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PART III
Appendices
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APPENDIX A
FAMILY COMMUNICATION IN FICTION
(Susan Wilson, Ph.D., DePauw University)
Categories are always elusive. They are particularly elusive in family literature because
a “good” story about family is invariably textured with many important issues and
themes. I’ve chosen the following groupings knowing full well that there are other
ways of grouping them. In order to facilitate that, I’ve also tried to gloss other issues
that the book may include.
Forming Family
This section is divided into two categories: the kinds of family that are formed through
marriage, birth, and adoption and the kinds where people do the work of “family”
without being a traditional family.
Marriage
career; Tania, stylish Indian career woman making it in an Anglo world; and ever
innocent Chila who wants the traditional Indian life and is married to a man who has
talked himself into thinking that’s what he wants as well.. (The author, herself, a British
born Indian, provides a keen insight into Indian, particularly expatriate, culture and
women’s place in that culture.)
Man and Wife Tony Parsons
New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2002.
The novel following the title, fittingly opens with a wedding: Harry marrying Cyd.
However, since it’s a second marriage for both of them, it’s “complicated.” Harry is
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Ash Wednesday Ethan Hawke
New York, NY: Vintage Books, 2003.
Switching between the perspectives of James Heartsock and his pregnant girlfriend
The Outside World Tova Mirvis
New York, NY: Vintage Books, 2004.
This story describes a close-knit Orthodox Jewish community where at 22 Tzippy is
virtually an old maid. Embarrassed and frustrated, she wants a change of scenery, so
Having Babies
Patron Saint of Liars Ann Patchett
New York, NY: Ivy Books, 1992.
Rose marries Thomas. Rose gets pregnant. However, instead of telling Thomas, Rose
gets in the car and drives to a Catholic home for unwed mothers in Kentucky where she
poses as an unwed mother. When her baby is born, Rose cannot give Cecilia up.
Instead she gives up her past—Thomas, her own beloved mother, parts of her own
identity—and marries the home’s caretaker, Son. She stays on at the home, cooking,
caring for the series of unwed mothers and elderly Sister Evangeline. Patchett’s novel
is told chronologically starting from Rose’s perspective, then Son’s, and finally
Cecilia’s.
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younger siblings are placed in foster care. Mary Fred is placed in a family consisting of
Alice, a divorcee, her brother, and her own 15 year old daughter, Heather. Told from
the perspectives of each of the four, the novel describes issues including loss of family
through death and separation, religion and family, and depression, as well as how new
family ties can be forged.
The Bean Trees Barbara Kingsolver
New York: Harper Paperbacks, 1988.
Tired of small town life in Kentucky, Taylor Greer heads off for Arizona. Along the
way, a Native American woman thrusts a child of indeterminable age in her arms. She
The Bad Mother’s Handbook Kate Long
New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 2005
The story deals with Karen, a middle-age mother, and her teenage daughter, Charlotte
who becomes pregnant just as Karen did when she was a teen. The novel alternates
between Charlotte’s perspective and Karen’s. Particularly good are the sections where
Doing Family
The Ha-Ha Dave King
New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company, 2005.
When Sylvia is spirited away to a drug rehabilitation center, she designates her longtime
friend, Howard, as the guardian of her nine year old son, Ryan. Howard is an unlikely
Plainsong Kent Haruf
New York, NY: Vintage Contemporaries, 1999.
The novel set in small town Holt, Colorado, shifts perspectives, focusing on Tom
Guthrie and his two boys as Tom’s wife moves out. It also focuses on 16 year old
Victoria Robideaux whose mother kicked her out when she found Victoria was
pregnant. Maggie, one of her high school teachers arranges for Victoria to stay at the
Loss in the Family
This section is divided into several categories—loss through death, loss through
divorce, loss through catastrophic changes.
Death
Taft Ann Patchett
New York, NY: The Ballantine Publishing Group, 1994.
This story centers on John Nickel, a Black former jazz musician who now tends and
manages a bar in Memphis. Into the bar walks 17 year old Fay Taft looking for a job.
The Best of Good Sara Lewis
New York, NY: Atria Books, 2003.
Tom Good lives what at best can be described as a humdrum existence, working as a
bartender and living off the royalties from songs he penned shortly after his brother’s
death in a car accident years ago. When an ex-girlfriend moves back into town with a
ten year boy who turns out to be Tom’s son, Tom starts thinking about his life, his
“Shiloh” Bobby Ann Mason
In Shiloh and Other Stories, Bobbie Ann Mason, New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1982.
