The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo
Published by Doubleday, 2019
My rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
This follows three generations of the same family, looking at the various ways their lives are impacted by the unexpected return of a 15-year-old boy, previously given up for adoption as a baby.
There’s definitely some worthwhile social commentary in here. Jonah, the teenager stumbling back into the family he has never known, grew up within the care system. As such, he’s been completely deprived of the comfort and excess afforded to the wealthy Sorenson clan. The arrival of this outsider with a completely different perspective on life forces them to confront their own privilege for the first time, and it’s interesting to note the defensiveness they tend to display, as though embarrassed by – and unwilling to fully acknowledge – their own advantageous position.
It’s also true that several of the characters make cruel or insensitive jokes towards those of lower classes, and show a lack of empathy where others’ struggles are concerned; ingrained, throwaway comments that highlight the inherent obliviousness and sense of disconnect often experienced by those who have grown up surrounded by money. Whilst I certainly interpreted these moments as critique rather than endorsement from the author, I would have appreciated a little more development for this particular thread. I liked that she wasn’t afraid of showing her characters’ flaws, but she could have tackled them head on, rather than skirting around them.
Primarily, however, the book is an exploration of the established idea that money cannot buy happiness. Despite ostensibly coming across as the perfect family, we soon learn that each of them is suffering in some hidden way; the need to keep up appearances and please their seemingly saintly parents forcing them to hide the truth of their pain from each other as much as from the outside world. Through the four sisters at the heart of the novel, Lombardo does a great job of reflecting the unique hybrid of love and rivalry that can exist between siblings, and the notion that it’s the people closest to us that we’re capable of hurting the most.
The timeline shifts between the present day, and the past, starting from the first meeting of the sisters’ parents, Marilyn and David. These two timelines move ever closer, and though the structure serves to eke out the reveal of certain details, and to emphasise the various obstacles they’ve all been forced to weather (even Marilyn and David, whom their children have always regarded as the epitome of love and happiness), it does make the book feel bloated at times. At more than 500 pages, there is a feeling of diminished returns when we see the same thematic point being made time and time again. In that regard, I felt the book could have been edited down significantly, allowing key moments to hit home with more punch, rather than feeling swamped by a meandering pace and extraneous detail.
In the end, I found the book very readable, and felt it had a lot of potential in its plot points, character dynamics, and themes. It was simply too long and lacking in focus to land with the level of impact it could have had.
You can pick up a copy of The Most Fun We Ever Had from Book Depository by clicking here.
WOMEN’S PRIZE 2020 REVIEWS SO FAR:
1. Girl, Woman, Other | 2. Hamnet | 3. Fleishman Is in Trouble | 4. Girl | 5. A Thousand Ships | 6. Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line | 7. Dominicana
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I was wondering about this book. Think I’ll skip. Thanks for posting.
No problem! It was a fine enough read, but not one I’d be in a hurry to recommend.
Haven’t read this book yet, but I’m loving your review!
Thank you! 😊 I’d be curious to hear your thoughts if and when you pick it up.
Oh dear, I don’t like family sagas and this review makes me even less excited about this novel. Luckily it’s one of the few longlist books I don’t have a copy of, so I can justify putting it off!
I hope you’re pleasantly surprised if and when you get to it! It was fine, just not strong enough to justify the bloated length in my opinion.
Some stories need many pages to be told, but I actually have much respect for authors, who can tell their story in a condensed form without repetition and dragging. It tends to improve the overall quality. Glad you found it readable, I quite like the themes of this one.
I totally agree! I love a short, punchy book. One of the other books on this year’s Women’s Prize longlist is also a multigenerational family saga, but it’s only around 200 pages long, so I’m very intrigued to see how the two compare.
Great review, Callum. I usually love family sagas, but I’m apprehensive now at approaching this because of what you’d mentioned about the repetitiveness of the point being made. Hope your next read will be better. 🙂
Thank you so much! 😊 I hope you enjoy this one. It didn’t quite capitalise on its full potential for me, but I definitely think it’s a decent read.
Nice review! It sounds like this book might be a challenging one for me – I get impatient even when 300-400 page books drag on more than they need to. But I’m glad to hear that it was easily readable!
Thank you! Overlong books are a real pet peeve of mine as well, but I suppose it must say something in this one’s favour that I flew through it regardless.
I am a sucker for a book with dual timelines, so this interests me!
They do weave together pretty well as the book advances, so you may enjoy this one!
Great review, thanks for sharing!
Thank you! My pleasure, as always 📚😊
Great review! I had such a good time reading this one and seeing how all of the characters fit together, but I fully agree that for it’s length it really could have done better as far as providing/expanding on themes and commentary. I had fun, but… did I learn anything? Was my world view challenged? Did it stand out, as a family saga? Sadly no. (WHY are there so many average books on this longlist?)
YES, I feel exactly the same way about this one (and the longlist in general). I still have a few I’m hopeful about, but it doesn’t seem like 2020 is going to be the WP’s strongest year, sadly.
That’s my thought as well, unfortunately. I’m saving a few I have the highest hopes for until the end, but was hoping to be more pleasantly surprised by some of these lower-key, contemporary books in the meantime. I hope you’ll have a better time with your next longlist read!
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Great review! This sounds really interesting to me.
Thank you! I’d be intrigued to hear your thoughts on it.
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