Family Romance: A Love Story

Family Romance is a very narrowly-focused memoir of a very unusual family, but it's made me think a lot about families in general and my family in specific. The people are fascinating, and the language is lovely, and tracing the story of a lying ex-nun and a dreamer worker bee is great reading. The second half of the book steps away from the whodunit suspense of the first half and becomes more reflective (some may say boring). I don't know, it just spoke to me. It was a book that makes me feel tenderly towards humanity, the evanescence of life, the complexity of family relationships, all of that stuff. If you need a gentle, engaging memoir to soothe a plane ride or keep you company on a rainy afternoon, this is your book. And then go read Lanchester's wickedly delightful The Debt to Pleasure: A Novel

Most families have secrets. Sometimes those secrets are held BY family members; other times they are held FROM family members. And sometimes a bit of both. John Lanchester explores the circumstances and consequences of these dynamics in this genuinely wonderful book. He begins with his grandparents, and takes us on a complicated journey through the generations that followed. The geography of the book is broad and interesting in itself - Africa, Ireland, England, Australia, Burma, even Brunei, and - perhaps especially - Hong Kong. Lanchester tells his mother's story, then his father's, and then the story of their marriage and his childhood. It is as interesting for the things he didn't know about and/or took for granted as it is for the chronology and analysis of his early life. We know from the book's jacket that his mother took on a new identity after leaving the convent. The ease with which she managed this early case of identity theft is staggering and, in an odd way, admirable. However, there was for me a major twist as the story developed; it involves Lanchester himself, and the struggles he has had coming to terms with life, with writing and just being in the world. I found his story intensely moving and honest - almost a story within the story, but still fitting the overall context. By chance, I read this book while on holiday, and the other book I read was Bill Bryson's memoir, "Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid." Bryson announces that "growing up was easy. It required no thought or effort on my part." This is a long way from the experience of John Lanchester, and while Bryson is a witty jotter, Lanchester is a deeply insightful and (yet?) very readable author. Fans of his fiction will love Family Romance, and new readers will warm to him very quickly. I hope he gives us more of himself in the years ahead.