The Good Parents

Maya, a young ‘country’ girl, has left home to make her own way in the city. She takes a clerical job in a tiny office and almost immediately begins a clandestine affair with her boss, who seems to be preoccupied with business troubles. When her parents arrive at her flat for an expected visit, it seems Maya has disappeared. Her flatmate has no helpful intelligence. The parents are of conflicting feelings; understandably concerned by her disappearance, but telling themselves that they did “let her go” and well, she is an adult. They decide to stay in the flat and continue their vacation locally in hopes to eventually connecting with her.

London’s excellent novel is not a mystery, but an engrossing family tale, well-populated show more with a few generations of 'ordinary' people. Her familial focus moves effortlessly across time, to and from various family members, covering: Maya, her brother Magnus, her parents and their siblings and parents, but also the flatmate, old flames, close friends.… The result is a thoughtful meditation on the psychological "stuff" we drag behind us, the "stuff" we seem to inherit, and the "stuff" we leave behind.

The book has obvious mentions of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy & Chekhov, and clearly some philosophy of each writer informs the story. This is NOT the kind of family saga once so popular in the 70s and 80s, it’s much more penetrating and compassionate, and there is something about the nobility of the ordinary or what the New Yorker said in a review —"turning the past into a living, unfinished thing, still bristling with what could be."

Note: I admit I had to create a cheatsheet showing how everyone is connected to keep everyone straight. It was worth it. show less

Maya de Jong is 18 and moves to Melbourne to escape the small-town life and a failed relationship and to get a job and assert her independence. She ends up in an affair with her 50ish, married boss whose wife is dying of cancer. Under suspicious circumstances, Maya is spirited away by the boss. This is almost at the same time as her parents, Jacob and Toni, travel to the city to visit Maya and have a vacation. They leave Maya's teenage brother at home because he's still in school. Jacob and Toni stay at Maya's rental house even though she's not there and begin looking for clues as to what happened to their daughter. In this process, the reader is taken back to their own young-adult lives and the people they were then. Toni was married show more to a mobster, and Jacob was a hippy. Going through the de Jong family history is a strange and fascinating journey. Each member of the family, including Jacob's sister Kitty, is flawed but real and likeable. This book was a slow starter, but I'm glad I didn't give up because I eventually became wrapped up in the characters and their stories and enjoyed it very much. show less

"This accomplished novel starts off as the story of eighteen year old Maya de Jong, a girl from Western Australia who escapes the country to get a job in Melbourne. She works for Maynard Flynn, a slightly shady businessman, and it's not long before they embark on an affair. His wife is dying of cancer, and Maya can give him the attention he needs, indeed she becomes rather infatuated with him, (we of course know he's taking advantage of her good nature).

Jacob and Toni, her parents, come to Melbourne to stay with her for a holiday as arranged, but find her gone. Her flatmate can't help; the office is empty and Maynard and Maya have disappeared. They begin to search for Maya, and this forces them to comtemplate their lives - their own show more experiences of growing up and flying the nest...
Toni, while young, was married to a shady yet enigmatic businessman herself - playing the role of Cy Fisher's arm candy. When hippyish Jacob appears, she takes her chance to escape Cy's control, and runs away with him - so romantic, yet more so a practical choice for the father of her children.

Back in the present, Jacob's sister Kitty is dispatched to look after Maya's younger brother Magnus, and bonds with their neighbour Carlos who has family problems of his own. Jacob and Toni though, are finding the searching and waiting in Melbourne hard, especially after Jacob manages to injure his leg. Toni has to get out, while Jacob, always the slacker, is content to stay in the flat and get to know the aloof Cecile - a Malayan who was adopted as a child by an Australian couple.

This is a very thoughtful novel, observing the relationships of all involved through the magnifying glass of lives lived. I found it rather wistful, yet I could sense Toni and Jacob's frustrations with life, with their wayward daughter who is causing them such heartache. Whereas Magnus who is happy to be a homebody, and his Aunt Kitty provided an engaging and happy counterpoint. Although we never really find out what Maya did while away, things do get resolved, but many questions go unanswered - as there is still much living to be done after the novel ends.

London's previous novel - Gilgamesh, her first, about a woman's search for the father of her child, was much lauded, and I will definitely be looking out for that after reading The Good Parents. " show less

Thoughtful, reflective, writing with insights about humanity woven throughout the story.

Joan London should write more books as her lyrical sensitive prose is a pleasure to read.

Dreamy and internal, this book shifts points of view between Maya (who chooses to go missing), her parents, Toni and Jacob, and her brother Magnus. They each explore their relationships to their past, and the places and people who formed them. An interesting view of a family - placed in qan area of the world I would like to know more about.

I liked this book a lot at first, but then Maya, the most interesting person to me, disappeared. Her parents arrived to search for her, but somewhat unconvincingly got caught up in their own new lives and we, the readers, were subjected to hearing about their past life which was not at all as interesting as Maya could have been.

And everything got tied up very quickly at the end, as if the author just got tired of writing.