Copyright 2023 Kirkus Media LLC. I read Everything I Never Told You this year and I really liked it although the characters were heavily flawed. 'The Most Fun We Ever Had' is an intense, edgy family drama brimming with sibling rivalry, marital distress, and soul-binding love that will leave you with an onslaught of emotions. However, it is based upon a deep and abiding love that seems to be unattainable to their four daughters within their own lives. We had four teams from Crossfit Alluvium this year. This is a great review! Now her life as a stay-at-home parent has left her feeling empty but not ungrateful for what she has. More points for Lombardo. Not only did I get to read about whats going on presently, but I got to dive into the history and background, to see how each sisters childhood and her birth order shaped her. A famous painter. So this one was (maybe) a 3.5 read for me. The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace. Imagine a perfectly crafted mash-up of LITTLE WOMEN and THE CORRECTIONS. I feel like even though the book claims each sister is in a state of unrest, Graces struggle is somehow not quite as severe as the others. I have two brothers, but were not close. Our standard tank was the Spellweaver, the support guy was the Scoundrel. Morgan felt obligated to marry her high school sweetheart, Chris, when she got pregnant with their daughter, Clara. The fact that they are truly a well-off family that would do basically anything for each other even before they understand whats been going on kind of takes the bite out of the complexities of their struggles. Art & Auctions Print Edition Books & Arts Books Bookshelf 'The Most Fun We Ever Had' Review: An Assured Debut Claire Lombardo's first novel gives a sympathetic but unsentimental look at. At times, it feels as though there are too many details, too many implausible things that go wrong, tied up with all-too-convenient deus ex machinas. A family of six subsisting on one doctors salary didnt exactly equate to the lap of luxury for the four girls while growing up (which isnt to say they wanted for anything), but most of them were able to improve their circumstances even further as they reached adulthood- their own children are well-situated indeed. Engrossing and fun but surprisingly shallow seems like a succinct way to say it. Archived. Also, nothing was happening for me. Their personalities are shitty. Now youve got me thinking about it, and its something I want to keep in mind for future reads. Get help and learn more about the design. It will reel you in and not let you go from the moment you read the first word till the last; Lombardo's powerful depiction of her characters, of . Oooh, interesting. Please comment your thoughts on how I did or what you thought of the book. This book give you unlimited access to everything, all the time. To be sure, Lombardos characters exist in a world in which money is of no object or concern, conveniently available because of the marriages the four daughters have made generally to wealthy lawyers or businessmen who seem perpetually frazzled thanks to their jobs and often find themselves in awe of the strong women with whom they chose to spend their lives. Next up is Violet, unassuming and mild. But I expect more from the Womens Prize than a simple good time, and I didnt find any standout depth or technical skill here. Get personalized recommendations, and learn where to watch across hundreds of streaming providers. Its definitely an interesting story, but not a perfect one. CLAIRE LOMBARDO earned her MFA in fiction at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. We all desperately want your life and we all know well never have it, the third-oldest, Liza, confesses in a moment of truth. Trust me. There are a FEW more likable characters though so its maybe not a totally lost cause! 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. You have to really like these characters to spend time in their lives and inside their heads for days at a time. -- Laline Paull, author of THE BEES I adored The Most Fun We Ever Had. Their problems and lives were full of needless drama and issues. ", Lombardo's sweeping family drama, fueled by power plays between spouses and between sisters, is operatic in both good ways and bad. The Most Fun We Ever Had. The usage of the word "retard" was questionable and I don't know how it was made through the rounds of editing. Why do we have someone watching a couple have sex/make out so often? I love listening to family dramas but this one had too much needless drama to my taste. At its core, The Most Fun We Ever Had isnt much more than an entertaining drama about four sisters and their futile competition to prove themselves most worthy of their picture-perfect parents- and each other. Thanks Naty! But all the small secrets from misremembered slights to misplaced bedsheets are uncovered patiently, skillfully, precisely, in service of the novels central mystery: How do you love? CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE | Thanks! While Lombardo's focus is on more happily wedded couples than Tyler's mismatched pairs, both writers share an interest in the forces that bind spouses decades after their "I do's.". The big family secret is revealed almost immediately in Claire Lombardos engrossing debut novel, The Most Fun We Ever Had, which connects four decades in the lives of the Sorensons of Oak Park, Chicago. The Most Fun We Ever Had Claire Lombardo, 2019 Knopf Doubleday 544 pp. 49,240 Ratings A multigenerational novel in which the four adult daughters of a Chicago couple--still madly in love after forty years--recklessly ignite old rivalries until a long-buried secret threatens to shatter Want to Read Rate it: I was aware that An American Marriage won last year, but I didnt know it was