Family Dramas
Sara Vilkomerson joins me to list some of our favorite books in a genre that is *especially* applicable around Thanksgiving
It’s the day before Thanksgiving and time for another “best of a genre” list: Family Dramas. ‘Tis the season! There’s nothing more delicious than reading about complicated, f’ed up families when they’re not your own.
There are so many excellent books in this genre that making a list of favorites was challenging. Luckily I didn’t go at it alone. Sara Vilkomerson is the person I most closely share a taste in books. It’s not everyday you find someone who equally loses their mind for a 500-page non-fiction history of the Irish Troubles and also loves a smutty romance. Sara’s an intimidatingly fast reader who can crush a 700+ page biography of Oppenheimer in a couple days or finish a fun thriller in a bath. She’s also a talented writer, Emmy-winning Supervising Producer at The Late Show, and my favorite person to have a boozy lunch with. For the past few years we’ve been a sort of two-person book club—anytime either of us reads something we love we hand it off to the other.
One thing we especially agree on is that family dramas are the best. Many, many of our mutual favorite books of the past few years have been dramatic family sagas. Now handing it over to Sara—thanks SV!
SARA’S LIST:
Whenever people ask what kind of book it is I like to read I always say the kind that features a tense family meal that’s all about the subtext of the conversation at the dinner table. In other words: All happy families are alike; each unhappy family novel is unhappy in its own way. Here are a few of my absolute hands-down favorite:
The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo
I think about this book all the time to the point of embarrassment and eventually identified why: it’s the book I most wish I had written myself. The Sorensons have a very happily married matriarch and patriarch with four very different daughters and a cornucopia of hidden familial secrets, and it all comes to a head in 2016. (Did anything else happen that year? I can’t remember.) It’s funny, it’s poignant, it’s simply so f’n amazing that it’s been my go-to recommendation for friends since it came out. True story: I sent Claire Lombardo a fan note after I reread it.
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
This Pulitzer Prize finalist might be my favorite from Patchett, an author I always enjoy. It centers around about the bond and binds that occurs between two siblings after some significant trauma. If you are a smart person, can you intelligence your way out of past? Spoiler alert: no. Patchett is a gorgeous writer who manages to imbue this story with both wit and a solid undercurrent of rage.
Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
Do you believe in fate? This is one of the many questions you will ask yourself after reading this tale of heartbreak, redemption and love. Two families move into neighboring homes with absolutely no intuition that the next three decades would entwine them in ways that are simply unimaginable. I got so teary reading this on a subway a stranger asked if I was ok. This is a good thing!
—SV
ALI’S LIST:
And a few of my own faves.
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
I resisted reading Pachinko when it came out because I thought it might be overhyped. I finally read it—believe the freaking hype. An epic spanning eight decades (1910–1989) and three generations of a Korean family with a heavy history. I know that doesn’t sound sexy but it’s Family Saga at its best, a heavy-hitter in this stacked category. Last year it was adapted into an actually very good show on Apple TV+. But read the book first. Just read this freaking book.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Want a family drama that’s also a riveting page-turner? This is the one. At its heart it’s about the secrets we keep and who deserves to be a mother. There’s an act of arson that drives the whodunit mystery of this novel, but it seems like everyone in this story is culpable for damage to each other, fire-related or not. I’ve read all three of Ng’s novels and, while they are all excellent, this is my favorite.
Family Happiness by Laurie Colwin
Laurie Colwin writes brilliantly about relationships and family in ways that are funny, acutely observational, and emotionally true. How much free will does a person have with their own family? Not much—if you’re one of the Solo-Millers, an old New York Upper West Side family that seems perfect on the outside and unbearable on the inside. Expect midlife crises, love affairs, and weekly Sunday family breakfasts with a dress code. Colwin does it again!
The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki
This Japanese classic about the four sisters of a once-great merchant family in decline is for lovers of Jane Austen and Little Women—there’s marrying-off of younger sisters, weighing of suitors, and family facing financial ruin. But it’s also a fascinating cultural study of post-WWII Japan at a turning point as the country modernizes and those nostalgic for the past grapple with a disappearing way of life. It’s internationally regarded as one of the greatest Japanese novels of the twentieth century. I read and loved this one a few years ago before a trip to Japan, on the recommendation of Toby from Three Lives & Company, who is right about everything.
HONORABLE MENTIONS THAT WE’VE ALSO LOVED:
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano, The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro, This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
Happy reading and wishing you a drama-free Thanksgiving <3
Love,
Ali + Sara