Family Stories

Family Stories is a romance of a long marriage begun just as the Depression nears. Although the form is literarily more complex than many romances, I found it intriguing because it is the way most readers get to know real life love stories---through family stories. Marion and Frank Robertson are about to celebrate their 75th wedding anniversary. Despite trials and tribulations, their marriage survives the everyday irritations, the Depression and even personal tragedies. Why? The only way to discover the answer is to know the story of their love and marriage. The only way to know their marriage is to know the story of the family surrounding and built by their marriage. Tessa McDermid tells the story of Frank and Marion's marriage by creating vignettes of the couple, their children and their grandchildren. These snapshots are brought together when Hannah, the grandchild, discovers some family snapshots and remembers family stories. Why does her grandmother refuse a celebration, even a small one, to celebrate their everlasting marriage? When no one will tell her why, she turns to family stories to ferret out the secret. Some secrets are not easily decipherable except through family stories and history. The literary form is a bit different than a straight timeline plot or a typical romance. Instead, the reader see vignettes and together they add up to the portrait of a marriage and a family. Sometimes a marriage is best understood by looking at more than the hero and heroine but also the whole family. I liked it. This is how I experienced my own family's stories --- in bits and pieces and vignettes. This romance might inspire the imagination of readers, like it did to me, to rethink family stories as a whole romance instead of incomplete stories of disjointed individuals.

In 1929 when traveling salesman Frank Robertson and Marian Cooper meet they are attracted to one another. Frank wants to court Marian, but her father, a minister, says no. In love, they elope. Seven plus decades later, Frank and Marian remain a couple. Their great-granddaughter Hannah wants to throw a special party bringing all the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren together to celebrate their second diamond anniversary. However, to Hannah's surprise, Marian says no as she does not want to have a gala for their seventy-five anniversary. Hannah needs to know why. Hannah's quest to look into four generations of family turns this tale into more a series of vignettes than a novel. The cast through the seven plus decades are fully developed with just the right touch of eccentricity. Fans who gain pleasure from FAMILY STORIES will want to read Hannah's investigation into her living roots. Harriet Klausner