At its heart, Boop and Eve’s Road Trip is the story of a dysfunctional family. Sixty years before the start of the novel, Boop makes a difficult choice for the sake of the family she loves. Only Boop doesn’t tell her daughter Justine about it. Without that information, Justine misunderstands her mother, their family, and her childhood, which has consequences when it’s Justine’s turn to parent. A secret that rots an entire family. Three generations pay the price. And the crazy thing is they all love each other…
Complicated families make rich fodder for literature. Below are a few books I recommend with richly complex family relationships.
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennet is a fascinating story of light-skinned twins who take different paths. One passes for white with her white husband in California and the other lives in the black community where she grew up with her dark-skinned daughter. Neither is comfortable in her own skin. Both carry the weight of their choices, secrets, and skin color. The grown daughters of the twins eventually cross paths and through them, the family is thrown back together to face the consequences of choices. This well-written exploration of racial identity and bigotry is worth a read. If you are interested in other books with black authors, check out this post.
The Jettsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward centers around Charlotte Perkins, the matriarch of an estranged family. Charlotte wins a European cruise and takes her three adult children along as her guests. The sense here is that the members of this family have drifted apart such that they don’t really know each other beyond their bio basics and family roles. The cruise forces them to come clean with one another and risk rejection in the hope of acceptance. While the novel touches on some serious topics like homosexuality and suicide, the overall tone is cruise ship light. Seventy-year-old Charlotte’s wrestle with her sexuality is endearing and gives her a personhood often lacking in books with senior characters. The European travels add fun settings and adventures that make this an engaging read.
What happens when sibling rivalry meets rival chicken restaurants on reality t.v.? The Chicken Sisters. Two chicken restaurants, started generations ago by rival sisters, continue their rivalry in a small Kansas town. Mimi’s is little more than a roadside stand with a very small, but very delicious menu. Whereas, Frannie’s is a sit-down restaurant with a bar and an extensive menu. Mimi’s is run by the eccentric Barbara, who realizing her restaurant needs a facelift to compete in the reality show, calls in her perfectionist daughter Mae for help. Only Barbara has another daughter, Amanda, who is less than pleased at the return of Mae. Years before Barbara disowned Amanda for marrying the heir to Frannie’s. Only now the heir has died and the widowed Amanda is running the rival restaurant, along with her mother-in-law. Both restaurants are struggling to make a go of it when a reality t.v. show decides to feature them. This gives them much-needed money and PR, but also pits sister against sister. This is a fun behind-the-scenes reality show read.
The Sanatorium by Sara Pearse is a gothic thriller that will keep you turning pages all night. Two sets of siblings bring their dysfunction to a tale set in a sanatorium turned luxury hotel in the Swiss Alps. Our main character Elin arrives at the hotel to celebrate the engagement of her brother. Only his fiance goes missing and Elin grows concerned that her brother might be involved in her disappearance. The hotel itself is run by another set of siblings whose backstory unfolds alongside the plot twists. Dysfunctional families aside, the setting is a standout in this claustrophobic detective story.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman is a unique novel that centers around Eleanor Oliphant, who is as quirky as her name. To be honest, Eleanor’s a bit awkward and abrasive upon meeting her. The main storyline is the friendship that develops between Eleanor and the bumbling IT guy Raymond. As Raymond gets to know Eleanor and comes to see past those personality traits that were initially offputting, the reader gets to take the same journey. In particular, the flashbacks between Eleanor and her evil mother shed such light on Eleanor and gain her so much sympathy that the reader comes to love Eleanor through understanding her. This book was also featured in a recent post entitled Recommended Books about Mental Health with Happy Endings.