Laura's review
The Condition by Jennifer Haigh
I didn't love this book. It tells the story of the McKotch family-- father, Frank, mother, Paulette, and siblings Billy, Gwen, and Scott. It is the story of a good (not great) marriage that dies for the wrong reasons and how its death impacts each member of the family.
It was sad and depressing, and although the writing is good, I didn't find the characters especially compelling. One thing I did find to be an interesting tool she used was to reveal the minds of each character about different aspects of their relationships. Over the course of the book the reader is exposed to the inner life of each of the characters, and what you learn is that people don't perceive each other the way that they think. And the people in this family, though loving, are so inwardly self-focused that they have a lack of basic trust and care for each other. It is a portrait of a very dysfunctional family.
It was sad and depressing, and although the writing is good, I didn't find the characters especially compelling. One thing I did find to be an interesting tool she used was to reveal the minds of each character about different aspects of their relationships. Over the course of the book the reader is exposed to the inner life of each of the characters, and what you learn is that people don't perceive each other the way that they think. And the people in this family, though loving, are so inwardly self-focused that they have a lack of basic trust and care for each other. It is a portrait of a very dysfunctional family.
