![]() ![]() The children gang up against the four parents, who are now more or less absent, and the childhood antics are like an Enid Blyton fantasy gone horribly wrong. The gun doesn’t ever go off, but, from the moment the handsome guest and the beautiful mother lock eyes, the two families, one with four children, the other with two, are done for. But it turns out Patchett is just playing with the reader here. Throughout the novel there are guns and literary references, many of these to Chekhov, leading the reader to recall the famous quote about the gun on the wall in act one that will go off in act three. So, an ironic beginning, and by the way the baby’s father is a cop, and the house is full of cops with guns in holsters. The story starts with a christening party at which the beautiful mother of the baby girl falls for a handsome guest. In this engrossing novel, the principal two families are fractured so that the members, in particular the children, no longer have access to that common good. Ideally, a family exists for the common good of its members. Revelations ebb and flow in Ann Patchett’s new novel. ![]() ![]() Tags: Ann Patchett/ Anton Chekhov/ Enid Blyton ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |