This Family Of Women (CH)

by Richard Peck

A warm and colorful novel that sweeps from the 1850s Gold Rush to the Europe of 1939. A saga of a remarkable group of spirited women- mothers, daughters, granddaughters, friends-and the way their lives and those of their men are intertwined. The novel is told in 6 parts, each with its own narrator.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction

576 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1983

About the author

Richard Peck was an American novelist known for his prolific contributions to modern young adult literature. He was awarded the Newbery Medal in 2001 for his novel A Year Down Yonder. For his cumulative contribution to young-adult literature, he received the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 1990.

Reviews

[Beth]

I was cleaning our bookshelves and saw a Young Readers book called A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck. I didn't remember the kids reading it, so I sat down and read it, myself. It was utterly delightful. Great writing, great story and an unforgettable Grandmother--a mix of Mary Poppins (tho no magic), Auntie Mame and Granny from the Beverly Hillbillies.
It starts out in Chicago in 1929. The kids are 9 and 7. Their parents send them down--on the Wabash Railroad from Dearborn St. --to their grandmother, somewhere in central Illinois--for a week
Anyhow, it's hilarious. But it has heart and soul.
So, I went to the library and checked out a few more of his young adult books. All pretty good.
Then I looked up the author and saw he'd written some adult books. I found one called This Family of Women and can't put it down.
Again, richly written, great characters, absorbing story interspersed with real actual historical characters I had never heard of. Arnold Genthe, Ouida, David Belasco. It spans the 1850s Gold Rush to the Europe of 1939.

[Katherine]

This book is outstanding in depth and scope. It traces the story of a variety of women, and the men and children in their lives, through the history and events that shape their lives. Well written and entertaining, a book to enjoy and remember. I enjoyed it very much and would heartily recommend it to others.

[Barbara]

I am a big fan of Mr Peck’s youth fiction: A Year Down Yonder is one of my all-time favorites. So when I saw this adult fiction book I gave it a try. I didn’t like it as much as the other Peck’s I’ve read, but I give him great credit for his research: his use of words & situations fit perfectly into whichever era he writes about. From wagon trains heading west to Nevada, to San Francisco, England & France, Mr Peck follows the women through their trials & heartbreaks. I would have liked to have spent more time getting to know each woman, but they grew & the story passed on to the next generation. A very good read.

[Lady]

Historical fiction from multiple voices...Oregon Trail era to the start of WWII. Strong, heartbreaking themes but a true testament to human resilience.

[Hannah completing_my_tbr]

Starting in the pioneering age of the gold rush and ending at the beginning of World War Two, This Family of Women follows four generations (in six different POVs) of women through their lives and stories.
Each pov shows the unique struggles each woman encounters, how she delt with it, and how it impacted the next generation.
I loved getting to see this play out because this isn’t a happy book. It’s fiction but it’s very real. Lena, the first woman in the story, lived during the gold rush and experienced so much loss. Because of that she closed herself off to love and you get to see how that one choice impacted her family after that. You see the generational cycles continue in each woman, even though they do things differently, and have different life experiences, you still see how the choices of the mother affects the child.
I think this book was absolutely great! I love historical fiction and it’s so cool to see it continue through such a long time frame.
Definitely recommend this book, especially if you like historical fiction but just keep in mind it’s not mentioned to be a “happily ever after” kind of story, it’s ment to be real life.

[Camilla Roper]

Five generations of strong women from the same family struggle to survive and raise families. Alternately set in California during the Gold Rush, London, Europe, and San Francisco during the Great Earthquake, each generation builds its own family and empire, in spite of terrible tribulations and problems. Peck weaves the elder generation into the stories of the younger ones, connecting the families, answering questions, and providing continuation for them and the reader. I've never run across a book written this way, and it took a little adjustment to leave one generation and then start up again with a new generation in a new chapter. But it was worth it to see how the older ones fit into the picture, when the focus was on the younger generation.

[April]

This Family of Women
By Richard Peck
1983

Written at the time when grand family epics were popular, Richard Peck proved that he was more than capable of joining the crowd. While the first generation women of this story were a bit hard to read about, the story eventually gripped me and held me in its tightly woven grasp.
I give it 4 stars, 5 stars would have been if the beginning was as good as the rest of the story.

4 stars.

[Robin]

The cover suggests exactly the kind of ABC Miniseries family epic you are in for, with a 1980s Ladies fierceness. (I'm a wooo-mun) I cannot understand why this was not televised, except that in 1983 even Cagney & Lacey was trying to prove people would watch television about women.

The dialogue is a little soapy, but there is not much of it. Most of the narrative is interior monologue and description, told through several narrators as this family ages. The multi-narration approach adds very little, as the voices are nearly indistinguishable, and are not relating the same events. As the book progresses, in fact, it gets a lot more expository, admitting that we can't keep our characters straight and reminding us of who they are. I was particularly disappointed that the girl we knew as Effie when she is a child narrator is completely missing in the adult Eve we meet through a later narrator. And I would have liked very much a Sarah-Ann chapter. There is something to the naivete of all these young girl narrators, but I think a third-person narration could have done just as well.

I am not marking this for spoilers - if you don't know how a chapter that opens in San Francisco in the spring of 1906 is going to go, then this sentence doesn't give that away either.

It's a good read. If you can find a copy without a cover (or an epub you can send) for the teenage girl in your life, she might enjoy snuggling in with this on the next trip to Grandma's. But that Scruples font is not going to draw her in.

[Bonnie]

Great tale - epic, covering several generations of two families, but not of epic proportions, because the families are extremely poor for most of the book. A lot of history, covering the movement west, and with more of the suffering that was probably really experienced, but rarely described in novels. Though it seemed a bit depressing around the middle of the book, the author's technique of switching voices (all told first person) helped soften it. Good ending - not trite or contrived but still a positive note full of potential.

[Jami]

This is the first adult book I've read by Richard Peck. It was quite different from his young adult fiction- he likes to kill off main characters. I kept waiting for the "happy" Peck to kick in. But it never did- it was a saga of strong women struggling and mostly conquering the problems of their generation...but there was also a lot of tragedy. What can I say? I like the Disney version of life better.

[Ginger]

This book showed how "issues" from one generation get passed on to future generations. I found the characters interesting although many of them never seemed to change things in their lives that made them unhappy.

[Emily]

I liked this a lot but then all of a sudden it ended. Why follow 5 generations? Why not 4? Why not 6? All were interesting and likeable, strong women. I'm glad to 'discover' Richard Peck and will be reading more of his stuff for sure.

[Jennifer]

I love this book. I love a good generational family story. I hunted this back down just so I would stop checking it out at the library.

[Wendy]

I wasn't sure how to rate this. There were parts in this book that made me uncomfortable and sometimes even a little queasy, but overall it was a captivating story and well-written.

[Wendy]

Very engrossing look at the lives of women in generations - some of it sad

[Katie]

I remember reading this twice when I was in college, but I barely recall any of the specifics.