ssindc's review
4.0
I almost feel badly categorizing this as "fantasy," because it is far and away the lightest (or most normal, mainstream, or conventional) of the Graham Joyce books I've read. The fantastical elements are mere color or flavor, whereas the overall work is an appealing, well-crafted, moving, or even touching chronicle of a large, complicated family surviving and evolving during a difficult time (World War II and the aftermath, in Coventry, England).
What's funny is that I'd be less inclined to recommend this book to my fantasy-reading friends who've enjoyed Joyce's other works. I'd be more inclined to recommend this to some of my literary fiction readers, for example the folks who are partial to Penelope Lively (still one of my all time favorites) or even Carol Shields - indeed, this book felt more like The Stone Diaries to me than, say, something by Neil Gaiman... Granted, Joyce can be a tad graphic at times, and he doesn't shy away from the mechanics of sex, but this story is really about families and relationships and the roles and challenges that face the matriarch, the difficulties of the prodigal daughter, the coming of age of a young boy, etc... All in all, a pleasant surprise...
What's funny is that I'd be less inclined to recommend this book to my fantasy-reading friends who've enjoyed Joyce's other works. I'd be more inclined to recommend this to some of my literary fiction readers, for example the folks who are partial to Penelope Lively (still one of my all time favorites) or even Carol Shields - indeed, this book felt more like The Stone Diaries to me than, say, something by Neil Gaiman... Granted, Joyce can be a tad graphic at times, and he doesn't shy away from the mechanics of sex, but this story is really about families and relationships and the roles and challenges that face the matriarch, the difficulties of the prodigal daughter, the coming of age of a young boy, etc... All in all, a pleasant surprise...
spacenoirdetective's review
5.0
A glorious new classic in the genre of slightly ghost-tinged magical realism. A wonderful, large-personalitied family welcomes the newest babe in Frank, who is a typical young boy who just happens to have a mother who is slightly off, a wise grandmother, and a gaggle of uncles an aunts who all share in his raising at different points.
What impresses me about this book is the voices of each character coming through so clearly. I never felt that even one of the many characters that make up this family was indistinct, as is sometimes the case with similar books. This really is an "ensemble" piece of a novel with no real central character, though Cassie and her mother both share center stage. The Facts of Life refers to the realities we learn as children, and Frank learns his through so many different people, all of whom disagree with each other (usually in an amicable way). This is a novel that esteems the virtues of agreeing to disagree and the way it handles the subject of the afterlife is not to gloss over it with the too often cliched "quirky but well meaning" brand of character writing so common in this genre, but rather it's gentle and mature and most importantly just subtle enough to seem real.
There are a lot of scenes in The Facts of Life that feel like miniature time capsules, with dialogue and wartime and postwar reconstruction all fully realized, captured in the minds of people who often don't know what to make of progress. It's a perfect ode to families pulling together and not judging people like our protagonist Cassie, whose minds just tend to wander a little bit more than ordinary folk. It's not a total drama but it's not a full comedy but rather a lighthearted drama with poignant prose strewn throughout.
What impresses me about this book is the voices of each character coming through so clearly. I never felt that even one of the many characters that make up this family was indistinct, as is sometimes the case with similar books. This really is an "ensemble" piece of a novel with no real central character, though Cassie and her mother both share center stage. The Facts of Life refers to the realities we learn as children, and Frank learns his through so many different people, all of whom disagree with each other (usually in an amicable way). This is a novel that esteems the virtues of agreeing to disagree and the way it handles the subject of the afterlife is not to gloss over it with the too often cliched "quirky but well meaning" brand of character writing so common in this genre, but rather it's gentle and mature and most importantly just subtle enough to seem real.
There are a lot of scenes in The Facts of Life that feel like miniature time capsules, with dialogue and wartime and postwar reconstruction all fully realized, captured in the minds of people who often don't know what to make of progress. It's a perfect ode to families pulling together and not judging people like our protagonist Cassie, whose minds just tend to wander a little bit more than ordinary folk. It's not a total drama but it's not a full comedy but rather a lighthearted drama with poignant prose strewn throughout.
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