Sneak Preview: This review will appear on KGB Lit Magazine next week. I finally finished writing it, much to my editor's relief . I would be grateful if you could help me think of a title.
At times brilliant, at times tactical and plain, Shari Goldhagen's "Family and Other Accidents" has moments of wisdom, wistfulness and elegiac beauty as it describes relationships atrophied by miscommunication and elapsed time. The novel recounts the accidental lives of the orphaned Reed brothers over two decades. Jack, ten years older than Connor, returns to Cleveland to be his guardian when their parents unexpectedly pass away. While Jack copes with the sudden responsibility and authority of being a parent, Connor yearns for a closer relationship with him, seeking both mother and father in him.
Over the years, their dysfunctional family of two expands to include more complications – patient Mona for Jack and devoted Laine for Connor. Jack and Connor play out their lives unawares, profoundly affected by accident and circumstance. What follows are reactionary lives led by chance, rather than choice. It is noteworthy that both Mona and Laine are dedicated and patient - and always waiting for the men to make some decision, some choice that will liberate them from the heavy sense of inherited fate. Though these are modern superwomen, ambitious, focused, and capable of taking care of themselves, they are far more emotionally dependent on their men, than the women from Jane Austen’s world.
I appreciate Goldhagen’s depiction of how things dissipate, how elusive things that cause you pain are not necessarily what makes you happy when they are attained. How great things become middling and unwanted; how plain and petty we all are at the end. And that there are consequences for lost time. This is well exemplified when Jack asks Mona for a divorce, "it had been the saddest moment of her life because she realized he had no desire to hurt her, he simply wanted to leave.”
Another touching point that Goldhagen makes is that the vast majority of actions we take are based on guilt and on things that have nothing to do with desire. She excels at describing the heaviness of the real – the emotional squalor that has nothing to do with poverty – such as in ‘As Good As It Gets’ where Helen Hunt’s character’s evening out is curt short when her date rejects her, commenting on her sick child’s vomit on her dress – “it’s too much reality for a Saturday night.”
Goldhagen is indeed talented and knows how to turn a sentence, especially in describing Connor's cancer stricken body as seen by Jack; “he noticed the question mark curve of his brother's bald head.” In another moment, Connor is depicted as disease ridden saint – emaciated, suffering, shitting and vomiting at same time. Yet there are also mediocre moments in which Golhagen submits herself to using easy gimmicks such as having consistent multiple year gaps between chapters.
At times touching, at times rote – Goldhagen's writing is disjointed and inconsistent. It is as though she tired of diligent writing. There's a lot of "answers with more sincerity than he has ever had about anything" and just too many 'ever' statements. These statements are more ‘tell’ than ‘show’ and are hurried attempts of lending an air of gravitas to her writing. This is particularly evident in the interactions between Jack and Conner. Almost every moment they spend is "ever had about anything" which at first is touching, then rote, then grating.
Though “Family and Other Accidents” has moments of clarity in which deep emotions are elucidated, on the whole, it falls short of great. Goldhagen is clearly a keen observer and reporter of human interactions. However, she is not yet a long-distance runner – her novice style reveals itself when she relies too heavily on literary devices and similar phrases to pull the story through where the connections fail. The reliance on multi-year breaks between chapters betrays that she is more familiar and comfortable with shorter runs – at times, the chapters work better as short stories, rather than as components of a complete work. I look forward to her second novel.
why does a review need a title? i thought the review was good except for "elapsed time." doesn't "time" work as well? its a small detail but thats the only thing i didn't like about it. i don't read anything short of great but perhaps i'll be looking foward to her second novel as well, eh? how about that for a title. "short of great"? i also suggest "middle aged divorcee's guide to spiralling depression" and also "disease ridden saint: emaciated, suffering, shitting and vomiting at same time." that's an eye catcher.
Posted by: Elron Hubburd | August 08, 2006 at 08:39 AM