Family Album by Penelope Lively, Penguin, RRP $29, ISBN 9780141041223, Available now.
How does Penelope Lively do it? She’s 77, she’s written 19 or so books for adults (and more than that for kids), she’s been shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times and won it once, and she’s still giving us brilliant, contemporary, insightful novels like Family Album.
The story of a large family, revolving around the equally large family home named Allersmead, Family Album is an exploration of family dynamics, of what family means and the reality of adult lives vs childhood fantasy.
Family Album doesn’t focus on a linear plot as such, but is rather a revelation of memories, impressions and communications between family members – and as these progress we gradually become aware of family secrets and “lies” – and the deepening understanding of the now adult children and their awareness of their parents as wholly separate individuals.
Lively’s characterisations are as rounded and spartanly drawn as ever, accomplishing with few words skilful pictures of fully realised people. It gradually becomes obvious that our expectations of the characters are being lightly overturned – the cold, withdrawn father and the matronly, nurturing mother become a scared, trapped husband and a wife whose tendency to emotional meltdown must be appeased, even at the cost of others in the family.
A couple of threads appear in the story (like the “cellar game” the children play) that seem to get lost amongst the noise which is something of a shame – it’s the one small disjoint that marrs an otherwise great read.
An almost perfectly formed small gem of a novel – I have to recommend this as a brilliant little read.
