The Family Tree

by Carole Cadwalladr

Rebecca Monroe is terrified of turning into her mother.

On the day Lady Diana married Prince Charles, Rebecca’s mother locked herself in the bathroom of 24 Beech Drive and never came out. Was it because the holiday dinner didn’t turn out just right? Because Rebecca’s grandmother married her first cousin? Or was she simply, unalterably unhappy? According to Rebecca’s scientist husband, our genes control our fate, but Rebecca isn’t so sure. Leaving everything to science allows little room for the events that shape our lives.

Looking for clues in a family history filled with three generations of mistaken marriages, dubiously fathered children, and hand-me-down sayings, Rebecca discovers she is just one piece of a family history that is still unraveling—and she wonders if events of the past are destined to repeat themselves in her own child’s future.

The intertwining relationships of mothers and daughters, sisters and brothers, and husbands and wives go to the heart of The Family Tree as it transcends the story of one woman and her family to become an indelible and resonant novel in which author Carole Cadwalladr ponders what truly makes us who we are.

Genres: Fiction, Book Club, Audiobook, Adult Fiction, Literary Fiction, Novels, Chick Lit

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

The voice grabbed me from the second paragraph and proceeded to yank me through a wild ride of time and character all the way toward the last word. It was a voice uncharacteristic of most of the novels I pick up. It’s a voice worth revisiting and a voice that had me flipping pages like flapjacks.

“It appeared one morning in our driveway, an alien spaceship from a planet more exciting than our own. Inside, there was a miniature stove with an eye-level grill, and a fridge that was pretending to be a cupboard. Tiffany and I, experienced sniffers of nail-polish remover, stood on the threshold and inhaled the slightly toxic smell of new upholstery and expectation. I was eight years old and susceptible to the idea that technology could change your life. They said so in the TV ads.”

The construction of The Family Tree proved different than any novel I have ever read before. It consisted of 18 parts, even more segments, multiple footnotes, several graphs, and bounced around in time faster than a ping pong ball in a Chinese ping pong match. And I’m only just getting started.

Rebecca Monroe is a voice worth hearing and worth sticking around for, but to stop there would do serious injustice to the supporting characters, who constitute a wide range of personalities and proceed to have a wide range of problems. These characters showcased both humor and originality.

The unique structure and unique characters aren’t necessarily for everyone (as evidenced by its mixed reviews), but if you look for out-of-the-ordinary, instead of merely ordinary, then you may have found yourself a book worth reading and worthy of your precious time.

[Jhoanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

#1: This book has graphs and diagrams. Lots of them.
#2: It's about genetics and a family and dysfunction and longing and paranoia and lost love and and and...
#3: There are people named Herbert and Alistair and Kenneth.
#4: Lady Di and her wedding dress make a very fateful appearance.
#5: Weird British people run around doing weird British things.
#6: It contains this question:
Are you:
a. Very happy?
b. Quite happy?
c. Neither happy nor unhappy?
d. Not very happy?
e. Not at all happy?
#7: Did I mention it's got graphs? And diagrams? And definitions?

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I expected, but that doesn't mean I was disappointed. The back of the book mentions "On the day Lady Diana married Prince Charles, Rebecca's mother locked herself in the bathroom of 24 Beech Drive and never came out. Was it because the holiday dinner didn't turn out just right. Because Rebecca's grandmother married her first cousin? Or was she simply, unalterably unhappy?"

So this story covers three generations of women in a family. It is a ride through a gene pool, and a thumbing through the dictionary. A back-story and a present day one, entwined completely and irrevocably. Well told. Quirky ( and I like quirky.) Some parts got a good chuckle out of me, some made me sad. But all in all, it kept me reading.

I have to add that I really liked the device the author used of starting each section and chapter with a dictionary definition. It was fun to see how the definition related to the text.

[Kristine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I gave this book 100 pages.. thats my new rule. I used to suffer through books I didn't particularly care for then I came to the realization that there are so many good books out there, why waste my time on something that I'm not really feeling...

by page 100 or so, the author had only begun to scratch the surface of some "big family secret" that was propelling the plot. to be honest, I didn't like any of the characters enough or feel invested enough to stick around to find out what this "big family secret" was..

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Familia, s. 1. Unidad fundamental de la sociedad, conformada típicamente por uno o dos padres y sus hijos.

[Translation to English below]

Si tuviera que describir Álbum Familiar con un solo adjetivo, sería enternecedor: que mueve a ternura, por compasión u otro motivo.

