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A Family Daughter
A Novel
by Maile Meloy
The author returns to the Santerre family first introduced in her 2003 novel, Liars and Saints. This time, the proceedings are narrated by the granddaughter, Abby.
Scribner, 336 pages
02/07/2006
$24.00
ISBN: 074327766X
Fiction
General Literature & Fiction
All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...
Daily Telegraph Lisa Hilton
This is a deliciously duplicitous book, a darkly perceptive examination of American mores disguised as a light family romance.
Booklist Emily Cook
Riveting and engrossing, Meloy's tale of a family struggling with guilt and forgiveness spans decades and crosses continents, proving her status as one of the best literary observers of contemporary American life. [15 Dec 2005, p.24]
Kirkus Reviews
Meloy juxtaposes Abby's fictionalized account ("Liars and Saints," described in enough detail for readers who have not read it) with the "reality" of this novel. And each novel stands alone; together they pack a seismic wallop. [1 Nov 2005, p.1161]
Publishers Weekly
Meloy shifts point of view fluently, and though her characters weather all sorts of melodrama, the novel itself feels light - poignant and affecting, meaningful yet somehow weightless. [28 Nov 2005, p.23]
The Independent James Urquhart
The public washing of so much family laundry (whose stains made "Liars and Saints" so enthralling) engenders a fresh, re-configured matrix of guilt and discord, giving Meloy effectively a second bite at the burstingly ripe cherry.
Washington Post Valerie Sayers
Meloy is stretching, intellectually and artistically, and watching her take risks is often a pleasure. A Family Daughter is not always consistent and not always convincing, but it is ambitious and playful and clever. That's a fair enough literary bargain for any novel, retold or not.
Library Journal Reba Leiding
An accomplished storyteller, Meloy weaves together these improbable twists without edging into silliness. [1 Jan 2006, p.100]
The New York Times Janet Maslin
The new book is better than the first, but it's hard to separate them. Ms. Meloy's reflections on truth and fiction are best appreciated when the two novels collide.
The Guardian Patrick Ness
It's an interesting idea and a satisfyingly perverse solution to the problem of the difficult second novel: debunk your first. Theoretically, you could go on for ever in a chain of books that all start in the same place. You could even apply it to reviews. In fact, watch out next week for another piece on A Family Daughter, in which I have altogether different things to say.
Boston Globe Amanda Heller
Meloy creates a diversity of appealing, exasperating characters, even if the troubles they keep bringing upon themselves exhibit a reductive sameness.
Los Angeles Times Susan Salter Reynolds
Relationships and secrets fuel the plot; it's the kind of novel that makes a reader mutter ridiculous things out loud, such as, "Not her, you idiot, you're supposed to be with him!" [19 Feb 2006, p.R11]
San Francisco Chronicle Olivia Boler
While some characters get a little too much time on the page -- we don't really need to know about the therapist's divorce; we don't really need her point of view at all -- one senses that once Meloy harnesses the focus that has made her such a brilliant short-story writer, she will be just as brilliant a novelist.
Slate Ann Hulbert
Without aspiring to join a pantheon of postmodern virtuosos, Meloy alerts readers that perspectives are slippery, experience deals out surprises no one can plan for, truth is strange and so is fiction, and the two can be hard to distinguish, in art as in life. Imagination, her fiction reminds us, isn't a crutch. It's the compass, however wavering, without which we would be truly lost.
The New Yorker
All this might easily come off as soap opera were Meloy not a wise and astonishing conjurer of convincing realities.
Chicago Tribune Elizabeth Hoover
After the opening chapter there is enough intrigue, infidelity, incest, sex, prostitution, baby-swapping and death to fill 20 novels, or at least two seasons of a daytime soap opera. With so much going on, it can seem as if nothing of consequence is actually happening. [26 Feb 2006, p.9]
Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese
Readers charmed by the grace and simplicity of "Liars and Saints" may approach its sequel, a metafictional reworking of the same material, with dismay.
The Independent Emma Hagestadt
More often than not, however, Meloy's pert prose, like Saffron's too-perfect West Coast breasts, ends up feeling like a substitute for the real thing.
The New York Times Book Review Jeff Giles
There are simply too many characters flitting by and too much writing that's merely serviceable. When A Family Daughter finally coalesces in the last 50 pages and comes cruising down the other side of the mountain, some readers -- being less patient than good little boys and girls pining for toys -- will have grown tired of waiting at the station.
 The average user rating for this book is 2.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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