2019 Book Review #36: Baby of the Family

I saw this book on the "new books" shelf at the towne library and didn't recognize the author's name.  She is a young woman who lives in Brooklyn/NYC and this is her first novel.  It was very good.

STORY SUMMARY

The Whitby family goes back many generations and their money is what has defined them. They're an American dynasty....sort of like the Vanderbilt's, the Kennedy's, the Rockefeller's. Most of the family wealth was acquired through real estate investments.

The Whitby family used to be big news...the death of one would be covered by national news!  But now Roger Whitby, Jr, who has 3 ex-wives and is married to a much younger #4....is dying.  In fact, he dies alone in his house in California.  Most of his family.....ex-wives and the many children he has had with them...live on the East Coast or in Europe. None of them know their father is dead until the family lawyer, Armond,  gets in touch with them. What they learn will shock them:  Roger has left everything  to his 21 year old son Nick...and Nick is a Whitby in name only!  He is actually Susan Scribner Whitby's son before Susan was married to Roger.  He has never known his biological dad and has never felt close to his step-father Roger.  In fact, Nick is no where to be found when the lawyer gets word of Roger's death, nor do any of Nick's half siblings know where he is.

Brooke, who is an older daughter from Roger's 2nd marriage, is unexpectedly pregnant and fears losing her Boston home to Nick who now, because of Roger's will, owns it.  She begins the search for Nick as she wants to convince him to let her keep the Boston place.

Shelly, the only child from Roger's 3rd marriage, is a recent college drop out although no one in the family, including her mentally ill mother, knows.  Shelly has begun working for a blind architect as  an amanuensis  who happens to be Middle Eastern but married to an American and has one college aged daughter named Grace. Part of her job with Mr Kamal involves crossing complicated boundaries.  One day, Nick, on the run from the law, appears at Shelly's NYC apartment and ends up living there with her for several months.  He's on the run for committing arson during a political activist situation up in Maine. Brooke has told Shelly about the will but Shelly hasn't told Brooke that Nick is living with her nor has Shelly revealed to Nick that he now owns all the Whitby wealth.  But he will find out!

These three half-siblings all being to question themselves...it's what they have been running from their entire lives...their father (now dead!) has never been emotionally connected to them nor has he physically been present for very long in any of his children's lives.  And yet..they all love him in some manner and all long for his approval. They begin to ask themselves:  "what do I want my future to look like?" Can they finally escape their past? 

MY THOUGHTS

This book, thankfully, has a family tree in the beginning, which is helpful because there are a LOT of characters!  Once I learned who everyone was, I didn't have to refer to it very often. 

The story actually is told in the perspectives of Brooke, Shelly and Nick.  It's a story about the American dream...and how often that dream can go awry.

It centers on family secrets and how they define us, how they bind us to one another, and how they threaten to tear us apart.

It's a coming of age book for some of the offspring of Roger, Jr. (particularly Shelly and Nick).

I did learn a new word by reading this book! Amanuensis (an artistic or literary assistant; a person who takes dictation or copies manuscriptes). 

The characters are very well developed and most of the book takes place in 2003 in NYC.  Some parts go back to the 1970s or 1990s so that you know the backstory of some of the family and all of Rogers' wives.

It's a novel about blended families and all the angst that can  come with that.

There are some scenes I could have done without...some weird s*x scenes...not explicit descriptions but just some odd things.  I didn't like that part of it.  There were also a lot of swear words in this book and I honestly just don't like it when author's use the "f" word. It's so crass.  I usually think most characters are well enough developed so that the swearing isn't necessary to set the tone of the character.

The book touches on lesbianism, family relationships, single parenthood, infidelity, emotional and physical abuse, drug abuse, political activism, and the priveleged vs the not privileged.  It also touches a bit on police brutality and mental illness.

The story moves well although I felt it getting a little bogged down during all the political activist stuff that Nick and Grace (Kamal's daughter) were getting involved in.

The ending was excellent and it was my favorite part of the book.

A quote that I enjoyed was actually from the last chapter:

"But the truth of the matter is that there was no scourge at all.  Each action that formed the long and sometimes unlikely history of our family also came from an individual, free-willed choice that someone made. Sometimes these choices made other people happy, and sometimes they didn't. But as a family, we have been, and are, simply blessed with the opportunity to have been able to make our own choices." (pg 446, Baby of the Family by Maura Roosevelt, c.2019)

In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to some language and content)

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this an 8.