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Excellent Lombards
A new classic from the author of Oprah's Book Club picks A Map of the World and The Book of Ruth .
"This is the book Jane Hamilton was born to write... [it is] magnificent." — Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth
Mary Frances "Frankie" Lombard is fiercely in love with her family's sprawling apple orchard and the tangled web of family members who inhabit it. Content to spend her days planning capers with her brother William, competing with her brainy cousin Amanda, and expertly tending the orchard with her father, Frankie desires nothing more than for the rhythm of life to continue undisturbed. But she cannot help being haunted by the historical fact that some family members end up staying on the farm and others must leave. Change is inevitable, and threats of urbanization, disinheritance, and college applications shake the foundation of Frankie's roots. As Frankie is forced to shed her childhood fantasies and face the possibility of losing the idyllic future she had envisioned for her family, she must decide whether loving something means clinging tightly or letting go.
"Everything you could ask for in a coming-of-age novel-- funny, insightful, observant, saturated with hope and melancholy." — Tom Perotta, author of Little Children and The Leftovers
"Tender, eccentric, wickedly funny and sage...gives full voice to Jane Hamilton's storytelling gifts." - Nancy Horan, author of Loving Frank and Under the Wide and Starry Sky
"This is the book Jane Hamilton was born to write... [it is] magnificent." — Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth
Mary Frances "Frankie" Lombard is fiercely in love with her family's sprawling apple orchard and the tangled web of family members who inhabit it. Content to spend her days planning capers with her brother William, competing with her brainy cousin Amanda, and expertly tending the orchard with her father, Frankie desires nothing more than for the rhythm of life to continue undisturbed. But she cannot help being haunted by the historical fact that some family members end up staying on the farm and others must leave. Change is inevitable, and threats of urbanization, disinheritance, and college applications shake the foundation of Frankie's roots. As Frankie is forced to shed her childhood fantasies and face the possibility of losing the idyllic future she had envisioned for her family, she must decide whether loving something means clinging tightly or letting go.
"Everything you could ask for in a coming-of-age novel-- funny, insightful, observant, saturated with hope and melancholy." — Tom Perotta, author of Little Children and The Leftovers
"Tender, eccentric, wickedly funny and sage...gives full voice to Jane Hamilton's storytelling gifts." - Nancy Horan, author of Loving Frank and Under the Wide and Starry Sky
303 pages, Paperback
First published April 19, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 680 reviews
July 6, 2017
Oh man I'm kind of annoyed because the writing was actually really excellent and I think she really captured the teenage angst thing so well but there wasn't really any plot line to the book. Like I enjoyed reading it but nothing really happened in the book and it really could've been organized better which is a bummer because the characters were there and her writing was great. Not sure why she ended where she did or why she didn't extend the plot line to include what happens eventually with the ownership of the farm which is what the whole story is centered around. It's so frustrating when that kind of thing happens with books and especially when there's a lot of potential for it to be amazing.
August 13, 2017
This is a coming of age story about a young girl growing up in an extended family on a Midwestern farm in Milwaukee.
The ambiance in this family saga reminds me slightly of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, with the warm, goodness of family life on a farm. Little Women had a autobiographical undertone to it, though, while The Excellent Lombards was a fictional tale of two families of Lombards trying to survive on their farm while suburbanization is creeping up on them. Family-owned farms are fast becoming something of the past despite the struggles of families to remain and keep the old traditions going.
Francie's mother had a rough deal in the story with Francie always siding with everyone against her. I felt sorry for the college graduate who ended up on the farm, married to a much older man, with a love of books, and no one who really understood Nellie's intelligence or contribution to the farming operations. That she never assisted with the harvest and other farm work, did not mean that she was a freeloader. There were so much about her mother that Francie did not know or just did not understand.
Francie overheard Nellie telling Gloria that Francie is too full of spleen. And William, her older brother, was too dreamy and too interested in other things to be a farmer. And when her father Jim told Nellie that he wanted to pass his share of the Lombard farm to his cousin Sherwood in his will, Francie knew that the life they all so loved and cherished will come to end one day, and nobody ever asked her what she thought would be best for her and William. They were mere children, without any say. But Nellie, in her own sarcastic decorum, was not planning to accept the decision and watch her children been driven from their inheritance...
With hardworking, eccentric, Aunt May Hill silently moving around, eyes focused on the ground, with no words to anyone, or otherwise always locked up in her part of the old family mansions, the family shares in the farm became prized commodities. Aunt May Hill, who could fix anything, had no descendants, and no intentions to indicate who her heir or heirs will be. Uncle Jim passed the farm to three family members: Francie's dad, Jim, and Sherwood, and Aunt May. With so many descendants in the mix there was no simple road to any inheritance and they did not even like each other, especially Adam and Amanda, Sherwood and Dolly's two children across the road. There were too many claims on the apple farm. Who deserved to be the real owner?
The family set-up is intriguing and multi-leveled. Fierce Francie, the protagonist, finds it difficult to adjust to life with everything changing around them while her insecurities drive her to action she later regrets.
A fast, heartwarming and gentle read, written in excellent, eloquent prose and with insight into a young girl's metamorphosis into adulthood.
The story lost me nearer to the end, which came as a surprise. It just ended, without warning. "What?! Is this it?!" I wondered.
Nevertheless, The Excellent Lombards was such a relaxing, wholesome, good experience. It can be wholeheartedly recommended to readers with an interest in farming, traditions, family loyalty, young adult novels, and small town sagas. A heart-of-America read. A warm one at that.
The ambiance in this family saga reminds me slightly of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, with the warm, goodness of family life on a farm. Little Women had a autobiographical undertone to it, though, while The Excellent Lombards was a fictional tale of two families of Lombards trying to survive on their farm while suburbanization is creeping up on them. Family-owned farms are fast becoming something of the past despite the struggles of families to remain and keep the old traditions going.
Francie's mother had a rough deal in the story with Francie always siding with everyone against her. I felt sorry for the college graduate who ended up on the farm, married to a much older man, with a love of books, and no one who really understood Nellie's intelligence or contribution to the farming operations. That she never assisted with the harvest and other farm work, did not mean that she was a freeloader. There were so much about her mother that Francie did not know or just did not understand.
Francie overheard Nellie telling Gloria that Francie is too full of spleen. And William, her older brother, was too dreamy and too interested in other things to be a farmer. And when her father Jim told Nellie that he wanted to pass his share of the Lombard farm to his cousin Sherwood in his will, Francie knew that the life they all so loved and cherished will come to end one day, and nobody ever asked her what she thought would be best for her and William. They were mere children, without any say. But Nellie, in her own sarcastic decorum, was not planning to accept the decision and watch her children been driven from their inheritance...
With hardworking, eccentric, Aunt May Hill silently moving around, eyes focused on the ground, with no words to anyone, or otherwise always locked up in her part of the old family mansions, the family shares in the farm became prized commodities. Aunt May Hill, who could fix anything, had no descendants, and no intentions to indicate who her heir or heirs will be. Uncle Jim passed the farm to three family members: Francie's dad, Jim, and Sherwood, and Aunt May. With so many descendants in the mix there was no simple road to any inheritance and they did not even like each other, especially Adam and Amanda, Sherwood and Dolly's two children across the road. There were too many claims on the apple farm. Who deserved to be the real owner?
The family set-up is intriguing and multi-leveled. Fierce Francie, the protagonist, finds it difficult to adjust to life with everything changing around them while her insecurities drive her to action she later regrets.
A fast, heartwarming and gentle read, written in excellent, eloquent prose and with insight into a young girl's metamorphosis into adulthood.
