Dorothy Forrest is immersed in the sensory world around her; she lives in the flickering moment. From the age of seven, when her odd, disenfranchised family moves from New York City to the wide skies of Auckland, to the very end of her life, this is her great gift and possible misfortune.
Through the wilderness of a commune, to falling in love, to early marriage and motherhood, from the glorious anguish of parenting to the loss of everything worked for and the unexpected return of love, Dorothy is swept along by time. Her family looms and recedes; revelations come to light; death changes everything, but somehow life remains as potent as it ever was, and the joy in just being won't let her go.
In a narrative that shifts and moves, growing as wild as the characters, The Forrests is an extraordinary literary achievement. A novel that sings with colour and memory, it speaks of family and time, dysfunction, ageing and loneliness, about heat, youth, and how life can change if 'you're lucky enough to be around for it'.
The Forrests by Emily Perkins was the book chosen for my local bookclub for June, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it to this discussion so I decided to read this while in New Zealand as the author is a New Zealander. This book has already been talked about in regards to being listed for this year’s Man Booker prize so I was interested in seeing what the book was all about. The novel follows the story of The Forrests, a disenfranchised family that moves from New York City to Auckland. It follows the dramas of a family, dealing with normal every day issues; from love, marriage, motherhood and parenting to the financial issue, loneliness and a range of other issues that come with a dysfunctional family.
This book is a bit strange, you start off with all the dramas of this family and throughout the book the issues never end. While you are looking on you never seem to be given enough information to fully understand what is happening and how the characters are feeling. Like the author was always holding the full story from the reader and just expecting them to guess. Each chapter is another scene which I’ve been thrust into without being armed with the relevant information to navigate through it properly. The family dramas never really ended in this book and I just couldn’t wait to get to the end of this book.
This is a beautiful piece of writing and Emily Perkins did a decent job at capturing a family in their flaws but I didn’t enjoy The Forrests so the writing was let down by the characters. It was a bit of a dreamlike book that did grow on you a little but for me it wasn’t enough to pull me to enjoying this novel. I think some people will really enjoy this book, it starts off by putting you in the deep end and I suspect it grows on some readers, just not on me.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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14 July, 2012:
Finished reading
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14 July, 2012:
Reviewed