It is 1964: Bert Cousins, the deputy District Attorney, shows up at Franny Keating's christening party uninvited, bottle of gin in hand. As the cops of Los Angeles drink, talk and dance into the June afternoon, he notices a heart-stoppingly beautiful woman. When Bert kisses Beverly Keating, his host's wife, the new baby pressed between them, he sets in motion the joining of two families whose shared fate will be defined on a day seven years later...In 1988, Franny Keating, now twenty-four, has dropped out of law school and is working as a cocktail waitress in Chicago. When she meets one of her idols, the famous author Leon Posen, and tells him about her family, she unwittingly relinquishes control over their story. Franny never dreams that the consequences of this encounter will extend beyond her own life into those of her scattered siblings and parents. ..Told with equal measures of humour and heartbreak, Commonwealth is a powerful and tender tale of family, betrayal and the far-reaching bonds of love and responsibility. A meditation on inspiration, interpretation and the ownership of stories, it is Ann Patchett's most astonishing work to date.
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Commonwealth is about two families, the Cousinses and the Keatings. When Beverly Keating leaves her husband for Bert Cousins, her two children suddenly acquire four step-siblings - children from Bert’s first marriage. Thrown together for several weeks every summer, the six children form bonds and alliances, put up with each other’s bad habits, create rituals, and court danger. But when a tragedy occurs, it takes decades for the children to come to terms with what has happened, their role in it, and how thoroughly it has impacted their lives. Spanning from the 1960s to the present, Commonwealth is a wonderful book about family, and how messy and generous and hurtful and supportive we can be to those we love. - Madeleine (QBD)
Guest, 01/04/2017