The story lost me nearer to the end, which came as a surprise. It just ended, without warning. "What?! Is this it?!" I wondered.
Nevertheless, The Excellent Lombards was such a relaxing, wholesome, good experience. It can be wholeheartedly recommended to readers with an interest in farming, traditions, family loyalty, young adult novels, and small town sagas. A heart-of-America read. A warm one at that.
May 22, 2016
Oh dear, this book was a disappointment. A lot of words with little plot nor purpose. William and Mary Frances Lombard are young siblings who are living on the apple orchard farm of their father, Jim's, cousins Sherwood, Stephen and Aunt May Hill. Mary Frances is worried they will not inherit their portion of the land if there are too many competitors amongst other cousins and Gloria, the farm manager, marrying Stephen. The chapters are filled with childhood and childish drivel, daydreams, play and non-believable plotting and paranoia by Mary Francis.
I enjoy coming of age stories but this one felt tedious and lacking substance.
I enjoy coming of age stories but this one felt tedious and lacking substance.
September 29, 2024
Mary Frances Lombard can't imagine any other life other than living and working on the Wisconsin apple orchard that her father and cousins inherited. But her family wants her to consider her many options as she's growing up.
The book is narrated by MF from age eleven to sixteen around the beginning of the 21st Century. Their community is becoming more suburban as farmers sell their land to housing contractors. It's difficult to find the money for all the repairs needed on the barns, and her father is slowing down after years of physical labor. Her cousins are going off to college, and don't seem interested in a farming career. The orchard is such an important part of her identity that she never wants to leave.
I found the beginning of the book moved slowly, but it picked up as MF grew up and had a greater understanding of the dynamics among the family members. It's a coming of age novel about a girl who doesn't want things to change on the farm, but time does not hold still for anyone.
The book is narrated by MF from age eleven to sixteen around the beginning of the 21st Century. Their community is becoming more suburban as farmers sell their land to housing contractors. It's difficult to find the money for all the repairs needed on the barns, and her father is slowing down after years of physical labor. Her cousins are going off to college, and don't seem interested in a farming career. The orchard is such an important part of her identity that she never wants to leave.
I found the beginning of the book moved slowly, but it picked up as MF grew up and had a greater understanding of the dynamics among the family members. It's a coming of age novel about a girl who doesn't want things to change on the farm, but time does not hold still for anyone.
May 1, 2016
Gave this book 1 star out if respect for the author . I loved The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World . Looked forward to reading Jane Hamilton's latest and was very disappointed . Didn't want to finish it but was hoping it would get better . It didn't . Probably the most boring book I have read this year .
May 22, 2016
Disappointing. I have seen this described as a coming-of-age tale. While that could be considered the case in that this book is by no means plot driven (meaning, there isn't much of one, and you can certainly forget about plot resolution), the main character doesn't really have any experiences or growth that would typically go along with "coming of age." As the character gets older, her understanding of the people in her small and insulated world does not seem to get any deeper or richer, and her curiosity about them seems easily shrugged off.
One thing that I found odd was the way the main character's name was handled. On the book jacket, she is referred to as "Mary Frances 'Frankie' Lombard." To me, that given name implied a certain timelessness that the author perhaps intended for the apple orchard setting, and a feistiness from the tomboyish nickname. Neither of those things really got delivered – – the book deals with modern era farm issues, and although the word feisty is indeed used in the book with reference to Frankie, we don't really see much evidence of that. She's actually more of an observer, and not a particularly insightful one at that. And weirdly, although her brother does call her "Frankie,"
Her mom calls her "Francie," and her father calls her "Marlene." Towards the end of the book, Mary Frances/Frankie/Francie/Marlene decides she is now "MF Lombard," which, either throwing caution to the wind or being clueless with regard to both the vulgarity of the initials and the pretension of the moniker, she proceeds to refer to herself in the third person as such from then on.
There is not a lot of fondness conveyed (by the author or the main character) for the type of small town folk depicted as longtime residents in the little Wisconsin burg, but those with pasts or futures outside of it are not regarded any more highly.
One thing that I found odd was the way the main character's name was handled. On the book jacket, she is referred to as "Mary Frances 'Frankie' Lombard." To me, that given name implied a certain timelessness that the author perhaps intended for the apple orchard setting, and a feistiness from the tomboyish nickname. Neither of those things really got delivered – – the book deals with modern era farm issues, and although the word feisty is indeed used in the book with reference to Frankie, we don't really see much evidence of that. She's actually more of an observer, and not a particularly insightful one at that. And weirdly, although her brother does call her "Frankie,"
Her mom calls her "Francie," and her father calls her "Marlene." Towards the end of the book, Mary Frances/Frankie/Francie/Marlene decides she is now "MF Lombard," which, either throwing caution to the wind or being clueless with regard to both the vulgarity of the initials and the pretension of the moniker, she proceeds to refer to herself in the third person as such from then on.
There is not a lot of fondness conveyed (by the author or the main character) for the type of small town folk depicted as longtime residents in the little Wisconsin burg, but those with pasts or futures outside of it are not regarded any more highly.
May 10, 2016
This is an episodic, coming-of-age novel. If that sounds like hell to you, you're probably right to avoid it.
That said, I didn't find it hellish, just sort of...incomplete. Boring. Also, there was absolutely NOT an ending, and I don't even really understand if the main character actually did come-of-age. Maybe?
I don't know, my instinct is to tell you to skip it.
That said, I didn't find it hellish, just sort of...incomplete. Boring. Also, there was absolutely NOT an ending, and I don't even really understand if the main character actually did come-of-age. Maybe?
I don't know, my instinct is to tell you to skip it.
July 12, 2016
In The Excellent Lombards Jane Hamilton is doing a Jane Smiley-style farm family story for us. Jane Smiley hasn’t always written about the same farm but she usually writes about a similar era, the era when family farms are no longer profitable, or the children don’t want to continue being farmers, or the suburbs crowd out the farms as developers convince farmer after farmer to sell off parcels of land for housing developments or malls or a Walmart Superstore, a Seven-Eleven. There are always a few farmers who are not ready to sell, who cannot imagine any other way of life or who have a child (in this case, a daughter, Francie) who is in love with the family land and the family business. Jane Hamilton gives us such a tale in her new novel.
There are two brothers, the Lombard brothers, who live on the family land with its 3 houses, 3 barns, four hundred acres of forest, sheep pastures and the prize, the apple orchard. This orchard and the surrounding land has been in the family for four generations. In this generation Sherwood and Dolly Lombard occupy the main house with their two children, Adam and Amanda. May Hill, an adopted cousin lives upstairs in the big old farmhouse. Sherwood is not a true farmer, he invents things. Adam and Amanda are being groomed for college. They do not like the outdoors and are unlikely to want to run an orchard.
On the other side of the road Francie lives with her Mom and Dad, Jim and Nellie Lombard and Francie’s brother William. Francie is the narrator. We hear her voice through several years as she changes from child to teenager but the book is not childish. In this generation Francie is the Lombard who loves the farm, cannot imagine any other life and is thrown for a loop whenever she glimpses what the probable fate of the orchard and the estate and the lifestyle will be. Does it still matter in modern times that Francie is a girl? You will have to see for yourself what you think about this.
What I always loved about Jane Smiley was the way she immersed us in a farm family, and we experienced the tortuous inheritance decisions, the romance of a life lived close to nature on owned land, the anxieties of the economics of farm families, so dependent on uncontrollable variables like weather and world events and markets. Jane Hamilton brings to life these same elements that have eventually led to fewer and fewer family farms in America. We have all watched farms disappear from the near hinterlands around our cities. We all see the poor Canada geese trying to conduct their natural lives on tiny manicured wetlands near car dealerships. We have watched them cross eight lane highways with their ducklings – well at least I have. Every day I ride on a road that ran through farmland and now runs through senior housing.