Este libro recoge la historia de tres generaciones, narrada por Rebecca Monroe, con las lagunas que cualquiera tenemos sobre la historia de nuestros familiares, lo cual hace muy fácil identificarse con ella.
Carole Cadwalladr transmite todo con una sutileza encomiable; parece delegar en todo momento en la empatía de la lectora, y es plenamente consciente de ello. Por ejemplo, cuando se revela un romance entre dos personajes, habla directamente a la lectora para decirle "Yo pensaba que A y B tenían un romance. De modo que tú pensaste que A y B mantenían un romance", pese a que en ningún momento se llega a decir expresamente que ese fuera su pensamiento. La forma de evocar la sensualidad y el erotismo a lo largo de todo el libro, incluso en la infancia, me ha parecido francamente brillante y es, en mi opinión, lo más destacable de este libro, aparte de la elaboración de los personajes y las relaciones entre ellos.
He apreciado mucho también el enfoque de la autora sobre las enfermedades mentales y, especialmente, de tener familiares que padecen estas enfermedades. También sobre el duelo tras perder a alguien querido.
En general, lo que más he disfrutado es la cercanía de todas las emociones y pensamientos, de todas las situaciones cotidianas con nuestras familias, y las no tan cotidianas que aún así se viven en la mayoría de familias, pese a que no se hable de ellas. Supongo que resulta reconfortante leer sobre ellas, porque te permite tener un diálogo contigo misma sobre tu propia familia sin juzgarla como algo extraordinario, s. 1. Fuera del orden o regla natural o común.

Recomendaría esta lectura a personas que sean capaces de apreciar un libro con poca acción, cotidiano, pero cargado de sentimientos y con mucho drama, si bien este drama se desarrolla más en la mente de quien lee que en lo escrito en las páginas de la novela.

[English:]
If I had to describe The Family Tree in just one word, that would be touching: making you feel sadness, sympathy, etc.

In this book Rebecca Monroe narrates the story of three generations, with the gaps all of us have concerning the stories of our relatives, which makes this narrative even more relatable.
Carole Cadwalldr conveys everything with such subtlety, such gentleness; she seems to delegate to the reader's sympathy most of the time, and she is well aware of this, as she proves it in some passages of the book. I found the way in which she evokes sensuality and eroticism all throughout the book, even in childhood, simply brilliant. The elaboration of characters and the development of the relationships between them also deserves to be highlighted.
I loved the author's approach to mental illness, especially the approach to having relatives who suffer from these. Also, the approach to the mourning after losing a loved one.
Overall, what I liked the most was the relatability of every emotion and thought in the book, of all the ordinary situations with our families, and those not so ordinary that still take place in most families, despite not talking about them. I suppose this is comforting in a way, since it allows you to have a conversation with yourself about your own family without judging them as something extraordinary: very unusual, special, unexpected, or strange.

I would recommend this novel to people who can enjoy a book with little action, ordinary, but filled with emotion and a lot of drama, even if this drama develops more in the mind of the reader than in the literal content of the book.

[jjStaq! · Rating 3 out of 5]

the family tree is essentially a book about identity; who are we and how we became that person. it's the age old debate: nature vs. nurture. how much of us is already plotted out in our genetic makeup? how much of ourselves are we making up as we go along?

rebecca monroe is a scholar of 70's pop culture. she is married to alistair, a geneticist who believes that we are who we are because of who came before us. if this is the case, rebecca has much to be anxious about because her mother, doreen, is bipolar (or manic/depressive as it was known back then). and her grandmother, alicia, suffers from alzheimer's. this story is as much about rebecca's family as it is about rebecca.

the book moves back and forth in time with primary foci on rebecca's present day life and marriage, rebecca's childhood memories of her family especially her mother and her antics, and alicia's past that involved two taboo relationships, one passionately inconvenient and one indifferently convenient.

the shifting tale is structured with the help of a charming little narrative device: the use of words and their definitions. particularly the fact that the meanings chosen are usually not the primary definition widely held but rather, a secondary or tertiary definition that almost feels contrary to that primary meaning. these words are typically positioned at the beginning of chapters and intimate the direction of that respective part of the story.

