Type of bind: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 336
Printing Date: May 31, 2005
Sale Popularity Level: 848241
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Rated by buyers 
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I really enjoyed this book, but I can't name a specific reason why. Part of it was the appeal of the family lake cabin and the memories I have of our family cabin, part of it was the characters and who knows what else.
At times, I felt like I was reading a true story and I definitely developed a compassion for the characters.
The only downside was that there were so many characters, that I had a hard time keeping them all straight. Thank goodness for the family tree, as I was constantly flipping back to it.
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I enjoyed how the story was told present-day, with flashbacks to give the reader more in-depth info.
Very good character study of the main character with a readable plot.
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Like author Terry Gamble, I spent my childhood summers in the same town as the author in Northern Michigan: the millionaires' summer resort of Harbor Springs, with its lavish "summer cottages" (sprawling mansions) and yacht club, inspiration behind her very first novel "The Water Dancers" and her sophomore effort "Good Family." The natural beauty of this area is lovingly brought to life as the setting for a family reunion upon the death of its matriarch. Like the thinly veiled settings of Harbor Point, Harbor Springs, and Petoskey in "Water Dancers," "Good Family" seems a juxtaposition of the turn-of-the-century cottages on Mackinac Island, the elegant mansions of Harbor Point, and the turn-of-the-century Methodist summer community of Bay View in Petoskey.
The Addison family, made famous by its early pharmaceuticals, owns the Aerie, a sprawling, run-down cottage on Sand Isle, where cars are forbidden and transportation is by horse, carriage, and bicycle. The family's many eccentric relatives are drawn back together at the imminent death of its matriarch.
The novel's narrator is Maddie, a struggling filmmaker in New York who is recovering from years of alcoholism and traumatic earlier events. The last place she wants to be is the Aerie, haunted by ghosts both real and imagined. Memories of earlier summers, of her mother's easy elegance and later neglect, of forbidden crushes, of life-altering tragedies all come flooding back, and Maddie must assess where she has come from and where she is going. Maddie, her sister (the faithful, staid Dana) and cousins (the mystic Adele, rebellious adopted Jessica, alcoholic thespian Sedgie, artistic Derek) come together for the very first time in a decade to figure out the etiquette of dying. Maddie must tangle with the ghosts of her past and make peace with the events that so drastically altered her life (the death of a child and a divorce, her alcoholism, near-incest), while bringing closure to the family's tumultuous relationship with its matriarch.
Clearly, many elements of Ms. Gamble's childhood summers on Harbor Point seem autobiographical: the train rides to Northern Michigan, the sprawling, run-down, once-elegant summer mansions that have fallen into disrepair, the rivalries and vicious backbiting of the country club elite, the flippant disregard to spending large sums of money on keeping up appearances, the inherent racism of an earlier age (the invisibility of the "colored help," grey lawn jockeys, etc.), and the Native American mysticism that is as old as the land: the Odawa (Ottawa) tribes that live around Little Traverse Bay, on hard times but still maintaining a cultural presence (a theme explored in more depth in her debut "The Water Dancers.").
As a sophomore follow-up to "The Water Dancers," "Good Family" is much improved, featuring a more tightly-knit cast, a seamless interweaving of past and present, and a much stronger, more realistic storyline. Instead of a picture-perfect world of millionaires and easy living, Ms. Gamble's characters wallow in the mundane sorrows of living: a damaged Vietnam vet (cousin Edward, in and out of different institutions until he finally disappears), alcoholism (Maddie, her mother, Sedgie, and her gay best friend Ian), failed relationships, dead babies, and the price of apparent success. The country club lifestyle that so dominates Northern Michigan resort towns is systematically picked apart to reveal its earlier racism, elitism, and falsity of appearances and substance.
A spellbinding read that once again transported me to the beautiful landscapes of my childhood, dominated by the cry of gulls, the shifting moods of Lake Michigan, the elegant, faded mansions of Mackinac Island, Bay View and Harbor Point, the small boutiques of Harbor Springs with their colorful striped awnings and resplendent windowboxes of petunias, pansies and impatiens, and the sense of home.
Rated by buyers 
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Terry Gamble has written a hauntingly beautiful, lyrical book. We follow Maddie returning to her family's summer home after a long estrangement. As her mother's health fails and her siblings & cousins gather, Maddie grapples with the family "ghosts", her memories of summers goneby, her failed marriage and uncertain direction. This is a story about death & re-birth, the strength & frailty of family ties, pathos & ultimately, redemption. It is a funny, rich, multi-layered tale. A treasure.
Rated by buyers -
Thanks to Ms. Gamble for the most unforgettable read of the summer, and indeed, recent memory. This is the most unusual book, a vivid and sideways glance from the eyes of Maddie Addison. I not only loved the point of view, but was frankly fascinated with the glimpse into the lives of an old money family; and the visual flashes to and fro from turn of the century Northern Michigan; the vacation place of early industrialists, the losses and loves, to Maddie's struggle to maintain equilibrium after the devastating loss of a baby. These characters stay with you; and the lake and the lavender scented house are two of them.
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