Francis never says this but we can see that she worries. As much as she loves the farm she sees that she would have to learn the things that May Hill knows and she does not want to become May Hill. May Hill is a genius when it comes to fixing farm equipment but she is also a rather scary recluse. Francie says this about May Hill, “She did not like anyone - she did not want to see you on the path.”
Jane Hamilton and The Excellent Lombards made me long to inherit an orchard, at least before the realities began to outweigh the romanticism, but she, like Jane Smiley, made me wish that family farms had never become too culturally irrelevant to survive, or too labor-intensive for modern sensibilities and too lacking in economic stability to be attractive. I fall for this sort of farm tale every time. It is always the same, like a familiar litany, but different enough to captivate me, like an old photograph that gives me such enjoyable nostalgia that I don’t mind seeing it again and again. It would be sad if this way of life did not leave a trace, but as long as people read the books about farming written by these two women, it will live on.
There are two brothers, the Lombard brothers, who live on the family land with its 3 houses, 3 barns, four hundred acres of forest, sheep pastures and the prize, the apple orchard. This orchard and the surrounding land has been in the family for four generations. In this generation Sherwood and Dolly Lombard occupy the main house with their two children, Adam and Amanda. May Hill, an adopted cousin lives upstairs in the big old farmhouse. Sherwood is not a true farmer, he invents things. Adam and Amanda are being groomed for college. They do not like the outdoors and are unlikely to want to run an orchard.
On the other side of the road Francie lives with her Mom and Dad, Jim and Nellie Lombard and Francie’s brother William. Francie is the narrator. We hear her voice through several years as she changes from child to teenager but the book is not childish. In this generation Francie is the Lombard who loves the farm, cannot imagine any other life and is thrown for a loop whenever she glimpses what the probable fate of the orchard and the estate and the lifestyle will be. Does it still matter in modern times that Francie is a girl? You will have to see for yourself what you think about this.
What I always loved about Jane Smiley was the way she immersed us in a farm family, and we experienced the tortuous inheritance decisions, the romance of a life lived close to nature on owned land, the anxieties of the economics of farm families, so dependent on uncontrollable variables like weather and world events and markets. Jane Hamilton brings to life these same elements that have eventually led to fewer and fewer family farms in America. We have all watched farms disappear from the near hinterlands around our cities. We all see the poor Canada geese trying to conduct their natural lives on tiny manicured wetlands near car dealerships. We have watched them cross eight lane highways with their ducklings – well at least I have. Every day I ride on a road that ran through farmland and now runs through senior housing.
Francis never says this but we can see that she worries. As much as she loves the farm she sees that she would have to learn the things that May Hill knows and she does not want to become May Hill. May Hill is a genius when it comes to fixing farm equipment but she is also a rather scary recluse. Francie says this about May Hill, “She did not like anyone - she did not want to see you on the path.”
Jane Hamilton and The Excellent Lombards made me long to inherit an orchard, at least before the realities began to outweigh the romanticism, but she, like Jane Smiley, made me wish that family farms had never become too culturally irrelevant to survive, or too labor-intensive for modern sensibilities and too lacking in economic stability to be attractive. I fall for this sort of farm tale every time. It is always the same, like a familiar litany, but different enough to captivate me, like an old photograph that gives me such enjoyable nostalgia that I don’t mind seeing it again and again. It would be sad if this way of life did not leave a trace, but as long as people read the books about farming written by these two women, it will live on.
April 16, 2016
Read my full review here: http://mimi-cyberlibrarian.blogspot.c...
The Excellent Lombards is, as my father would say, "a keeper." It has been several months since I have read a book that I enjoyed as much as this delightful and insightful coming of age story by Jane Hamilton.
Mary Francis Lombard of The Excellent Lombards, moves from childhood through high school on a Wisconsin apple farm, Hamilton's home turf. The book begins in the mid-1990s and ends when Mary Francis is in high school in the early 2000s. Her father, Jim, farms a large family farm with his cousin, and her world includes all the various and sundry interesting personalities that make up a farming community. One detail I loved was that Mary Francis—Frankie--or MF as she chooses to be called in high school--is also the daughter of the community's librarian. Hamilton has the acerbic wit and intelligence of a librarian down pat in her characterization of Nellie, Frankie's mother.
The plot, if there is one, never leaves the family farm but focuses entirely on Mary Francis' love of her family, love of the farm, and her observations about the people who populate her universe. Her curiosity and intelligence gets her into trouble, but Hamilton has incredible insight into the workings of a young girl's mind, and the reader is amazed and amused at her intrigues. There certainly are allusions to To Kill a Mockingbird, and I think Scout and Mary Francis would have been good friends.
Mary Francis loves the farm passionately, and she believes that she will take over the running of the farm when she grows up—but only after she marries her brother William, who is one year older than her. Slowly, as she grows, she reluctantly comes to the realization that of course, she can't marry her brother, but also she may not be the one to carry on the farming tradition. She is suspicious of every person who may be an interloper and take the farm away from her. William, for sure, is not going to farm with her. In one clever scene, the family gets its first computer. William plugs it in, and "in the glow of the soft grey light he clicked on the mouse, and down, down he fell into the infinite world."
I related to this book on many levels—my own childhood visiting the family farm, watching my daughter and granddaughters mature and change their life's focus, and now watching my 4-year-old granddaughter relate to her 3-year-old brother with a relationship much like Mary Francis and William. Growing up is both joyous and painful; life is a mystery that must be solved; and growth comes from watching and emulating the people who surround you. One reviewer called Mary Francis' eyes "omnivorous."
The humor is so spontaneous and yet so well conceived. I had a good laugh over the introduction of honey crisp apples on the farm. I live in the fruit belt of Michigan, and the introduction of honey crisp apples was a huge deal around here—must have been in Wisconsin as well. And then, I had to stop and read my husband the passage about a family Euchre game—Euchre being a Midwest card game I first learned from my Indiana farmer in-laws. Father Jim plays Euchre just like my husband does, needing instruction every time he sits down to play.
The Kirkus review says of the book: "Richly characterized, beautifully written, and heartbreakingly poignant—another winner from this talented and popular author." The book comes out on Tuesday, April 19.
Jane Hamilton is the author of several other books and the winner of many awards. I highly recommend The Excellent Lombards and would agree with other reviewers that it is appropriate for young adult readers as well. I will be giving my copy to my 15-year-old granddaughters.
I loved this book so much. It is hard to give it up and publish this blog posting!
The Excellent Lombards is, as my father would say, "a keeper." It has been several months since I have read a book that I enjoyed as much as this delightful and insightful coming of age story by Jane Hamilton.
Mary Francis Lombard of The Excellent Lombards, moves from childhood through high school on a Wisconsin apple farm, Hamilton's home turf. The book begins in the mid-1990s and ends when Mary Francis is in high school in the early 2000s. Her father, Jim, farms a large family farm with his cousin, and her world includes all the various and sundry interesting personalities that make up a farming community. One detail I loved was that Mary Francis—Frankie--or MF as she chooses to be called in high school--is also the daughter of the community's librarian. Hamilton has the acerbic wit and intelligence of a librarian down pat in her characterization of Nellie, Frankie's mother.