i found the book pleasant enough, but not enough to really capture me. perhaps the story was spread a little too thin with all the family members. i never felt invested in any of the characters. was i supposed to feel a certain way about rebecca? because i really didn't. i was along for the ride, wanting to know what what would happen, but it was less of an emotional wanting to know and more of a clinical lets see how this plays out. doreen's emotional instability didn't seem especially unstable. alicia's relationship with cecil was the most memorable thing about her which makes everything else about her forgettable, even her illness. and the rest of the family, though mentioned frequently enough, are even more forgettable, lacking any substance or dimension to them.

it wasn't until the end that i felt an engagement with rebecca as the book changed in rhythm and tone: quicker, punchier. other readers may not like the last part as it does feel much different tonally than the rest of the book. but this was the only time that i felt like it was rebecca's story. whereas prior to that, it felt like she was playing a supporting role to someone else's (doreen's, alicia's, alistair's) story. perhaps this was an intentional breaking of form as it seemed to demonstrate the nature vs. nurture argument. the majority of the book with regards to rebecca and her family related to nature and the last part that emphasized rebecca herself dealt with the nurture part.

although i may have had problems with character development, the writing style itself was quite lovely. and it's always enjoyable to observe the quirks and foibles within a family dynamic (especially when it's someone else's family and not your own). despite my back and forth feelings about the family tree, ultimately it was an enjoyable enough read, one that i didn't regret investing my time in, although it did leave me wondering what might have been had the family tree been pruned a bit.

[Lightblue · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Family Tree
Questo è un libro strano, in inglese lo definirei "weird". E' la storia di tre generazioni della stessa famiglia, 3 donne (nonna, mamma e figlia) che vivono l'amore in modi diversissimi. Chi ama l'uomo sbagliato, chi non viene ricambiato, chi viene tradito. Il quadro è abbastanza disarmante, ma la Cadwalladr ha uno stile così agrodolce e così British che è impossibile non affezionarsi alle protagoniste, pur nelle loro fragilità. Bellissima l'ambientazione, tra cui spicca il giorno del matrimonio tra Carlo e Diana, vissuto dagli inglesi come un evento di famiglia (cosa che noi facciamo fatica a capire, vedi la nascita del piccolo futuro re George di quest'estate) e intriganti alcuni espedienti narrativi (ogni capitolo è introdotto da una definizione presa di pari passo da un dizionario). Tutto considerato un bel libro, che pecca solo nella traduzione del titolo in italiano, uno spoiler pazzesco, secondo me!

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book; I listened to it on audio and the narration was superb. Set in the late–20th-century Britain, the Family Tree is a three generational tale centering on a middle class English family whose mother aspires to be so much more than she is. This is the author's first novel, and she is clearly a master of time and place. She is an intelligent writer with a wry sense of humor using 70s pop culture references as Dallas and The Sale of the Century to clearly bring the reader into the family living room. Family Tree is a well woven tale with vivid characters (especially the female characters), and a strong sense of integrity. I highly recommend listening to this book if at all possible.

[Na'ilah Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

There was something SO incredibly captivating about this novel. I lost myself in it fully. Maybe it takes certain people, raised in very specific conditions to fully understand and appreciate this novel and how beautifully it is written, but my goodness did it ruin me. What an amazing novel, what an interesting method of delivery. I could feel the chapters unravel like a damn present. It was perfect.

[Stacey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one made me crack up numerous times. Everyone's family is weird in some way or another - the key is to laugh at it when you can.

And FINALLY, someone agreed - Princess Di's wedding dress...just not that great. In fact, kind of grody.

[Chana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read it in one sitting. I expected a funnier, light-hearted book. This book is grim, sad and upsetting. The plot isn't even laid out clearly. I ingested it and now feel sick. I need an antidote.

[Saleh MoonWalker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Onvan : The Family Tree - Nevisande : Carole Cadwalladr - ISBN : 452286948 - ISBN13 : 9780452286948 - Dar 400 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2004

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was readable, but to the point of being simplistic and undeveloped for the most part, or a bit pointless in its modern setting.

Those unfamiliar with Cadwalladr's politics would be left in no doubt after reading this book, whose main themes were feminism and racism, laid on so thickly that it got repetitive. I was not alive during the 1970s, but I find it hard to imagine that everyone's personality was a caricature, with the narrator the only perfect girl among a family of narcissists. We've moved on from the 70's now, and I'm not sure what was being explored here as we all know such blatant sexism, snobbery and racism is wrong. Her mother and sister were horrible, with no moral ambiguity, but the narrator had no personality either in the past or the present.

