![]() ![]() ![]() While he's gone the inventive guests begin to harvest oranges from the burgeoning fruit trees in the Keatings' backyard. There is no tonic to go along with the gin so Fix has to leave the party to go pick some up. ![]() Bert Cousins, the uninvited, shows up with the best and only christening gift he could lay his hands on as he hastily abandons his pregnant wife Teresa and the couple's three other children for the chaos of a party with a family he barely knows. The party is winding down trays of food are running low, as is the liquor supply. Fix and Beverly Keating are celebrating their youngest daughter Franny's big day with a houseful of friends and relatives. There's a christening party going on at the home of one of LA's Irish cops. It's June in Los Angeles, on a Sunday afternoon in the early 1960s. She knows her way around your feelings and treats them with tenderness and respect. If not, then you're in for a real treat as her intimate prose winds its way into your psyche and puts you at immediate ease. That is, if you've read one of Patchett's books before. ![]() Not the kind of friend who finishes your sentences, but the kind who's got lots of stories to tell about her trips to Machu Picchu or sub-Saharan Africa. Opening Ann Patchett's novel Commonwealth about two semi-functional mid-late 20th century families feels like sliding into a comfy chair in a quiet tearoom with an old friend. Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how a chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |