“The Most Fun We Ever Had” is an ambitious and brilliantly written first novel, sometimes amusing and sometimes shocking, but its unrelenting nature … There are couples who seem as though they’ve been in love forever, to the point of appearing physically inseparable. The novel is absolutely a pleasant and enjoyable read, but is in no way “gritty.”. Various dramas play out over the year (the sections are titled “Spring,” “Summer,” “Fall,” and “Winter”); others are explored retrospectively, beginning in 1975. “The Most Fun We Ever Had” is a novel about a family and follows in the footsteps of other reknown novels the chronicle the intricate complexities of close relationships. Perhaps the daughters, as millennials, simply assume that constant use of the work “f---” is standard, and perhaps the family shares an edgy sense of humor that others read as hostility. 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Even family interactions elicit a mix of exasperation and comfort. “The Most Fun We Ever Had” is an ambitious and brilliantly written first novel, sometimes amusing and sometimes shocking, but its unrelenting nature and lack of context is ultimately off-putting. At the age of 20, Wendy marries Miles, a man 15 years her senior who comes from old money, to escape her family and her eating disorder. The upside of this is that Lombardo’s sense of drama is evocative and riveting. Lombardo is intent upon exploring as much as she can about the Sorensons’ lives — the chapters alternate between present and past. Lombardo jumps around from character to character, which can be a little confusing. The only person other than Violet who knows of Jonah’s existence is the eldest daughter, Wendy, who was present at his birth. Why is Wendy living by herself? Only a few pages into the novel, and the reader already knows about Wendy’s vulnerability, characterized as “vestiges of her teenage habits appeared only fleetingly for her now — she still, on occasion, flirted with the idea of purging, and once in a while she’d try a diet that she read about in US Weekly. Andrew Shaffer combines horror and humor for a unique Christmas novel, International Writing Program alums named finalists for award, Eve Ewing's exploration of race relations earns 2020 Paul Engle Prize, 'If the Body Allows It,' by Megan Cummins, is beautiful and unsettling, Author N.K. The Most Fun We Ever Had Claire Lombardo, 2019 Knopf Doubleday 544 pp. Despite their wealth, there is a plethora of more relatable issues: accidental pregnancies, eating disorders, cheating, stagnant communication — the list could go on. Will Marilyn and David find out Gracie’s secret (Gracie is the youngest of the four girls by half a generation, observant and somewhat spoiled), and when will her mother stop calling her “Goose?”, The mystery is not whether the members of this happy family will finally connect, but how. Lombardo describes falling for someone as feeling “accompanied in a way she had never before, by a person who was choosing to feel beholden to her instead of simply scooting up the rope of familial obligation.” The novel shines brightest in the moments in which Lombardo is able to probe into the psyche of her female characters to express something that feels universal, yet somehow fresh. The most appealing character is Jonah himself, who is amusing and observant but also a believable teen who can’t avoid trouble. The first thing that struck me when I was reading Claire Lombardo’s novel, “The Most Fun We Ever Had” was that when the parents of the family, Marilyn and David Sorenson, first get together, they are living on Davenport Street, in Iowa City, right about the time when I was living up the hill, on Washington. Harvard Law School Makes Online Zero-L Course Free for All U.S. Law Schools Due to Coronavirus, For Kennedy School Fellows, Epstein-Linked Donors Present a Moral Dilemma, Tenants Grapple with High Rents and Local Turnover at Asana-Owned Properties, In April, Theft Surged as Cambridge Residents Stayed at Home, The History of Harvard's Commencement, Explained. Violet confronts the son she gave up for adoption 15 years ago while grappling with her growing sense of powerlessness in her role as a stay-at-home mother. The narrative alternates between flashbacks and the present, such that the former gives much-needed context to an otherwise convoluted and detail-packed story. Her depiction of how her characters talk, how they relate, how they form their family is so precise that you must believe in them, and you must also be interested in them (which is a good thing, because 532 pages is a lot to get through). ISBN-13: 9780385544252 Summary When Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s, they are blithely ignorant of all that awaits them. Yet these lush details almost seem to weigh the novel down. Liza gets pregnant and appears to follow in Violet’s footsteps. And then there is the sudden appearance of a secret child, Jonah, age 15, the son of the Marilyn and David’s apparently well-behaved second daughter, Violet, who is happily married to Matt, has two young boys and is dedicated to organizing their childhoods perfectly. But the downside of one crisis after another is that the reader might recoil from the onslaught — there never seems to be a time, over 40 years or so, when life just moves along in a relaxing and ordinary way. Its bloated length—532 pages—is almost designed to make its every fault as glaring and grating as possible. In 2016, Marilyn and David have four daughters, all grown, and two grandsons. It is up to the Sorensons to take him in, and not all of them are in favor of doing so (if they were my neighbors in Lake Forest, outside of Chicago, I would now be shaking my head in disbelief). Claire Lombardo’s début, “The Most Fun We Ever Had,” chronicles the life of a family over the course of a year, yet it passes as quickly as the pages turn. One of her techniques is almost continuous dialogue, and the Sorensons aren’t typical reticent Midwesterners. “The Most Fun We Ever Had” is certainly not boring. Lombardo’s are mysteries of character — what did it feel like for Violet to have that child, and for Wendy to be the one to hold it and then give it up? “The Most Fun We Ever Had” is a novel about a family and follows in the footsteps of other reknown novels the chronicle the intricate complexities of close relationships. —Staff writer Cassandra Luca can be reached at cassandra.luca@thecrimson.com. A novel has to have a plot and a few mysteries the narrative must build toward. Marilyn and David Sorenson are two such people, and their four daughters — Wendy, Violet, Liza, and Grace — are simultaneously spellbound by them and over it. That is how straightforward and realistic Lombardo’s depiction of her characters is — you could eavesdrop on them or look into their windows, and this is, in many ways, Lombardo’s singular achievement in her debut novel.
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