Mason’s short story provides a more succinct treatment of SIDS, its effects on Leroy
and Norma Jean’s marriage, as well as other issues that strain their marriage, including
physical disability and value conflicts.
Ellen Foster Kaye Gibbons
New York, NY: Vintage Contemporaries, 1988.
When 11 year old Ellen Foster’s ailing and abused mother finally gives up and commits
suicide, Ellen is further thrown into the rawness of the world, living first with her
abusive father, then with her cruel grandmother, then with her self-centered aunt, and
finally finding a home of her own. Not only does Ellen survive, she learns about coping
the best you can with what you’ve got and working hard to get to a better place. In the
process she learns two other important lessons: that prejudice is wrong and that what
constitutes family is not necessarily determined by blood.
Death by Murder
Other Catastrophes
The Sleeping Father Matthew Sharpe
Brooklyn, NY: Soft Skull Press, NY, 2003.
One of the zanier (and for some readers, potentially raw) books about family life,
Sharpe writes about the Schwartz family, the dad, Bernard, 17 year old Chris, and 16
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An Invisible Sign of My Own Aimee Bender
New York, NY: Anchor Books, 2000.
In this novel we meet 20 year old Mona Gray, whose dad sunk into a deep depression
on her 10th birthday. While the world Bender creates can seem bizarre—Mona’s math
teacher has metamorphosed into a hardware store owner, obsessive-compulsive Mona
herself is hired as math teacher at a private school—while reading, it seems plausible
and you emerge with more understanding of mental and physical infirmities.
Separation/ Divorce
Skyward Mary Alice Monroe
Ontario, Canada: MIRA Books, 2003.
When Harris Henderson’s troubled wife, Fanny, leaves him shortly after the birth of
their daughter, Harris has to balance caring for his child and his work as a biologist at a
South Carolina conservation refuge. When now five year old Marion develops juvenile
Claudia. What everyone believes is the “time of Jane’s life” is, in fact, from the
reader’s perspective, an emotionally laden and destructive time for Jane. (Dew is
excellent at writing about the shadings and sometimes contradictory aspects of people’s
emotions.)
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When 42 year old psychiatrist Anne Mueller is mentoring new psychiatrists, she tells
them “forget truth, what matters is the way it felt, the tale you tell about it” (11). This
novel is the tale of the Mueller family. Switching between the perspectives of the 83
year old father, Edmund, and his daughter, Anne, we learn how each member of the
Mueller family has coped with the repeated and ultimately permanent defection of
Alternating between 15 year old Drew’s perspective and his mother, Linda’s, this story
chronicles what happens when Drew’s dad divorces Linda to be with his girlfriend who
also happens to be his daughter’s teacher. Particularly the story looks at how one
regains equilibrium after one’s world is shaken. In this case, Drew wants to become the
kind of man his father is not and Linda wants to regain trust in herself.
Family Secrets
The following stories focus on family secrets and how they influence family dynamics.
My Life on Mars Alicia Metcalf Miller
New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2006.
Facing an empty nest and a two-timing husband at home, Eliza White is only too glad to
help her mother sort through the family house and pack for her move west. When
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of both parents. Their grieving is further complicated with the disappearance of their
adult foster sister. A family secret almost undoes this family as they seek to unravel past
deceptions and establish relationships built on trust.
Years ago when Lena’s mom went crazy, Lena and her mom came to live with Aunt
Florence, Uncle Bruster, and their daughter, Clarice. Now Lena is teaching in
Chicago. She hasn’t been to Alabama in ten years, part of the three prong deal she
made with God to protect a secret. Now that is deal is all going wrong and Lena, along
with her African-American boyfriend, Burr, are headed to a still bigoted little town in
the South. Burr wants to meet Lena’s family before they get married while Lena is
trying to prevent secrets from being revealed.
Fixing Family
In the following stories, characters try to set right or improve family dynamics. About
The Alphabet Sisters Monica McInerney
New York, NY; Ballantine Books, 2005.
When Anna, Bett, and Carrie were girls, their grandmother had them sing under the
name The Alphabet Sisters. Now as adults, they are estranged from one another
because Carrie married Bett’s fiancé. Their parents have always been too busy running
themselves like other displaced and impoverished immigrants in CA. And finally, it
describes Amir’s unlikely mission back into Afghanistan. This is a complex story about
family secrets, about fathers’ love, and about doing or making things right.
Moon Woman Pamela Duncan
New York, NY; Dial Press, 2002.
beyond. Cover the Butter Carrie Kabak
New York, NY: New America Library, 2006.
