lake Michigan. This novel grew out of her experience of losing her mother under circumstances similar to what's described in this story.

There isn't a ton of action in this book, and at times I wished the dying mother would just die already. The whole ordeal seems to kind of drag on and on. But even though the mother's looming death feels a bit wearisome, it does give the author a good backdrop for unfolding a really well-done character study. You get a vivid peek into the past of the daughter, Maddie, who, despite her privileged upbringing, has endured a lot of pain and dysfunction, including alcoholism, a failed marriage, loss of a child, and some really out-there family relationships. You also get a candid view of some of the kooky aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.

If your family is anything like mine, you'll recognize some of the experiences and character traits in the stories the author tells. In fact, the book reminded me in some ways of the movie The Family Stone, which also portrays some archetypical characters and relationships.

It was really helpful to have a chart of the family tree at the front of the book, just because some of the characters seemed to run together in my mind.

Overall, it's not a bad summer read. Despite some of the kind of depressing themes, I think Gamble is a really talented writer, and I felt quite drawn in by her portrayal of individual characters.