The plot, if there is one, never leaves the family farm but focuses entirely on Mary Francis' love of her family, love of the farm, and her observations about the people who populate her universe. Her curiosity and intelligence gets her into trouble, but Hamilton has incredible insight into the workings of a young girl's mind, and the reader is amazed and amused at her intrigues. There certainly are allusions to To Kill a Mockingbird, and I think Scout and Mary Francis would have been good friends.
Mary Francis loves the farm passionately, and she believes that she will take over the running of the farm when she grows up—but only after she marries her brother William, who is one year older than her. Slowly, as she grows, she reluctantly comes to the realization that of course, she can't marry her brother, but also she may not be the one to carry on the farming tradition. She is suspicious of every person who may be an interloper and take the farm away from her. William, for sure, is not going to farm with her. In one clever scene, the family gets its first computer. William plugs it in, and "in the glow of the soft grey light he clicked on the mouse, and down, down he fell into the infinite world."
I related to this book on many levels—my own childhood visiting the family farm, watching my daughter and granddaughters mature and change their life's focus, and now watching my 4-year-old granddaughter relate to her 3-year-old brother with a relationship much like Mary Francis and William. Growing up is both joyous and painful; life is a mystery that must be solved; and growth comes from watching and emulating the people who surround you. One reviewer called Mary Francis' eyes "omnivorous."
The humor is so spontaneous and yet so well conceived. I had a good laugh over the introduction of honey crisp apples on the farm. I live in the fruit belt of Michigan, and the introduction of honey crisp apples was a huge deal around here—must have been in Wisconsin as well. And then, I had to stop and read my husband the passage about a family Euchre game—Euchre being a Midwest card game I first learned from my Indiana farmer in-laws. Father Jim plays Euchre just like my husband does, needing instruction every time he sits down to play.
The Kirkus review says of the book: "Richly characterized, beautifully written, and heartbreakingly poignant—another winner from this talented and popular author." The book comes out on Tuesday, April 19.
Jane Hamilton is the author of several other books and the winner of many awards. I highly recommend The Excellent Lombards and would agree with other reviewers that it is appropriate for young adult readers as well. I will be giving my copy to my 15-year-old granddaughters.
I loved this book so much. It is hard to give it up and publish this blog posting!
June 9, 2016
Pleasant and honest Midwest WI orchard family with the daughter being the narrator. It's accurate and details the crux issues that orchard farmers in family owned enterprises seem to find coring their lives. Who will keep it up? What new form of the product is and will be trendy? Weather, slackers. Frankie is fully flowered to her worldview. And the culture itself is closely authentic to the exact area and turning times of the early 21st century. Somehow and for some reason I grabbed the snark and cutting wit of the Mom as real, but some of the other characters either too cozy or too quirky to fly. Not that they couldn't be absolutely what they are, but the composition of result became too arranged for me. Not that neat in real life, IMHO. And the ending was not "wrong"- but not satisfying.
August 24, 2016
I received a free copy of The Excellent Lombards from the publisher through a Goodreads Giveaway for an honest review.
I loved the narrator of this book, Mary Frances/Frankie/Imp/Francie/Marlene/MF. (Everyone seems to see her differently and at least label her differently.) She grabbed my heart like Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. Although they are very different, they were both so real, full of attachment to people they loved along with great frustration and confusion with the adult world.
Jane Hamilton's writing is beautiful.
Mary Frances knows the apple farm where she's growing up is where she belongs: the smell, the trees, the places to hide, the rambling buildings, the wild nature, and seeing her father in his element. However, she constantly worries that the farm will be whisked out from beneath her by one of her farflung relatives. Her fears are understandable; her uncle owns half the orchard, an uncle and older cousin arrive to work on the farm, her beloved brother loses interest in hanging out there with his sister, and her mother pushes Frankie to leave during the summer. Economic issues also become more visible to her over time.
Hamilton obviously understands the feelings of preteen and teenaged girls and their rather contrary actions. She voices Mary Frances perfectly; such strong (not necessarily insightful) views of her parents and great-aunt! I couldn't help but care about everyone in MF's immediate family.
Some readers may have issues with this book. Hamilton leaves us somewhat up in the air, wanting more. (I would have loved to follow MF and her family further into her life, beyond high school. I almost feel like there could be a sequel, although it's not necessary.) This is definitely a character-driven, not plot-driven book, so if you're looking for action or conclusions, this is probably not the book for you. The action happens in MF's head and memory. Like most girls of her age, her narration is not completely reliable and her coming-of-age (maturing) is not straightforward. For me, what was going through her head was enough action, but it may not satisfy everyone.
I loved the narrator of this book, Mary Frances/Frankie/Imp/Francie/Marlene/MF. (Everyone seems to see her differently and at least label her differently.) She grabbed my heart like Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird. Although they are very different, they were both so real, full of attachment to people they loved along with great frustration and confusion with the adult world.
Jane Hamilton's writing is beautiful.
Mary Frances knows the apple farm where she's growing up is where she belongs: the smell, the trees, the places to hide, the rambling buildings, the wild nature, and seeing her father in his element. However, she constantly worries that the farm will be whisked out from beneath her by one of her farflung relatives. Her fears are understandable; her uncle owns half the orchard, an uncle and older cousin arrive to work on the farm, her beloved brother loses interest in hanging out there with his sister, and her mother pushes Frankie to leave during the summer. Economic issues also become more visible to her over time.
Hamilton obviously understands the feelings of preteen and teenaged girls and their rather contrary actions. She voices Mary Frances perfectly; such strong (not necessarily insightful) views of her parents and great-aunt! I couldn't help but care about everyone in MF's immediate family.
Some readers may have issues with this book. Hamilton leaves us somewhat up in the air, wanting more. (I would have loved to follow MF and her family further into her life, beyond high school. I almost feel like there could be a sequel, although it's not necessary.) This is definitely a character-driven, not plot-driven book, so if you're looking for action or conclusions, this is probably not the book for you. The action happens in MF's head and memory. Like most girls of her age, her narration is not completely reliable and her coming-of-age (maturing) is not straightforward. For me, what was going through her head was enough action, but it may not satisfy everyone.
May 29, 2016
A very good read, one that I really hope will end up as one of our book club picks. It needs to be talked about!
I love the main character, Frankie, affectionately nicknamed Marlene by her father (no one knows why) and Imp by her brother. Frankie lives in her head a lot, and has a wild imagination. Their family shares ownership of an apple orchard with Frankie's uncle, a self styled, but not very successful inventor. This is Frankie's world, and she loves every inch of it. Because she lives in her head a lot, she makes a lot of situations in her life more dramatic than they really are.
We get to meet Frankie at an early age (4 or 5 years old) and follow her story through her high school years. I especially liked her moody, dramatic teen years. Who doesn't remember the angst of being a teenager and how you choose to be obstinate just for the sake of disagreeeing with your parents? Our world revolves around our own selves in those years (at least they did for me), and we are woefully misunderstood and forced to do things we don't want to do. We don't even understand our obstinacy but we insist on being contrary anyway.
There are so many characters to love in this story. I love how the marriage relationship between Jim and Nellie (Frannie's parents) is portrayed. I like the scary Aunt who Frankie dislikes. I like Gloria, who in many ways was another mom to Frankie and her brother. I like how Frankie tries to understand these relationships as they relate to her.
I could really relate to how Frankie's love for her home and family was almost an obstinate love, and one that she could not let go of. A love that she selfishly wanted to keep for herself. She was hanging on to it so tightly because she was afraid of what change would do to her family and her place in it.
Ultimately this book is about just that. How do we love so passionately and get to that understanding that at some point, your love will change. To understand that your love can expand and that we don't have to be afraid to let other people in.
