Family Album

Family Album, by Penelope Lively; Viking Adult Publishing, 2009

Reviewed by Sarah Fairbank

Penelope Lively's Family Album features a large, lively family with some secrets. The main character wants a blissful childhood for her six children--a real "old fashioned" family life. But there are cracks in the facade. The father is distant, and the mother has inexplicable emotional outbursts. All is not well. The now-grown children have tried their best to maintain the ''blissful" illusion--each at a cost--with lingering effects on their adult lives. I found this novel less convincing/compelling than many others the author has written. But the book's family was definitely amusing; with dysfunctional, interesting characters. The Sunday Philosophy Club, by Alexander McCall Smith, features Isabel Dalhousie, an editor for a philosophical magazine. Isabel writes long passages about ethics, death and suicide. There are four other fun characters, including a housekeeper, fox, a girlfriend/niece and a young man she has the hots for. I found the nonfiction book Derek Jarmen's Garden to be very beautiful and moving. This is the story of a young filmmaker/artist with AIDS who purchases a fisherman's cottage in Dungeness, Kent, in England--a location that has the least rainfall and the longest growing season in Britain. This journal is full of plant choices, garden images, and moving stories. It is a joy to read and learn from.