BOOKISH FRIDAY: “COMMONWEALTH”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which I  share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers, who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with Freda’s Voice.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Then give us the title of the book, so others can add it to their lists!

What better way to spend a Friday!

Today’s feature is a recent purchase that I’m excited about.  Commonwealth, by Ann Patchett, is an enthralling story of how an unexpected romantic encounter irrevocably changes two families’ lives.

 

 

 

Beginning:  The christening party took a turn when Albert Cousins arrived with gin.  Fix was smiling when he opened the door and he kept smiling as he struggled to make the connection:  it was Albert Cousins from the district attorney’s office standing on the cement slab of his front porch.  He’d opened the door twenty times in the last half hour—to neighbors and friends and people from church and Beverly’s sister and all his brothers and their parents and practically an entire precinct worth of cops—but Cousins was the only surprise.

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56:  Patsy went off to get his water and Fix waited, opening his eyes so that he could watch her go.

“So then what happened?”  Franny said.  This was the deal of taking her father to chemo when none of the doctors spoke in terms of a cure:  this was the time she had, these were all the stories she was going to get.

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Synopsis:  One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating’s christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny’s mother, Beverly—thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families.

Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Spending summers together in Virginia, the Keating and Cousins children forge a lasting bond that is based on a shared disillusionment with their parents and the strange and genuine affection that grows up between them.

When, in her twenties, Franny begins an affair with the legendary author Leon Posen and tells him about her family, the story of her siblings is no longer hers to control. Their childhood becomes the basis for his wildly successful book, ultimately forcing them to come to terms with their losses, their guilt, and the deeply loyal connection they feel for one another.

Told with equal measures of humor and heartbreak, Commonwealth is a meditation on inspiration, interpretation, and the ownership of stories. It is a brilliant and tender tale of the far-reaching ties of love and responsibility that bind us together.

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What do you think?  Have you read this book?  Does it grab you?

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