I love the main character, Frankie, affectionately nicknamed Marlene by her father (no one knows why) and Imp by her brother. Frankie lives in her head a lot, and has a wild imagination. Their family shares ownership of an apple orchard with Frankie's uncle, a self styled, but not very successful inventor. This is Frankie's world, and she loves every inch of it. Because she lives in her head a lot, she makes a lot of situations in her life more dramatic than they really are.
We get to meet Frankie at an early age (4 or 5 years old) and follow her story through her high school years. I especially liked her moody, dramatic teen years. Who doesn't remember the angst of being a teenager and how you choose to be obstinate just for the sake of disagreeeing with your parents? Our world revolves around our own selves in those years (at least they did for me), and we are woefully misunderstood and forced to do things we don't want to do. We don't even understand our obstinacy but we insist on being contrary anyway.
There are so many characters to love in this story. I love how the marriage relationship between Jim and Nellie (Frannie's parents) is portrayed. I like the scary Aunt who Frankie dislikes. I like Gloria, who in many ways was another mom to Frankie and her brother. I like how Frankie tries to understand these relationships as they relate to her.
I could really relate to how Frankie's love for her home and family was almost an obstinate love, and one that she could not let go of. A love that she selfishly wanted to keep for herself. She was hanging on to it so tightly because she was afraid of what change would do to her family and her place in it.
Ultimately this book is about just that. How do we love so passionately and get to that understanding that at some point, your love will change. To understand that your love can expand and that we don't have to be afraid to let other people in.
December 28, 2015
Hamilton's newest story of family is one of her best to date. Her stories, like the orchards of the Lombard's, are filled with delicious 'fruits'; writing of everyday people coming to terms with life realities. I have been following her since THE BOOK OF RUTH (before Ms Winfrey selected it for her book club), and each one has been a reward to read. She writes with total honesty; characters, events, places all believable like your family and friends. This IS a Jane Hamilton novel, from the opening passage to the closing line, the lives of the Lombard family are pure Hamilton. "The novel she was meant to write"? "The novel only Jane Hamilton could write"? I prefer to say that this is yet another example of Jane Hamilton's superior storytelling. Frankie Lombard is one of her best characters, and the other members of the family that people the novel are excellent. Family dramas play out as Frankie comes to terms with her changing life on the orchards. Such a pleasure to read.
May 22, 2016
I really wanted to love this book completely but I ended up loving it only somewhat. The writing is wonderful and I loved reading about all the ins and outs of running an orchard, making cider and all the other things involved in farming in Wisconsin. I also loved most of the characters too. However, once the main character became a teenager and began to face the possibility that her world might not be as she planned, I came to dislike her immensely. Instead of someone who was willing to face up to her situation and try to make something new and creative out of it, she instead just became increasingly like a spoiled brat who didn't get her way. Probably because of my dislike of her, I thought the ending was very weak. Sorry Jane Hamilton fans. I was not impressed.
April 28, 2016
One might think that as we have moved from an agrarian, aristocratic society to a technological, modern one, the importance of land and inheritance would cease to be such a common theme in novels. But even in the 21st century, money and heritage -- and the people who feel entitled to either or both -- still make for fascinating plotlines.
Jane Hamilton’s “The Excellent Lombards” centers on a Wisconsin family and its apple orchard over several decades. While many novels with this scope are sprawling epics, Hamilton keeps a tight focus on the Lombards themselves, their alliances and grudges, their hidden histories and recent secrets, their departures and arrivals.
Told from the point of view of Mary Frances Lombard, a child at the beginning who grows to young adulthood over the course of the novel, the book reveals - first from the naive viewpoint of a preteen, later from the more nuanced perspective of an educated young adult - the complexities of the family tree. The father of Mary Frances and her brother, William, runs the orchard with his cousin, Sherwood, who lives with his wife and children and their eccentric Aunt May Hill in what Mary Frances refers to as the “manor house.” But more relatives exist, and the idea of inheritance and division are never too far out of mind for many of the Lombards. Growing up together, Mary Frances and William are both friends and rivals of Sherwood’s children, whichever suits the situation.
And in the family, there’s an almost English connection with the idea of the “estate,” the family holding, which has a primal pull on its inhabitants. “I started to wonder,” a young Mary Frances muses in her bunk bed, “if a place might make you more than you were. Was that possible? … And then, without that place, say you lost it, or couldn’t get back to it, or couldn’t stay there for long, it could turn out that you were really weren’t much of anyone.”
Hamilton has always been a master storyteller, and “The Excellent Lombards” is a story masterfully told. She doesn’t giving too much away at once, developing characters and places through well-chosen details, linking the past with the present smoothly, and keeping the story moving in such a way that readers may not realize how much they’ve learned - and how much they care about these people - until several dozen pages have gone by.
Jane Hamilton’s “The Excellent Lombards” centers on a Wisconsin family and its apple orchard over several decades. While many novels with this scope are sprawling epics, Hamilton keeps a tight focus on the Lombards themselves, their alliances and grudges, their hidden histories and recent secrets, their departures and arrivals.
Told from the point of view of Mary Frances Lombard, a child at the beginning who grows to young adulthood over the course of the novel, the book reveals - first from the naive viewpoint of a preteen, later from the more nuanced perspective of an educated young adult - the complexities of the family tree. The father of Mary Frances and her brother, William, runs the orchard with his cousin, Sherwood, who lives with his wife and children and their eccentric Aunt May Hill in what Mary Frances refers to as the “manor house.” But more relatives exist, and the idea of inheritance and division are never too far out of mind for many of the Lombards. Growing up together, Mary Frances and William are both friends and rivals of Sherwood’s children, whichever suits the situation.
And in the family, there’s an almost English connection with the idea of the “estate,” the family holding, which has a primal pull on its inhabitants. “I started to wonder,” a young Mary Frances muses in her bunk bed, “if a place might make you more than you were. Was that possible? … And then, without that place, say you lost it, or couldn’t get back to it, or couldn’t stay there for long, it could turn out that you were really weren’t much of anyone.”
Hamilton has always been a master storyteller, and “The Excellent Lombards” is a story masterfully told. She doesn’t giving too much away at once, developing characters and places through well-chosen details, linking the past with the present smoothly, and keeping the story moving in such a way that readers may not realize how much they’ve learned - and how much they care about these people - until several dozen pages have gone by.
June 4, 2016
This would have been a one star review if the scene with cousin Amanda and her graham crackers hadn't occurred. Leave it to a pudgy 4th grader with a speech impediment wanting to eat her snack like a beaver to save the day! Other than that, I didn't much care for these Lombards or their apples.
June 12, 2020
Jane Hamilton is such a fine writer. Her style is impeccable-the perfectly chosen word or image, the beautiful phrase, believable dialogue, plots that flow seamlessly, and memorable characters.
I gave this four stars because, although it falls short of the perfection she achieved in The Map of the World, The Book of Ruth, and the achingly beautiful Short History of a Prince, it is far better than Disobedience where I found the subject of marital infidelity unsatisfying, not on moral or aesthetic grounds-after all, adultery is a theme in some of the world's greatest literature, ancient and modern-but because in contemporary literary fiction it is often boring and soulless; I just could not like or care about the characters. For this reason I chose not to read Laura Rider's Masterpiece which just sounds silly. Sue Monk Kidd's The Mermaids Chair is another example although she is also a superb novelist.
I would have liked Lombards to be longer, to carry the delightful Frankie a little further along into adulthood and a hint of resolution for her colorful family and her own conflicts, but I enjoyed this short novel.
