Commonwealth

Summary (from the publisher): One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating’s christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny’s mother, Beverly—thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families.

Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Spending summers together in Virginia, the Keating and Cousins children forge a lasting bond that is based on a shared disillusionment with their parents and the strange and genuine affection that grows up between them.

When, in her twenties, Franny begins an affair with the legendary author Leon Posen and tells him about her family, the story of her siblings is no longer hers to control. Their childhood becomes the basis for his wildly successful book, ultimately forcing them to come to terms with their losses, their guilt, and the deeply loyal connection they feel for one another.

Told with equal measures of humor and heartbreak, Commonwealth is a meditation on inspiration, interpretation, and the ownership of stories. It is a brilliant and tender tale of the far-reaching ties of love and responsibility that bind us together.  

 

Review: I received an advance reader's edition of this novel from HarperCollins.

 

It's the 1960s in Southern California. One hot, Sunday afternoon, Bert Cousins shows up uninvited at a colleague's house for the christening party of one year old Franny Keating. By the end of the party, he has kissed Franny's mother Beverly, an act that will lead to the breakdown of two marriages and the eventual joining of two families. The remainder of the novel moves around in time over the five decades that follow to show the impact this chance encounter and the choice the parents' made has on the two families and the six Keating and Cousins children. This largely fractured family finally must come together when Franny's relationship with a famous author results in their private family tale being reinvented in a bestselling novel entitled Commonwealth.  

 

The opening scene of this novel is masterfully done. Patchett sets the scene - the sweltering heat, the crowd of people in the small suburban house, the immense satisfaction of the fresh squeezed orange juice and gin shared by the party members, the budding attraction between Beverly and Bert, the baby Franny all dressed up for her party "as if she were a bride who'd slipped into her going-away dress at the end of the reception" (4). The scene is evocative and the weight of the moment and the choices made by the characters is keenly felt. In some ways just a party, in other ways the scene is laden with significance that will only be revealed in the following chapters and over the coming decades of the characters' lives.

 

Yet the remainder of the novel failed to live up to the vivid and compelling opening scene. The fallout that happens in the Cousins and Keating marriages happens offstage and the tension is between the four Cousins children and the two Keating children as they negotiate their expanded family. The fracturing that begins with the opening scene expands over time as the members of the family become more and more distant, both geographically and emotionally. It isn't until decades later that the Cousins and Keatings become closer and begin to heal from devastating events in their childhood. After the opening scene, the novel seemed bogged down with two many characters, too many settings, too complex a plot. Although the novel explored some interesting themes, it failed to live up

 

The title of this novel mirrors that of the novel written by Franny's lover and the subsequent fallout and the family's response to this novel. It also refers to the Commonwealth of Virginia, the place where the Cousins and Keatings kids became siblings and where they lost a member of their family. And it also refers to the joint ownership of their stories, which are collective property. This novel contemplates individual interpretations of events and the ownership of stories. Although in some ways Franny betrays her family's trust in revealing her version of events to her lover, resulting in their personal story appearing in print, this event forces the family to discuss their collective past and to heal and move forward together. Furthermore, this novel explores the often chance nature behind long lasting ties and the broad definition of family. It's about sibling bonds, including those between stepsiblings, brought together by their parents' choices and shared childhood experiences rather than blood ties. 

 

 

Stars: 3.5

 

Related Titles:

• This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett
• Run by Ann Patchett