The novel begins on Thanksgiving Day 2007 with the extended Olson family gathering together to celebrate the day. Ginny Olson, a thirty something single professor and daughter of Gavin, an aging Vietnam Vet and Eleanor a suburban housewife, is the host of the dinner. Ginny has never cooked a big meal before, but wants to celebrate her new home and newly adopted mute, seven year old Indian daughter. Rounding out the guest list are Ginnys brother Doug along with his wife Denise and their three children. Doug is a real estate mogul who is on the brink of bankruptcy due to the real estate bubble burst. On a parallel storyline track are Kijo and Spider, troubled urban teens with a grudge against one Olson family member. By the novels end all plotlines have converged in an astonishing and unexpected way.
Strangers at the Feast is a hard to characterize novel part thriller/suspense, part domestic drama, part socio-political commentary and part satire. Vanderbes, a graduate of the prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop, does it all! For instance, when writing about Ginnys academia article, The Emasculation of the American Warrior, Vanderbes weaves an actual article (or at least several pages of it) into the story. Still at other points she includes a thoughtful legal analysis of eminent domain and a play by play account of the Green Bay Packers 2007 Thanksgiving Day game.
Strangers at the Feast is an exquisite and riveting story of family dysfunction ripped from recent headlines.
Advance review copy provided courtesy of the publisher.
Strangers at the Feast is a hard to characterize novel part thriller/suspense, part domestic drama, part socio-political commentary and part satire. Vanderbes, a graduate of the prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop, does it all! For instance, when writing about Ginnys academia article, The Emasculation of the American Warrior, Vanderbes weaves an actual article (or at least several pages of it) into the story. Still at other points she includes a thoughtful legal analysis of eminent domain and a play by play account of the Green Bay Packers 2007 Thanksgiving Day game.
Strangers at the Feast is an exquisite and riveting story of family dysfunction ripped from recent headlines.
Advance review copy provided courtesy of the publisher.
From the back:
Jennifer Vanderbes delivers a gripping, complex, and satisfying drama that explores how the forces of culture and history shape an American family in the face of tragedy.
On Thanksgiving Day 2007, three generations of the Olson family gather. Eleanor and Gavin worry about their daughter Ginny, an unmarried academic in her thirties with a newly adopted Italian daughter, and about their son Douglas who has recently been caught in the imploding real estate bubble. But Ginny and Douglas, determined to have a perfect holiday, keep their troubles secret, a skill they have learned from their parents. As old grudges, personality clashes, and a stove malfunction spiral the Olson's holiday into a tense and foodless afternoon, seventeen year old Kijo Jackson and his best friend Spider set out from the housing projects on a mysterious job. As these two families - one white, one black - head towards a violent and inevitable encounter, Vanderbes masterfully lays bare the fraught lives of the fascinating characters and the lengths to which they will go to protect their families.
Jennifer Vanderbes delivers a gripping, complex, and satisfying drama that explores how the forces of culture and history shape an American family in the face of tragedy.
On Thanksgiving Day 2007, three generations of the Olson family gather. Eleanor and Gavin worry about their daughter Ginny, an unmarried academic in her thirties with a newly adopted Italian daughter, and about their son Douglas who has recently been caught in the imploding real estate bubble. But Ginny and Douglas, determined to have a perfect holiday, keep their troubles secret, a skill they have learned from their parents. As old grudges, personality clashes, and a stove malfunction spiral the Olson's holiday into a tense and foodless afternoon, seventeen year old Kijo Jackson and his best friend Spider set out from the housing projects on a mysterious job. As these two families - one white, one black - head towards a violent and inevitable encounter, Vanderbes masterfully lays bare the fraught lives of the fascinating characters and the lengths to which they will go to protect their families.
I was disappointed. This book had a great deal of potential- the plot and the characters are awesome. I felt like I was hit over the head with the stories of some of the characters (he was in Nam, he was in Nam, he was in Nam)..but nothing was fully or well developed. I thought the climax was weak, and the conclusion was non-existent. Everything sort of kind of fell apart, but there was no meaning in that either. Frankly, I expected a whole lot more, and almost did not finish reading it.