The book opens with middle-aged Kate deciding “I would never sleep with my
husband, Rodney, again” (1). In making that decision, she is compelled to examine
who she has become and why. In the process she is forced to reevaluate her childhood
as the only child of a tyrannical and selfish mother and spineless father. As a result of
that reevaluation, Kate leaves not only Rodney, but her mother and father as well.
Phases of Family Life
Some family stories focus on a particular phase of family life. For example, literature is
replete with the coming of age, or identity-seeking phase of adolescence. The following
are good examples:
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Focusing on the 13th summer of Miles O’Malley’s life, this first person narrative
describes the unusual events that transpire on Chatham Cove. Miles, a boy with a keen
love of nature, particularly the ocean, makes some big discoveries that earn him
notoriety with the scientific community, the media, and religious groups. However, not
Child of My Heart Alice McDermott
New York, NY; Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2002.
As an only child whose parents commute to the mainland, Theresa could feel
abandoned.iii However, Theresa blooms with her parents’ absence and insularity. She is
a joyful girl who “mothers” the neighbor kids and babysits the summer folks’ kids, pets,
and plants. The book describes the summer Theresa is 15, the summer when her
beloved younger, cousin Daisy comes to stay, the summer that Theresa comes to
understand many things about the adult world.
Rachel, the 52 year old narrator of the novella, is the mother of five adult children. One
of her sons, Joe, is living with her this particular summer. Joe’s twin brother, Michael,
is returning from India where he has taught for two years. Michael is no longer Joe’s
identical twin; India has changed him emotionally and physically. During Michael’s
homecoming, Rachel decides that she wants her children to know her, not as just as a
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Back When We Were Grown Ups Anne Tyler
New York, NY: Ballantine Reader’s Circle, 2002.
Rebecca, the 53 year main character wonders what might have happened if she hadn’t
married Joe Davitch, becoming a step-mother to his three young daughters, and adding
a daughter of their own before she was widowed six years into their marriage. She
imagines that she would have married Will, the young man she was dating in college.
She imagines their daily life, the serious fair-haired son they would have had. Her
imagination becomes so palpable that she looks Will up and they start dating. Like
Tyler’s other novels, the nuances of family life, in this case step-families, in-laws, etc.,
are finely wrought.
This novella is centered on the Gamble clan (Lynnie, Joanne and her adopted son, TV,
Natty, her husband and three daughters, and John Gamble—who is always referred to
even by family members as John Gamble) as they come together for the re-marriage of
their elderly parents after they have been divorced for six years. Sibling patterns
reemerge unconsciously and sometimes counterproductively. It also introduces the idea
that siblings may have to eventually become caregivers for other siblings.
“Drawing Names” from Shiloh and Other Stories Bobbie Ann Mason
In Shiloh and Other Stories, Bobbie Ann Mason, New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1982.
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A Wider Lens on Family Life
Writing about family poses a unique problem for authors. Family is not a one-shot
event. In fact, the influence and importance of family is cumulative. Some writers
have focused on the longitudinal, shifting aspects of family life. Moreover, several
authors have come back to a particular family over several books.iv
Crooked Hearts Robert Boswell
New York, NY: Alfred. A. Knopf, Inc., 1986.
Parts of this novel are told by the five members of the Warren family while other parts
are told by a third person narrator. Because of this narrative style, we are able to see
how events and the understanding of those events unfold often unevenly over the course
of time. Some family members know more than others. Some family members behave
better. Some family members are more forgiving than others. One thing that seems to
unite this family is their propensity to celebrate their failures with family parties.
and as adults. Because the story shifts perspectives, we gain multiple perspectives on
events.v (In addition, a short passage useful for class discussion is when Luke, Cody’s
boy decides to hitchhike to Baltimore to see Ezra. He gets three rides: from a trucker
who lost a baby to SIDS; from a divorced father traveling with his 3 year old son who is
looking up women who he used to like and who liked him; and a middle-aged mother
whose teenage daughter is driving her nuts.)VI
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adolescence, this novel respects the fluidity of family life as it dips into their lives at
key junctures of their lives for the next 25 years. We see them fumble through
relationships including their own and try to create and maintain families of their own.
Told from the perspective of Mac Maciver, this novel unfolds to tell the unique story of
the Maciver family. When Mac’s dad’s first wife, Madeline, suffers brain damage after
a bicycle accident, she is cared for by a series of nurses. One, Julia, became the second
Mrs. Maciver. Because at that earlier time there were limited humane options, Madeline
continued to live with them and becomes the big sister of their eventual children, Mac
and Louise. Intertwined with this storyline is Mac’s relationship with his cousin, Buddy
over the years. Here we are reminded that it’s not just the nuclear family that shapes us.