The present-day storyline was a touch more nuanced, but even less happened. Her husband was selfish but at least seemed to have a (cold) personality and interests, while the narrator was extremely passive. Her sister was still a caricature, and the modern day sexism was also a stretch - would a boss explicitly say he's giving all her males colleagues a pay rise, but not her, because he could? It was all a bit juvenile, of the 'Some people believe men should be paid more than women for doing the same job' variety.

Then there were the little things that were annoying too - the modern day graphs or academic-style footnotes which interrupted the flow, or the cheap appeals to keep reading by stating how much worse things would get. But the aspect that I found most bizarre was the narrator's speculation of her true grandfather. After a book that spent its entire length demonstrating how prejudiced society was, she expected a child of mixed heritage to escape everyone's notice for 60 years? It was utterly ludicrous.

There were parts that were amusing, and there are much worse books out there, but there are only so many times a joke format can work, and there are far too many obvious flaws for this work to be received positively by this reader.

[Hermioneginny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rebecca Monroe ha una famiglia ingombrante ed esagerata. Ha sposato un genetista che cerca di controllarla con la logica. E quando Rebecca scopre di essere incinta, fa un bilancio della sua vita: la sua infanzia, con una madre psicolabile, la sorella perfetta, il matrimonio dei nonni-cugini...

Per buona parte del libro, il racconto è ironico, brillante, con colpi di scena; verso la fine prende una piega più tragica e amara, che un po' delude. Interessante la scelta di aprire ogni capitolo con la definizione di un termine importante per la storia.

* Se esaminassi il mio albero genealogico e se voi esaminaste il vostro, probabilmente scopriremmo di avere un parente in comune. Il vostro bis-bis-bis-bis-bis-bis-bis-bis-bisnonno? Potrebbe essere il mio. Questa è la storia della mia famiglia. Forse, però, dovrei far notare che potrebbe anche essere la storia della vostra. Alistair non approverebbe mai, naturalmente. è così fissato. So cosa direbbe. Avremo sì dei geni in comune, proprio come li abbiamo in comune anche con gli scimpanzé. E con i moscerini della frutta. E con i lieviti. Ma io non sono una scienziata, perciò questo deciderò di ignorarlo. Le famiglie, a mio avviso, non sono poi tanto diverse.
* Biologia non vuol dire destino.
* L'ho sempre amato così, quando pensa; quando per metà è su questo mondo e per metà no.
* Lo stato d'animo naturale di Damien è la felicità. è il suo modo d'essere.

[Michelle Yang · Rating 4 out of 5]

The chronology was a little bit hard to follow for the majority of the book, but just like a family tree, the labyrinth of truths reveals clarity with experience, time, and investment. It was a slow start, but the pages began to automatically flip themselves as the deeper into the book I got. Nature vs Nurture, the complexities of life, and what makes us who we are. Comparisons and introspection. Filled with it. The novel wraps itself up as the entirety of Rebecca's thesis, a patient, yet compact reflection of the life she lived. An analysis of how she came to be and a memory in hindsight of who she was in every stage of her life with every given complication and tragedy. How "noise" influences us and our perceptions of the world. It is certainly a family tree. She doesn't think she is normal. But nobody really is. Attachment to oneself and their individual past. How do we grapple with the truths that attach themselves to the lack of normality? An endless journal of how Rebecca Monroe ventures on an endless journey of self-discovery. Endless Questions. Answered by science? Or simple observation? Or the Scientific Method. An interesting read, opening up space for empathy, commentary, and reflection.

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book at a book fair and while thumbing through the pages, I saw that it contained definitions for every chapter/subchapter. Each word that was being defined was relevant to the chapter. In addition to the definitions, there were also graphs to show the main character’s husband’s work, who is a geneticist. That all caught my eye and thought it sounded interesting, the main character, Rebecca’s grandmother married her first cousin. How did that come to be? How did that impact her family tree. This took me longer than I expected and after awhile, it wasn’t that I was really into it, it was more that I just wanted to see how it ended. Overall, what a cluster of a family tree. I did not like any of the characters, especially not Herb (Rebecca’s grandfather) and his ferrets and Alistair was what I typically thought of a professor. And in this case, was true. “You don’t always get the ending you want, you know.” In this case, I did not.

I thought the book was OK, and 2 stars is OK rating.