I gave this four stars because, although it falls short of the perfection she achieved in The Map of the World, The Book of Ruth, and the achingly beautiful Short History of a Prince, it is far better than Disobedience where I found the subject of marital infidelity unsatisfying, not on moral or aesthetic grounds-after all, adultery is a theme in some of the world's greatest literature, ancient and modern-but because in contemporary literary fiction it is often boring and soulless; I just could not like or care about the characters. For this reason I chose not to read Laura Rider's Masterpiece which just sounds silly. Sue Monk Kidd's The Mermaids Chair is another example although she is also a superb novelist.
I would have liked Lombards to be longer, to carry the delightful Frankie a little further along into adulthood and a hint of resolution for her colorful family and her own conflicts, but I enjoyed this short novel.
February 8, 2016
This is a heartwarming tale about Mary Francis “Frankie” Lombard, her brother William and the rest of the Lombard clan. The story is set on the apple orchard in Wisconsin, owned by the family. In it, Frankie recounts the young lives and adventures she and her brother have had on the farm. It's full of fun and well observed characters and gives a wonderful view of the changes that have taken place on the farm and within the family structure as times change and people grow older. While everyone loves the farm, for Frankie its so much more. It's a home she can't ever imagine leaving even as things beyond her control change the course of life, both on and off the farm. This is a well told tale that made me feel like I was growing up next to Frankie on the farm. It had the right amount of humor, charm and feeling and tenderness that makes a reader really feel connected to the characters.
Thanks to Grand Central Publishing for allowing me to read an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.
Thanks to Grand Central Publishing for allowing me to read an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.
April 18, 2016
There is very little serious drama, no horrible catastrophes and not much happens except a little girl growing up and daily life on the farm/orchard yet somehow this book was incredibly compelling. The story is charming, thoughtful, wise, and often laugh out loud funny. Frankie is a likable and smart main character and our narrator for the entire story. At the beginning she is just a little child and grows into a teen by the end. I usually am not a fan of child narrators, maybe because I'm not a fan of children. Lol! I fell in love with Frankie and wanted so badly for her to achieve her dream. My one complaint is that the story ends without us ever knowing what happens to the orchard or to Frankie. I would love a sequel!
I received this book for free through a Goodreads Firstreads giveaway but this has not influenced my review in any way.
I received this book for free through a Goodreads Firstreads giveaway but this has not influenced my review in any way.
June 23, 2016
I know I read Jane Hamilton's The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World and loved them. Would that I could remember them! What clinched my bringing this novel home from the library was Anne Patchett's high praise on the front cover.
It's certainly a well-written book, with a precocious coming-of-age main character and a cast of engaging adult characters: endearing, maddening, mysterious, foolish... I kept changing my mind about whether I liked each, which, I guess reflects the humanity that the author manages to give them. The deep rewards, the fierce challenges, the joys and the heartbreaks of multi-generational family farming at the beginning of the 21st century are all brought convincingly to life. I laughed out loud in public places, and I teared up at times. I just wish the resolution, the coming of age, had been more clear, less cryptic, and especially less abrupt.
It's certainly a well-written book, with a precocious coming-of-age main character and a cast of engaging adult characters: endearing, maddening, mysterious, foolish... I kept changing my mind about whether I liked each, which, I guess reflects the humanity that the author manages to give them. The deep rewards, the fierce challenges, the joys and the heartbreaks of multi-generational family farming at the beginning of the 21st century are all brought convincingly to life. I laughed out loud in public places, and I teared up at times. I just wish the resolution, the coming of age, had been more clear, less cryptic, and especially less abrupt.
May 10, 2016
If plot is your thing, this book is not. This coming of age on an apple farm story is full of absolutely breathtaking descriptions -- of life on a farm, as a child looking in on the adult world, family relationships -- well, life in general. It reads more like a memoir than a novel -- each chapter almost a separate story. Although I loved the writing, I found the lack of action ultimately overwhelmed my enjoyment of the book with boredom. I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway and that somehow made me feel more obligated to finish it. Otherwise, I think I might have just enjoyed the writing for a while and then set it aside.
January 29, 2018
I love stories about families and this is a great one. Every family has their oddballs, eccentrics, in laws, drinkers, intellectuals, everyone coming from a different perspective and background. I wish she has given us more information on Stephen and what happened to Gloria after she left. This book was a real tease with Gloria and Jim, what was going on there. And the poor mother, stuck on an apple farm and I wish she had included more about when she came to the farm with Stephen and then fell in love with Jim.
She did a fine job of making the children's lives interesting, I don't think that is easy. This would be a great movie if it was done right with the right actors.
She did a fine job of making the children's lives interesting, I don't think that is easy. This would be a great movie if it was done right with the right actors.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 17, 2017
I rarely award 5 stars. This is a 5-star book from start to finish! I loved Mary Francis Lombard, the young girl who tells this story. I love her the way I loved Scout. Her story is one filled with the love and beauty of a happy childhood and the inevitably confusing teenage years, but there is so much more than that. She lives on a small apple orchard in Wisconsin that she and her extended family operate. This is a rich, satisfying book to read. I wanted it to never end! I would love for Hamilton to bring Mary Francis (Frankie) back again someday so that I can check on her later in life.
June 13, 2016
I started out enjoying this book, but soon enough found I simply wasn't interested in the characters at all. I don't study them...let's just say that it seemed to bounce around so much between them that I soon couldn't figure out who was who, and then didn't care.
I've enjoyed the author's other books, but this one didn't do a thing for me and I didn't finish it. My saying is: too many books, too little time, and if I'm not happy I simply move on.
I've enjoyed the author's other books, but this one didn't do a thing for me and I didn't finish it. My saying is: too many books, too little time, and if I'm not happy I simply move on.
January 17, 2016
Slow clap. Beautiful.
April 26, 2016
Wishing time stood still – On an apple farm in Wisconsin (1990s to 2001): The Wisconsin Apple Growers Association reports that of its 72 counties, 46 grow apples on 7,400 acres yielding 56 million pounds of apples yearly. Jane Hamilton lives on one of those apple farms, on some of those fertile acres. So does the fourth-generation of Lombards she beautifully fictionalizes in her elegant seventh novel – an old-fashioned love letter to bygone youth and farming before the full forces of change (technological, economic, environmental, social, cultural) swept in.
The brilliance of this novel is the narrator’s youthful voice. A point-of-view that’s a mix of adulation, innocence, intellect, and a melancholy searching-for-answers. Thus 12-to-16-year old Mary Frances Lombard brings poignancy and tenderness and nuance to serious issues that might otherwise come across as preachy or certain. Hers is an emotional struggle borne out of a fierce devotion to the “ancient gathering up of the field.” An inability to accept the changes descending on an historic family farm as agriculture and the world grow increasingly complex in the nineties, leading up to 9/11 when life changed for all of us.
You need not have grown up on an apple farm (or any farm, for this one also raises sheep) in the Midwest to relate to the nostalgia of lost childhoods, when children were content to spend idle time outdoors, which is why the novel is perfectly set pre-Internet explosion, cell phones, social media. Adding depth to the woebegone tone is Frankie’s “reverence for the family history,” for “unity of purpose,” which pulls us into the power of place, of home, as she contemplates “if a place might make you more than you were?” Even if ours was not an idyllic childhood, we wish we had one. So we empathize with Frankie’s joy, love, and emotions – her confusion, denial, resentment, disillusionment – as she discovers “children aren’t always triumphant or heroic like in the books.” (The importance of reading a lovely element; her mother an award-winning librarian.)
For a compact novel (273 pages) about old-fashioned ways, it’s impressive how much is packed into The Excellent Lombards that’s anything but simple. Each chapter an episode, a growing-up scene, a life lesson. With each, we sense unrest and the winds of change blowing.
