Good Family
by Terry Gamble
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Description
A retreat on Lake Michigan for old-money WASPs, Sand Isle has long been the summer residence of the Addison family. The youngest member of the clan, Maddie Addison, survived an awkward but sheltered adolescence only to be plagued in adulthood by alcoholism, a failed marriage, and an unendurable loss that sent her fleeing the burden of family expectations. Now, after an eleven-year hiatus, Maddie has been summoned back to Sand Isle, where her widowed mother languishes near death. What awaits show more Maddie is a collision of distinct, eccentric personalities -- by turns hilarious and poignant -- as well as an archive of memories that evoke pleasure, passion, and pain. Beneath the silent gaze of her ailing mother, Maddie and her family must confront their past and face the future to once again find a home in a house steeped in untold stories of its own. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
This was an enjoyable and sometimes humorous description of a family of old money gathered at their summer home on an island in northern Lake Michigan as the last of the oldest generation dies. It's about how a family can both damage and heal.
An extended family reunites at their summer cottage to await the death of the family matriarch.
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Author Information
4 Works 302 Members
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Good Family
- Original publication date
- 2005
- People/Characters
- Maddie Addison
- Important places
- Sand Isle, Michigan, USA
- Dedication
- This one's to Peter
And in loving memory of my parents, Jim and H. - First words
- In the years before our grandmother died, when my sister and I wores matching dresses, and the grown-ups, unburdened by conscience, drank gin and smoked; those years before planes made a mockery of distance, and physics a moc... (show all)kery of time; in the years before I knew what it was like to be regarded with hard, needy want, when my family still had its goodness, and I my innocence; in those years before Negroes were blacks, and soldiers went AWOL, and women were given their constrained, abridged liberties, we traveled to Michigan by train.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)She says, Dearest, let me tell you about the house.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 92
- Popularity
- 347,958
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.50)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 4
- ASINs
- 3