[Kirsten Arcadio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having followed Carole Cadwalladr's work as a journalist I was curious to see what her novel would be like. I was not disappointed and I'm now as much a fan of Carole the novelist as I am of Carole the journalist. I grew up at the same time as the protagonist, Rebecca, and so much of this resonated: the identity struggles of the lower middle classes in Britain in the '70s and early '80s, the family secrets of wayward grandmothers (I had one of those too, although in my case it was my great grandmother), the marital agony of the protagonist once grown up. So painful, but funny at the same time. I loved the writing/voice, the plot structure, the eeking out of information which was so measured and just about got the balance right. And as for the characters...they were perfect. Highly recommended!

[Kyra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I galloped through this novel in 2 days - not so much because it is a speed read but because I could not put it down. Wickedly humorous (as per the NYT Book Review), yes, but also deeply unhappy. Do so many sisters really loathe each other so much ? I don't have a sister, so I am probably missing something here. Terrific book, well-written, lots of 1970s pop culture references older readers will feel comfortable with, bit of a cliff-hanger conclusion, and some really terrifying sibling rivalry. Sad to say, but by the end, I was rooting for some of the male characters. Well, just SOME of them.
Loved it. Highly recommended for a not-once-boring read.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
"That's the thing about the past, you can't change it, however hard you try."

It started off like a humorous satire of a dysfunctional middle-class British family in the 80s. Then it got serious with the mental health issues. I was getting fed up with how passive Rebecca seemed.

The ending was just perfect for me. It was not exactly happy, with plenty of sadness and uncertainty but ultimately satisfying.

Cadwalladr does an excellent job dissecting the characters through their actions and interactions instead of through exposition of their thoughts.

I wished someone would've punched Alistair though.

[Denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the book. Not what I expected it would turn out to be. I loved Rebecca and her cousin, Lucy’s relationship. It was very vivid and reminded me of my own relationship with my cousins. Rebecca’s relationship with her mother sets the tone for how Rebecca sees herself. Always wrong, not allowed to speak up for herself which shows in her marriage and her job. The family dynamics make so much sense through the whole book. It’s hard at first, to get going from the past reflections to the present but it all comes together. I would recommend this book.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book even though it was sometimes frustrating to keep track of the different characters, but of course that is the whole point of the book - the many different characters we have in our families.
It was very funny in parts, and reminiscent of my childhood and some of the characters in my own family and neighbourhood, but also deals with a number of different social issues affecting families over the last 7 decades.
Very well written and totally absorbing, I hope that she writes more fiction after busying herself with investigative journalism.

[Helen Cummings · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mistakenly thought this novel was going to be of “and they lived happily ever after “ variety and how wrong I was!
I loved the story of the home life narrated by the child Rebecca, less so when the adult Rebecca pronounced on her marriage and I found her husband Alistair’s diatribe incredibly tedious. References to all things from the 70’s UK resonated with me as during that decade I was living in London.
A funny, touching and incredibly nostalgic read with an ensemble of fascinating and flawed characters.

[Matthew Cline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give this book a solid 3.5- it would be higher except some of these character were just irredeemable from the beginning, and that never changed. I loved the skipping around of time periods, and my favorite characters really built on themselves as more information was found out about them. The book luckily built up to a fulfilling ending though that had me rapidly flipping through to the last page.

[Kathy Gilliland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unusual way of writing a story of a family past and present. Absolutely could not stand the main husband character. Don’t know why anyone would have put up with him so long. The grandmother’s story though really tugged at my heart.

[Evelyn Pecht · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book and the entire whacky family. There were moments when I found myself murmuring ... "she didn't really say that." Oh, yes, she did!!

My favorite quote: "My grandmother, my mother, and me; fruit flies all."

[Winifred]

it took me a while to really get into this book, because it was going from present into past. it was lovely to remember about soda streams, trifles and Sunday dinners. If the writer mentioned a tv programme in the story she gives an account of the programme at the bottom of the page.

[Anne Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in 2007 and I don't remember it at all. For that reason I am giving it an average rating and will not say anything other than what my note said "I was very eager to have my chances at listening to it." So apparently I liked it.

[Kristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

If 1/2 stars were possible I would have given this 3 1/2 stars; I liked it more than merely "liked it" but less than "really liked it." Considering that I finished this book last week and can't remember enough to post a detailed review, it was readable but not memorable.

[TOTO from Kansas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice little read. Creative way of in twining genealogy and a fictional English family dramatic trials and tribulations.

[Kate Parry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sad, funny, clever and thoroughly entertaining.