Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)The Oprah book club selections are certainly getting more complex!
This book will strike an immediate chord to a family 'putting on airs' yet within the house having its problems. It hithome for me and will most likely hit home for many others because we know of families that seem perfect.... and often we find out much later what was truly happening.
I do not believe that the choice of Mt. Ephraim as the hometown of the Mulvaneys was by accident. Ephraim and Manasseh were sons of Joseph - and while the latter committed heinous crimes against all moral authority, Ephraim was a redeemer. A striking metaphor against which much hurt is set - and one missed by the editorial reviewers.
This family functions quite well - all that we'd say is 'too good to be true' *is* actually true until Marianne, the girl so beautifully described that we actually *feel* she's the 'girl next door' to *us* is sexually assaulted. Actually, we are never told whether it was rape or consensual. And the beauty of this is that for the purposes of this story it doesn't matter.
It is the *effect* of the assault on the family that begins their descent. I will not spoil the book by telling you the details as to how each of the brothers and the parents fall off their respective wagons. But the cumulative effect is devasting, as told by the narrator, a now adult youngest brother Judd.
How can such a complete destruction of a classic nuclear family be a book I'd want to read? Because as someone once said, it is when a man stares into the abyss that he finds his character.
Suffice it to say that when you are done with this book you will feel as though you knew the Mulvaneys, suffered with them, and wonder how you would have reacted.
I believe everyone can relate to one or more of the characters in this book.
I also believe that this book is a *must* read.
If you want a book that will make you think realistically about life's challenges - and not give you answers, but rather present situations that make you think about how you would respond, this is the book for you.
The cliche that we learn more from our mistakes than our successes never applied more.
And all of us can probably stand to look at this side of life. As with 'The Dark Side of the Light Chasers', it is by looking at our human frailties and faults, shining the light on ourselves, warts and all, that we can come to true self-awareness.
Click Here to see more reviews about: We Were the Mulvaneys (Oprah's Book Club)
Click here for more information about We Were the Mulvaneys (Oprah's Book Club)
