Welcome to Group Text, a monthly column for readers and book clubs about the novels, memoirs and short stories that will make you want to talk, ask questions and stay in another world for a while.
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In this season of forced family fun, I have to admit I was basking in a warm glow of validation when I came across these lines in Eleanor Brown’s new novel, EVERY OTHER FAMILY (Putnam, 368 pp., $27)† “How strange that they only came on holiday to feel further apart. Considering how close she hoped they would all become during these weeks together, she doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry.”
The destination is Aspen, Colo., and the rent is the kind I fantasize about as I hang my bathing suit from a rusty nail in yet another deceptively photographed vacation rental. (Why do I always fall for the claw-foot tub?) It’s a castle-like spread with mountain views, a pool, a fully stocked kitchen, and close proximity to healthy activities: hiking, boating, horseback riding, disc golf, and bumper cars.
Brown’s characters do their best to enjoy the spread, but their group dynamics are complicated. “They look like any other family,” Brown writes. “They are a family formed by three sets of parents who were adopted from the same group of biological siblings.” Ginger is the mother of the eldest, Phoebe; Holiday bankrollers Tabitha and Perry raise twins, Tate and Taylor; and after an exhausting run on the fertility treadmill, Elizabeth and John find their way as parents to baby Violet. The adults have promised the biological mother of their children, Brianna, that they will raise the siblings to be a part of each other’s lives. Think birthday parties, vacations, Sunday dinners – and now this outing.
Brown could have put together a perfectly entertaining itinerary from the politics, parenting differences, and pre-existing problems of the Aspen crew; instead, she heightens the tension with a phone call from Brianna, who sadly declined an invitation to the Bacchanal. (Why anyone would miss Tabitha’s artsy parade of mini quiches, butter bean dip, and ham and melon on durable toothpicks is beyond me.) Brianna has news: She’s pregnant for the fourth time. Would anyone in the house want another baby? And if not, will current parents find a family for Brianna’s future bundle of joy?
This is when “Any Other Family” graduates from fun frolicking with hints of stress to a full exploration of family ties, especially those made by choice. Brown breaks down tense alpine adventures with letters from expectant parents that range from desperate to hopeful to ambivalent. Their experiences add depth and texture to this unexpectedly philosophical story, as do the children’s moving questions about their approaching sibling.
“In their world, adoption is the default,” Brown writes. Ginger remembers Tabitha’s explanation to Tate and Taylor when they were much younger: ‘Some people’s mother and biological mother are the same person.’ to feed.
It seems fitting that the one constant in “Any Other Family” is the siblings’ rock solid bond with each other. As adult relationships endure the ups and downs that mirror the Colorado landscape, the younger generation seems to have their feet planted on solid ground. Isn’t that the aim of every family, in ordinary time and otherwise, however it came into being?
Discussion Questions
If you could only choose one mother to eat with, who would you choose: Tabitha, Ginger, Elizabeth or Brianna? Why?
Which of the aspiring adoptive parents were you looking for? What did you think of the ending?
Suggested Reading
“Everything You Can Ever Know”, by Nicole Chung. In this honest (sometimes painful) memoir, the Korean daughter of white parents examines the circumstances of her adoption and learns that the real story is more complicated than the one she was told. “Family knowledge given to us as children has such a hold on us, such a lasting power,” Chung writes. “I told myself that something as noble as the sacrifice of my birth parents claimed my trust. My loyalty.” Pregnant with a child of her own, she begins to ask questions.
†american baby”, by Gabrielle Glaser. What happens with adoption? is not open and a biological mother and an adult adoptee want to find each other? Glaser, a veteran journalist, examines “a singular narrative to shed light on a universal truth,” our reviewer wrote. “There are not one in a million triplets here, just a teenage girl and a baby, who could be any young mother or son. In fact, argue Glaser, Margaret Erle Katz and her son David Rosenberg to be each sealed, secret adoption, and in their intimate story are the seeds of today’s adoption practices and parenting standards, as our past constantly redefines our present.
Elisabeth Egan is an editor at the Book Review and author of ‘A Window Opens’.
ANOTHER FAMILY, by Eleanor Brown | 368 pages | Putnam | $27