up against a lot of pretty strong works. The item is very worn but continues to work perfectly. Gloomhaven is a cooperative game of tactical combat, battling monsters and advancing a player's own individual goals in a persistent and changing world that is played over many game sessions. A full book review of "The Most Fun We Ever Had" by Claire Lambardo. The author of this novel is an old soul. Books by Claire Lombardo A multigenerational novel in which the four adult daughters of a Chicago couple--still madly in love after forty years--recklessly ignite old rivalries until a long-buried secret threatens to shatter the lives they've built.When Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s, they are blithely ignorant of all that's to come. Points for Lombardo, again. by Claire Lombardo. Claire Lombardo is the next Kingsolver. Sure, David and Marilyn might have had four daughters several people for whom things can go wrong but need all of them be plagued by multiple unresolved demons? Lombardo's writing is so elegant - she makes our most complex and fragmented feelings tangible, which is a very rare skill. Claire Lombardo has given us all a spectacular gift: the Sorenson family. It may not be the most fun youve ever had, but it has to be darn close. Colleen Hoover It is a stellar. Not only do I get to read about the perspective of one sister, I get to read about the thoughts and emotions of all three sisters, their parents AND Jonah. In Claire Lombardo's debut novel, The Most Fun We Ever Had, she isn't afraid to tackle the biggest of topics, specifically for womensisterhood, fear, general annoyance and birth or the absence of it.The reader gets an intimate look at the conception of the Sorenson family (literally, considering Lombardo's plethora of sex scenes), giving narrative control to each member: Marilyn and . The Offspring. Not that the narrator was bad, she was excellent, it was the fact that so much of the dialogue in the book is wrote in a staccato, abrupt, leave words off sentences, interrupting each other kind of way and by this point I couldn't listen anymore. Wendy, widowed young, soothes herself with booze and younger men . Great review! I do think there is something interesting about people who have loads of resources but do the sneaky thing out of fear instead of real hardship. You will never not be entertained. Yes, Violet was not my favorite character, but I appreciated how Lombardo portrayed her because it made me feel. Jonah and Jenny eventually broke up, but years later they had a one-night stand and Jenny got pregnant with their son, Elijah. RELEASE DATE: Dec. 10, 2019. This did not need to be 530 pages long, but man it was. The Most Fun We Ever Had is a brilliant, if meandering, portrayal of family ties, with a sharp eye for dialogue and an acute understanding of familial and sibling relationships. In the novel, four adult sisters are trying to find their way in the world, both guided and hindered by what they see as their parents epic romance, an impressive love story none of the girls is confident about finding for herself. Set in the Chicago suburbs, Lombardo's book has been compared to The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen's seminal ode to a dysfunctional Midwestern family. The book also provides perspectives from almost all main characters. "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. ), with a link to a digital soundtrack by American Idol contestant Griffin Peterson. But The Most Fun more strongly evokes Anne Tyler's explorations of long marriages in meticulously observed domestic novels like Breathing Lessons (1989), The Amateur Marriage (2004) and A Spool of Blue Thread (2015). By 2016, they have four radically different daughters, each in a state of unrest. Now Jonah is back in town, engaged to Jenny, and working at the local high school as Claras teacher. WE GET IT. Required fields are marked *. For Wendy it is a combination of fate and disposition. I could not understand why she wasnt viewing this chance as an opportunity. I mean, having caring parents and a stable household doesnt necessarily guarantee a happy childhood and eventually happy adulthood, but it seemed there should be a better way to go about making that point than blaming the people whove had good luck and put hard work into their relationships. PQ Spoilers: Zealot will do final exhaustion, which will also be final exhaustion for Anatomy, Trophy Hunt only needs one more unique, Helping Hand will witness it all. (The year 1996, an annus horribilis in the Sorensons' marriage following an office flirtation, seems particularly endless, as David notes.). I really enjoy books with different perspectives and this one definitely satisfied all of my perspective needs. I did like the relationships between the characters and seeing how their choices panned out, effecting the whole family in the end. The story centers around a couple (David and Marilyn) from when they met toward their golden years, and each of their four very different daughters. It hits plenty of high notes, but like opera, it runs long and tends toward histrionics and repetition. There is something funny, notable or awe-inspiring on every single page' Jenny Colgan, Spectator A joyful celebration of books - the perfect gift for bibliophiles, word lovers and anyone who's ever wondered, should you judge a book by its cover? The Sorenson daughters all witness their parents sharing an intimate moment beneath the gingko tree and are awestruck at their love. One of the most fun" On the surface, this is a boy meets girl, they fall in love, have children and live happily ever after. Anyone can read what you share. The Spellweaver, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace recommendations, its! 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