Strangers at the Feast Book

Superb read for Thanksgiving or family gatherings! Ever hear somebody tell you how distant their ex is, how marrying said person - in retrospect - was just insane? And then you meet this ex at some function or other and find said dullard charming, kind, intelligent? Your perspective is entirely different!

Families are like that too sometimes, where one member has strong opinions about another, but truly does not know the loved one and has judged him or her far differently than others would.

The words "strangers" at the feast in this story has a double meaning.

Told from six alternating points of view, the voices belong to those who will come together one Thanksgiving day. Five of the characters are adult members of a single-family, a loving family with no abuse or awful dysfunction, all college-degreed, and loyal to those they love. Really, it could be any of our families.

Their individual stories, which meander back in time, are weaved together beautifully. Certain random things you might note in Eleanor's tale - a little anecdote that shows what a kindhearted woman she truly is - will pop up later in the remembrances of her daughter with entirely different meaning.

Ginny loves her father, a quietly dull insurance man, but assumes that his somewhat removed personality is because of his experiences in Vietnam. Despite being unmarried and childless, she is a professor of "family studies" and writes books about how wars like Vietnam have caused psycho logical impotence in the American man. Yet all she believes about this is based solely on her assessment of her dad. And she is wrong.

The one voice we hear that does not belong to this family unit is that of a 17-year-old boy whose life intersects that of the others. We know from exceptionally small snippets early on that a tragedy is going to occur on this day, but as we see Kiijo's various life experiences and the love he has for his grandmother, we do not know what the horror will be or why it will happen.

This book was an exceptionally good character study, and although I had to wait for the climactic event to occur, I did not tire of hearing their various tales. The ending did not wrap up in a way that totally satisfied me, but I give this a solid four stars.