Commonwealth in Retro Chapter Chicks

Feb 06, 2017 Candi rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary-literary, goodreads-2016-award-nominees

"Had the Keatings just put the gin in their liquor cabinet no one would have thought less of them. But Fix Keating had given the bottle to his wife, and his wife, worn down by the stress of throwing a good party, was going to have a drink, and if she was going to have a drink then by God everyone at the party was welcome to join her."

A couple receives a very unusual gift at a christening party. I don’t remember anyone ever showing up with a bottle of gin at either of my children’s baptisms, but "Had the Keatings just put the gin in their liquor cabinet no one would have thought less of them. But Fix Keating had given the bottle to his wife, and his wife, worn down by the stress of throwing a good party, was going to have a drink, and if she was going to have a drink then by God everyone at the party was welcome to join her."

A couple receives a very unusual gift at a christening party. I don’t remember anyone ever showing up with a bottle of gin at either of my children’s baptisms, but then again we didn’t invite every soul we knew and then some! In Commonwealth, an uninvited guest will provide the gin, the hostess will squeeze the oranges, and the neighbors will dash to their homes to add to the stash of alcohol. Well, if you’ve ever been to a party with lots of booze, which I suspect you have, then I’m sure you know that something is bound to happen. What happens at the christening party of pretty little Franny Keating will have a lasting effect on two families.

I thought this was an entertaining book. The characters are very well developed and seemed so real. Six children and two sets of parents, a good deal of dysfunction, and some very interesting family dynamics make for a lot of drama. Shifting between characters and timelines kept the narrative engaging. I don’t think I would have liked this as much if it had been told in a linear fashion. The story jumped back and forth from when the children were very young, to teen years, to younger adults, and into middle-age. Adults grew into old age. It didn’t trip me up at all, as Patchett managed to pull this off with ease. I worried for these kids, out and about with no or little supervision – would they actually make it into adulthood?! My sister and I were watched like hawks by our parents, so I couldn’t at all relate to this story – perhaps that piqued my interest even more. As is the case with siblings and groups of kids, not everyone got along. Someone is always picked on or exploited for the benefit of the others. That was true here as well. I felt sorry for little Albie! There’s always that little kid that you see in action in real life and you think to yourself, “I wonder how he/she’s going to turn out?” Well, that’s what I thought about Albie. And I found out! I would actually have liked to learn a bit more about Albie in his older years, but there is no way Patchett could cover everyone in detail through adulthood unless she wanted to turn this into a family saga of sorts.

There were a couple of things I fussed about while reading this, so I’ll share here. I thought the ending was rushed. I just expected it to perhaps come together a bit more by the end, but it seemed to finish rather abruptly. Also, there was a mystery event that is revealed to the reader in little bits and pieces. I felt the suspense of this building up as I turned the pages. I was eager to return to this part of the story so I could find out what happened. When I did, however, I felt a bit underwhelmed. I don’t know why I thought this was leading us somewhere else. I felt sad rather than shocked. I guess I expected to feel more surprised. I really like Ann Patchett’s concise prose, her storytelling feels fluid even with shifts in time. I liked the reflection on the “what-ifs”. If this one thing had happened differently, then things would have turned out another way. The choices we make lead us down paths that we cannot know ahead of time, but we should know that all of our choices will affect more than just ourselves. This book would appeal to readers that like contemporary fiction and stories about interesting family dynamics. This is my second novel by this author, and I plan to read more! I’m giving Commonwealth 3.5 stars rounded up for the strength in the writing.
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Jan 18, 2018 Book Concierge rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio, family, literary-fiction, books-about-books, california, virginia, book-club, concierge, library

Digital audiobook narrated by Hope Davis

Two families – the Cousins and the Keatings – are intertwined after a chance encounter at the christening party for Franny Keating. The couples divorce, and intermarry. The novel follows the four parents and six children over five decades. The children form a bond over their shared summers in Virginia. But in her twenties, Franny meets a famous author and begins an affair with him. He uses the stories she tells of her siblings and their childhood as the ba ...more

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Aug 26, 2017 Celia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audible, kindle-list, 52-2017, 2017-read, book-club

I LOVE Audible. The reading of Hope Davis really makes this book come alive. And this book deserves to come alive.

When I started Commonwealth, I was sure I would not like it. A man and woman meet by chance at her baby's christening resulting in each leaving their respective spouses and children to get married. HE wasn't even invited to the party. How preposterous is that?

But then I started to really meet the four adults and six children affected by these divorces and remarriage and the book beca ...more

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Nov 08, 2016 Lory Sakay rated it it was amazing

Shelves: book-club-reads

They way Patchett expertly intertwines her characters and plot is seamless. Although it took me a bit to sort out all the different players and names, along with the bouncing back and forth of time periods, I quickly got to the point of not wanting to put this book down. She took the reader along a generation of family "drama", poignantly describing each person's personality, successes, strengths, and failures. Usually when an author reaches to develop too many characters they end up seeming wat ...more

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Feb 12, 2017 Tasha rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A solid 4 stars. The writing and the story pulled me right in. I wasn't the biggest fan of the character timelines though, I prefer a more chronological timeline. Overall it was a wonderful read. ...more

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May 09, 2017 Theresa rated it really liked it

Shelves: coming-of-age, contemporary-general-fiction, z-pop-sugar-2017-reading-challenge

Enjoyed reading, finding this assortment of children and adults and the events of their lives oddly recognizable. The experience of reading the events and lives from different character's POV is very meditative, not what you expect. Yet it is still a fast and engaging read.

Read for 2017 Pop Sugar Reading Challenge as my book taking place over a character's lifetime - it opens at Frannie's christening party in the 1960s and ends 50+ years later, all mature with the parental generation facing dea ...more

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