Tension begins as soon as the novel opens. Mary Frances, or Frankie (she’s also goes by Francie, Imp, Marlene, and MF depending on who does the calling and what age she’s at) re-counts a long car ride to visit her grandmother in Minnesota with her brother William, whom she adores (“Why did he always have to be patient, so patient and kind?”), when they were about 7 and 8. Frankie overheard her parents, Jim and Nellie, arguing. Frankie idolizes her hard-working, dependable, old-fangled storytelling father but has a cooler alliance toward her mother, who doesn’t work on the farm. That’s key, I think, to their strained relationship (although she recognizes her mother “had something”), and differing parental attitudes about the future of the farm. This incident is the first time Frankie’s “frightened in real terms about the farm,” an overarching theme as her immediate Lombard family is not the sole “heirs to a noble business.”
Ownership is complex. Frankie’s Lombard foursome own only half the orchard property. The other half is owned by her father’s cousin, Sherwood, whose always lived and worked on the farm whereas Jim previously spent only summers there until he married. The animosity between these two opposites – one a “prophet of routine” and the other an impractical, wacky inventor – permeates throughout.
Three houses are spread out on the farm. One is an 11-bedroom “manor house” where Sherwood’s family resides: wife, Dolly, and their two children, Amanda and Adam, similar in age to Frankie and Will, so they’re playmates after-school. Even though Frankie’s family owns three-quarters of this house, they don’t live in it. Theirs is a “clapboard heap” circa 1860. The different characteristics of the two homes says a lot about the differences between these two families. Frankie’s is “not unseemly or puffed up,” whereas Dolly envisions something superior than farming for her children. (Actually, so does Frankie’s mother.) Think of these homes as “divided kingdoms,” like Frankie and Will do. They even made up fantasy names for them: Velta versus Volta.
The remaining one-fourth ownership of the manor belongs to reclusive, intimidating Aunt May Hill, in her sixties or seventies, no one seems to even know that, who lives generally left alone upstairs. She may be odd but she’s the “farm’s gold” because she can fix all the old machinery forever breaking down.
The third home on the farm is an ancient stone cottage, a nod to the history of apple farming in the State dating back to the 1800s. Gloria, the “hired woman,” resides in it. She’s far more than that. She’s “Wife Number Two” and a surrogate mother since Gloria, Jim, and Frankie spend so much time with this “welder woman to Nordic princess.” Frankie does not want to let go of her. Events transpire otherwise. Like children do, Frankie internalizes, wonders if she’s shown Gloria enough love.
Besides Frankie, the other central character anchoring the novel is the orchard itself. “All those beauties were a reminder of the grace and good breeding of the Lombard clan.” The property includes “three barns, four hundred acres of forest and arable fields and marsh, the sheep pastures, and the apple trees.” The apple barn is where cider is made (14-hour days), where customers come to buy apples and soak up nostalgia that takes in a yard of old-timey farm implements dating back to 1917. You can picture it. Wish you were picking delicious heirloom varieties right about now?
Frankie believes the orchard is the “most important feature of the world.” Certainly hers. It drives her stories about: hay baling; the arrival of Sherwood’s brother who speaks like a CIA spy with talk of far flung places, the World Trade bombings, jihad (“no one in our neighborhood in 1993 was using the word”); the National Geography Bee, the idea of her new “four-five split” elementary school teacher from Chicago, Mrs. Kraselnik, who is Jewish and therefore offers diversity to this homogenous community. Frankie adores her elegance and moral goodliness (“everything we know and are, boys and girls, begins with the land in your community”); Blossom Day (“blossom to blossom to blossom the orchard lit with a snowy brilliance”); another visiting cousin, this one a college-educated, “Slow Food, locavoring, hipper-than-Alice-Waters pioneer,” who poses another threat to the farm; the Farmland Preservation Committee pitting rural spirit against suburban sprawl; her desire to join the Future Farmers of America in contrast to Will’s college ambitions; and yes more.
Frankie is 16 when the novel ends. How will she turn out? Readers might well encourage Hamilton to write a sequel! Will Frankie grow up to “put good in the world” as Mrs. Kraselnik taught her? You too will be charmed by a teacher we wish challenged us when we were young: “Why, boys and girls, are we on this earth? What in the world are we doing here?”
Lorraine (EnchantedProse.com)
The brilliance of this novel is the narrator’s youthful voice. A point-of-view that’s a mix of adulation, innocence, intellect, and a melancholy searching-for-answers. Thus 12-to-16-year old Mary Frances Lombard brings poignancy and tenderness and nuance to serious issues that might otherwise come across as preachy or certain. Hers is an emotional struggle borne out of a fierce devotion to the “ancient gathering up of the field.” An inability to accept the changes descending on an historic family farm as agriculture and the world grow increasingly complex in the nineties, leading up to 9/11 when life changed for all of us.
You need not have grown up on an apple farm (or any farm, for this one also raises sheep) in the Midwest to relate to the nostalgia of lost childhoods, when children were content to spend idle time outdoors, which is why the novel is perfectly set pre-Internet explosion, cell phones, social media. Adding depth to the woebegone tone is Frankie’s “reverence for the family history,” for “unity of purpose,” which pulls us into the power of place, of home, as she contemplates “if a place might make you more than you were?” Even if ours was not an idyllic childhood, we wish we had one. So we empathize with Frankie’s joy, love, and emotions – her confusion, denial, resentment, disillusionment – as she discovers “children aren’t always triumphant or heroic like in the books.” (The importance of reading a lovely element; her mother an award-winning librarian.)
For a compact novel (273 pages) about old-fashioned ways, it’s impressive how much is packed into The Excellent Lombards that’s anything but simple. Each chapter an episode, a growing-up scene, a life lesson. With each, we sense unrest and the winds of change blowing.
Tension begins as soon as the novel opens. Mary Frances, or Frankie (she’s also goes by Francie, Imp, Marlene, and MF depending on who does the calling and what age she’s at) re-counts a long car ride to visit her grandmother in Minnesota with her brother William, whom she adores (“Why did he always have to be patient, so patient and kind?”), when they were about 7 and 8. Frankie overheard her parents, Jim and Nellie, arguing. Frankie idolizes her hard-working, dependable, old-fangled storytelling father but has a cooler alliance toward her mother, who doesn’t work on the farm. That’s key, I think, to their strained relationship (although she recognizes her mother “had something”), and differing parental attitudes about the future of the farm. This incident is the first time Frankie’s “frightened in real terms about the farm,” an overarching theme as her immediate Lombard family is not the sole “heirs to a noble business.”
Ownership is complex. Frankie’s Lombard foursome own only half the orchard property. The other half is owned by her father’s cousin, Sherwood, whose always lived and worked on the farm whereas Jim previously spent only summers there until he married. The animosity between these two opposites – one a “prophet of routine” and the other an impractical, wacky inventor – permeates throughout.
Three houses are spread out on the farm. One is an 11-bedroom “manor house” where Sherwood’s family resides: wife, Dolly, and their two children, Amanda and Adam, similar in age to Frankie and Will, so they’re playmates after-school. Even though Frankie’s family owns three-quarters of this house, they don’t live in it. Theirs is a “clapboard heap” circa 1860. The different characteristics of the two homes says a lot about the differences between these two families. Frankie’s is “not unseemly or puffed up,” whereas Dolly envisions something superior than farming for her children. (Actually, so does Frankie’s mother.) Think of these homes as “divided kingdoms,” like Frankie and Will do. They even made up fantasy names for them: Velta versus Volta.
