Thanksgiving

Summary (from the publisher): One family. One table. One meal. 350 years.

This dramatic, highly inventive novel presents the story of one family through many generations, as Thanksgiving dinner is prepared.

The narrative moves swiftly and richly through time and changes as we experience the lives of the Morleys against the background of historical events. This is history that comes fully alive, for we become part of the family ourselves, sharing their fortunes and tragedies, knowing their truths from their lies, watching their possessions handed down or lost forever. All along, in the same house, in the same room, Morley women are getting dinner ready, one part at a time, in a room that begins with a hearth of Colonial times and ends as a present-day kitchen.

Thanksgiving serves up history in a lively, entertaining way that offers an original viewpoint of the everyday concerns of one family across the generations.

 

Review: I received a copy of this book from Net Galley.

 

This highly originally novel depicts the Morley family in snapshots of Thanksgiving day over the course of 350 years. The novel opens in 1662 and is composed of twenty-two chapters ending in 2012. Each chapter jumps ten to fifteen years into the future, so the reader is able to swiftly see the family evolve; older members age and die and younger members are born and grow up. Additionally, the reader is able to see the Morley household evolve from a rough structure without glass windows to a modern structure with a fully equipped kitchen and modern day conveniences.

 

Based on the title, I assumed this book would center heavily on the Thanksgiving meal, and the Morley family coming together to celebrate the holiday. However, most of the chapters focus instead on preparation of a particular dish for Thanksgiving, and take place in the kitchen. Additionally, most of the chapters are from a woman's point of view, mulling over the family relationships and where she is in life as she fixes a dish - squash soup, gravy, rolls, turkey, etc. Aside from the title, until the end of the book when the word Thanksgiving is actually used, the reader might have assumed this was just another day in the life of the family, going about their domestic tasks in the home.

 

A major theme of this is generational conflict. In particular, mothers are constantly butting heads with their new daughters-in-law. Frequently, multiple generations reside in the Morley house at one time, increasing the tension between the different generations. Additionally, the changing times are seen, as carriages transition to cars and a refrigerator makes its appearance. Children begin going off to college, watching MTV, and computers are used. The house too is constantly altering over time. "The transformation of the house is miraculous. [...] For the first time, the house has a front porch, twin-pillared, white, with a gray floor." The expansions and additions to the house over the centuries are in stark contrast to the original home of the 1660s that lacks proper windows; "In the warm weather she tacked linens on the openings. Spring and summer and early fall were squares of gauzy paleness, gauzy air, buzzing insects catching onto the cloth."

 

In Thanksgiving, Cooney is writing unwritten history, the history of the everyday that goes unrecorded and largely forgotten. "I checked our family's records at our town's historical society, and in the library, and Town Hall. The insight I received is that I bet maybe ninety-nine percent of history isn't written down." Although their house isn't historically significant enough to make the historical registry, for the Morleys it is their family history, a living representation of the lives that came before them, a physical embodiment of their family past, all lived out in the same house.

 

Of course, the things I liked about this book are also its weaknesses. Because the book spans 350 years, its impossible to know any characters in depth. Each character only appears for a couple chapters before being replaced by later generations. Additionally, there were so many iterations of the family that I had a hard time keeping track of everyone and the changes to the family tree. However, in all, I think the concept of this book is intriguing, and I thought Cooney did a great job navigating through the years but staying true to the Morleys in their many forms throughout history.

 

Stars: 3