A Family Daughter: A Novel - Hardcover

Meloy, Maile

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 074327766X ISBN 13: 9780743277662

Publisher: Scribner, 2006

Synopsis

A continuation of the story that began with Liars and Saints finds a young woman from the Santerre clan accompanying her family to Argentina, where their lives become entwined with an uninhibited rich girl, an aging French playboy, a young Eastern European prostitute, and an orphaned child. 50,000 first printing.

About this title

Review

The Family Santerre, first introduced by Maile Meloy in her 2003 novel, Liars and Saints, is back again, inspected and reported on from another angle. This time, in A Family Daughter, granddaughter Abby is the narrator. She is left with grandmother Yvette when she is seven, suffering in equal parts from chickenpox and boredom. Her mother, Clarissa, is off trying to remember what it was to be happy. Feckless Uncle Jamie is called upon to entertain Abby. A bond is formed between them at that time that has far-reaching consequences.

This family is the most chaotic bunch of narcissists to come along in some time. Yvette and Teddy, matriarch and patriarch, are devout Catholics on whom some of their childrens' antics are, fortunately, lost. Jamie is another centerpiece of the novel: funny, charming, libidinous slacker that he is, he is temporarily irresistible to everyone. Abby hits a bad patch in college after the death of her father and Jamie is there to console, and sleep with her. The impact of this event (eight events, really) results in a book, maybe fiction, maybe true, that eventually has the whole family on its respective and collective ear.

Abby's Aunt Margot, exemplary wife and mother, on automatic pilot for thirty years, suddenly leaves home to find a former lover. Clarissa might be a lesbian, she isn't sure. Abby, now happily ensconced with her former T.A., Peter, is lured to Argentina by Jamie to help care for his libertine fiancee's mother's adopted child. And, that's just a peek at what's going on. Convoluted? Yes, but it all works. Meloy can write the socks off most authors. She maintains an ironic distance from her characters in prose that you absolutely cannot stop reading until you find out every last detail. The whole shebang culminates in a Christmas celebration with everyone present. Not your ordinary singing-around-the-piano event. May the Santerres continue to thrive in Meloy's imagination! --Valerie Ryan

About the Author

Maile Meloy is the author of the story collection "Half in Love" and the novel "Liars and Saints, " which was shortlisted for the 2005 Orange Prize. Meloy's stories have been published in "The New Yorker, " and she has received "The Paris Review's" Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, the PEN/Malamud Award, the Rosenthal Foundation Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She lives in California.

About this edition

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 074327766X
• ISBN 13: 9780743277662
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336