Read This!: Family Album

By Penelope Lively

Once upon a time, I read Penelope Lively’s book The Photograph. I know this because it’s on my bookshelf but to be honest I don’t remember anything about what it’s about. Anyways, when we were raiding Borders, I saw The Photograph on the shelf and I thought “I think I read this” but couldn’t remember and then I saw her book Family Album and was like “This sounds interesting. I know I never read this.” So FA came home with me.

The Harper family lives in an old Edwardian house called Allersmead in England. There is the mother Allison, the father Charles, the au pair Ingrid, and the children: Paul, Gina, Sandra, Roger, Katie, and Clare. The children are all grown but the story moves around in time as the members of the family reflect on their life together, their lives now, and their memories. As the story progresses, secrets start to come out and the family isn’t quite what they appear to the outside world.

I found this book really interesting because Mr. and I have had multiple conversations about things our siblings and parents have said that have caused us to go “Did we grow up in the same house?” or “Uh, that didn’t happen like you think.” Events often seem very different when told from the view of others rather than you. What others remember is not what you remember and so on. Between the different characters in the book, we have an idea of the whole story, not just one person’s viewpoint or some outside narrator.

This book almost makes want to do a reread of The Photograph but eh, I have too many other books to read to go back to that especially when it obviously didn’t impress me enough to remember I read it the first time around. Maybe next time I am having a book supply shortage….