A Good Family

by Peter J. Smith

Ever deliberately found other things to do rather than complete the last few pages of a novel because you were enjoying it so much you couldn't bear to be finished? Ever considered NOT returning it to the library? That's how I've been with `A Good Family' by Peter J. Smith... Twenty years ago, despite my urban background, I would have ENJOYED this book, set on an American island, with the seascape ever invading and dictating the narrative..but I would not have understood it! Twenty years ago, still enveloped in my teaching career, I wouild have RECOGNIZED the people, (for this is partly a novel about TEACHERS), but their disillusionment, their searching for meaning, I would have skimmed over, knowing no better. Twenty years ago there would not have been the sudden shock of recognition, the sense, almost, of deja vu! Twenty years ago, still carving out a career for myself in a male-dominated field, I had not begun to miss, to mourn, the babies my children had been, the loss of their childhood, which had passsed in a flash, while I had been otherwise engaged! Twenty years ago,still seemingly in control of their lives, still smug in my matriarchal reign, I could have no premonition of the divisions and disruptions which their adulthood would bring to our family . And Peter J. Smith's `good family;' is a real family, make no mistake! Only childless adults who were `Only Children' could fail to relate to the Knowles family's `Christmas from Hell', when their mother bought each of them a Timber Wolf adoption certificate...except for the new daughter-in-law, who scored a cashmere sweater to match her eyes! Perfectly well-adjusted citizens, with a perfectly `normal' family background, will recognise the cut-and-thrust of sibling dialogue, the jockeying-for-position, influence and approval, the fearsome domination of the parent, no matter how well-intentioned! And despite what my reviewing collegues, (younger than I, I think), have to say, this, to me, is a SAD book. It is a book about living, and learning,..and, inevitably, losing......and about growing up, the great defeat which awaits us all! But perhaps this book helps us to recognise and acknowledge that universal grief, and to reach some form of acceptance. `A Good Family'. A good read, and no mistake!!!

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