Three Books That Take You Through Generations of a Family

Reprinted from the Citizen:

Sometimes there is nothing better than getting lost in a good book that takes you through the story of generations of a family. Reading about the family dynamics can invite comparisons and contrasts to one’s own family. One of my favorite summer books ever is Anne Rivers Siddons’ novel Colony, about Maude, a young woman who arrives a bride at her husband’s family summer retreat in Maine feeling like an outsider. Over the years, Maude comes to love the colony and becomes the caretaker of the family and their beloved home. 

This month’s Book Report has three stories about generations of families, and the strong pull of home. First is a book published last year, Regina Porter’s The Travelers, which takes us from the 1950s through Obama’s first year as president. 

Porter travels back and forth in time, and she helpfully lists the Cast of Characters and their relationship to each other at the beginning of the novel. At the beginning of each chapter she shares the year that chapter covers. 

James Vincent Jr. is a successful Manhattan lawyer, who has a son by his first wife Sigrid. Sigrid takes their son Rufus and moves to California, and James remarries. He also has a son by his occasional mistress, but this is not acknowledged by anyone.

Rufus marries Claudia, a black woman, whose mother Agnes was traumatized as a young woman, which led her to leave home and marry Eddie, who ends up in Vietnam, serving on a naval ship with his cousins. The men make a decision on that ship that will haunt Eddie.

The character who interested me most was Eloise, who was in love with Agnes and devastated when Agnes rebuffed her. Eloise was obsessed with Bessie Coleman, a black aviatrix, and wanted nothing more than to learn how to fly.

The families’ stories intersect over generations, and it’s fascinating to see how Porter weaves all of her characters stories together and how strong the pull towards home is for all. I highly recommend it.

Brit Bennett’s new novel, The Vanishing Half is currently sitting atop the New York Times’ bestseller list for a good reason- it’s fantastic. Like The Travelers, the story begins in the 1950s, with high school aged twin sisters Stella and Desiree living in a small all-black community in the South. 

Desiree longs to leave their small town and wants Stella, who would love nothing more that to go to college and become a teacher in their small community, to come with her. Something happens that convinces Stella she must leave, and the girls sneak away.

In 1968, Desiree reluctantly returns back home with her young daughter in tow, but not Stella. Stella left Desiree years ago, moved away and left no forwarding address. When Stella applied for a secretarial job, she was able to pass as a white woman, and when she got the job she continued passing.

Years later Stella is married to a wealthy man and has a daughter. No one knows she is black, and she lives with the fear that one day she will be found out. That day may come when Desiree’s daughter and her daughter meet. 

The Vanishing Half is about race, family, identity, and Bennett’s writing is just brilliant. She delves into the fears and dreams of her characters, and again how strong the pull of home is.

Connie Schultz’s novel The Daughters of Erietown spans the decades from the 1950s through the 1970s in the industrial town of Erietown, Ohio. Ellie is a high school girl madly in love with Brick, the star basketball player. 

Both are planning on going to college when Ellie discovers she is pregnant. All of their future dreams change as they marry and begin a family. Brick goes to work in the maintenance department of a coal plant, and Ellie stays home with their children.

Over the years, they mourn their lost dreams, and Brick’s unhappiness causes him to become reckless. We see their oldest child, Samantha, grow up in during turbulent times in her family and in the country as she has to make decisions for her own future.

The Daughters of Erietown is a great read for anyone from a small town as well as anyone who came of age of the 1960s and 1970s, with the intergenerational struggles that took center stage. Each character is vividly portrayed, and their decisions have consequences that reverberate for everyone. I highly recommend it.

The Travelers by Regina Porter- A+

Published by Hogarth 

Hardcover, $27, 320 pages

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett- A+

Published by Riverhead Books

Hardcover, $27, 350 pages

The Daughters of Erietown by Connie Schultz- A

Published by Random House

Hardcover, $28, 457 pages