The remaining one-fourth ownership of the manor belongs to reclusive, intimidating Aunt May Hill, in her sixties or seventies, no one seems to even know that, who lives generally left alone upstairs. She may be odd but she’s the “farm’s gold” because she can fix all the old machinery forever breaking down.
The third home on the farm is an ancient stone cottage, a nod to the history of apple farming in the State dating back to the 1800s. Gloria, the “hired woman,” resides in it. She’s far more than that. She’s “Wife Number Two” and a surrogate mother since Gloria, Jim, and Frankie spend so much time with this “welder woman to Nordic princess.” Frankie does not want to let go of her. Events transpire otherwise. Like children do, Frankie internalizes, wonders if she’s shown Gloria enough love.
Besides Frankie, the other central character anchoring the novel is the orchard itself. “All those beauties were a reminder of the grace and good breeding of the Lombard clan.” The property includes “three barns, four hundred acres of forest and arable fields and marsh, the sheep pastures, and the apple trees.” The apple barn is where cider is made (14-hour days), where customers come to buy apples and soak up nostalgia that takes in a yard of old-timey farm implements dating back to 1917. You can picture it. Wish you were picking delicious heirloom varieties right about now?
Frankie believes the orchard is the “most important feature of the world.” Certainly hers. It drives her stories about: hay baling; the arrival of Sherwood’s brother who speaks like a CIA spy with talk of far flung places, the World Trade bombings, jihad (“no one in our neighborhood in 1993 was using the word”); the National Geography Bee, the idea of her new “four-five split” elementary school teacher from Chicago, Mrs. Kraselnik, who is Jewish and therefore offers diversity to this homogenous community. Frankie adores her elegance and moral goodliness (“everything we know and are, boys and girls, begins with the land in your community”); Blossom Day (“blossom to blossom to blossom the orchard lit with a snowy brilliance”); another visiting cousin, this one a college-educated, “Slow Food, locavoring, hipper-than-Alice-Waters pioneer,” who poses another threat to the farm; the Farmland Preservation Committee pitting rural spirit against suburban sprawl; her desire to join the Future Farmers of America in contrast to Will’s college ambitions; and yes more.
Frankie is 16 when the novel ends. How will she turn out? Readers might well encourage Hamilton to write a sequel! Will Frankie grow up to “put good in the world” as Mrs. Kraselnik taught her? You too will be charmed by a teacher we wish challenged us when we were young: “Why, boys and girls, are we on this earth? What in the world are we doing here?”
Lorraine (EnchantedProse.com)
August 24, 2016
Mary Frances (Frankie) Lombard and her older brother William have grown up with a deep love and sense of connection to the Lombard farm. Despite knowing that the partnership between their father and his cousin Sherwood might cause problems with their future legacy, the hope for that future remains strong.
The Excellent Lombards is a coming-of-age tale set in Wisconsin that features young Frankie, and from her perspective, we learn what growing up under these circumstances has instilled in her. We come to understand how she might feel threatened by interlopers like distant cousin Philip, and the ominous presence of his aunt, May Hill, who has some ownership in the property as well.
From her pre-adolescent self to young adulthood, we see how she grows and changes, and observe the various influences on her young life.
The sense of competition flourishes among the various relatives, and at times, it seems like a good thing. Until it isn’t.
How will Frankie eventually resolve her plight? What will her future hold for her, and will she be able to merge her various passions and make a life for herself?
The story unfolded slowly, revealing the emotions, the connections, and what life looked like on a farm that might, eventually, be sold off in order to make way for subdivisions. A changing landscape that mimics how the world in the 21st Century has built upon past versions of a country, a nation. 4 stars.
The Excellent Lombards is a coming-of-age tale set in Wisconsin that features young Frankie, and from her perspective, we learn what growing up under these circumstances has instilled in her. We come to understand how she might feel threatened by interlopers like distant cousin Philip, and the ominous presence of his aunt, May Hill, who has some ownership in the property as well.
From her pre-adolescent self to young adulthood, we see how she grows and changes, and observe the various influences on her young life.
The sense of competition flourishes among the various relatives, and at times, it seems like a good thing. Until it isn’t.
How will Frankie eventually resolve her plight? What will her future hold for her, and will she be able to merge her various passions and make a life for herself?
The story unfolded slowly, revealing the emotions, the connections, and what life looked like on a farm that might, eventually, be sold off in order to make way for subdivisions. A changing landscape that mimics how the world in the 21st Century has built upon past versions of a country, a nation. 4 stars.
April 11, 2021
At first this book seemed like it might be imitation Carson McCullers with its coming-of-age narrator who's in love with her brother and father, her rural life, and doesn't want anything to change--and ala McCullers, her name is Frankie. Probably an homage, actually.
But...I loved it. The way Hamilton unfolds the story and the emotions settled deeply into my bones, my heart. There are some truly funny moments, and others that are deeply profound, in an understated way. This is not only a story of a girl's growing up and learning to face life for what it is--but it's also about changes in rural America.
The writing is so wonderful that there were times I re-read certain sentences, just to see how the heck she crafted them. It felt so wonderful to be in the middle of this book I was sad when it ended.
But...I loved it. The way Hamilton unfolds the story and the emotions settled deeply into my bones, my heart. There are some truly funny moments, and others that are deeply profound, in an understated way. This is not only a story of a girl's growing up and learning to face life for what it is--but it's also about changes in rural America.
The writing is so wonderful that there were times I re-read certain sentences, just to see how the heck she crafted them. It felt so wonderful to be in the middle of this book I was sad when it ended.
September 28, 2016
There seem to be many interesting books set in orchards published recently - this is certainly one of the best. There is less detail about the actual apples than in some others, which suited this reader! The orchard is the backdrop to the story of an interesting family, a crowd of beautifully realised and engaging characters. Jane Hamilton pulls off an imaginative tour de force, getting right inside the head of the narrator, Mary Frances Lombard, as a child and as an adolescent. Mary Frances is described as fierce and indeed she is: fiercely committed to her family, especially her beloved brother William, and fiercely committed to the orchard.
The reader is given a vivid portrayal of complex family relationships from the perspective of a young person and how the very clear picture of the future in a child's mind becomes muddied and questioned as time passes. We leave Mary Frances at a difficult time in her life but we have some confidence that she will battle on successfully into adulthood.
You know how with some books you don't want to finish reading because you know you will miss the characters? This is such a book. I enjoyed it immensely.
And many thanks to my dear friend Barbara Chandler who kindly lent me her treasured copy with its splendid personal inscription by the author.
The reader is given a vivid portrayal of complex family relationships from the perspective of a young person and how the very clear picture of the future in a child's mind becomes muddied and questioned as time passes. We leave Mary Frances at a difficult time in her life but we have some confidence that she will battle on successfully into adulthood.
You know how with some books you don't want to finish reading because you know you will miss the characters? This is such a book. I enjoyed it immensely.
And many thanks to my dear friend Barbara Chandler who kindly lent me her treasured copy with its splendid personal inscription by the author.
May 5, 2016
What a treat! I really enjoyed this -- loved the narrator, Frankie and the setting and the stories that make up the Lombard family and their apple orchard. No dramatic or traumatic events; just life as it unfolds with much humor, love, and teen angst. Frankie is a delight - she is tough, independent and a fierce protector of her family and their farm. Her voice rang true and authentic and as a reader, I felt I was alongside her as she moves from tween to teen and copes with the normal challenges of growing up while also struggling to make her place in her family's long-term plans for the orchard. The farm setting is lovely and ripe with many examples of how hard it must be to sustain a small family-owned and run orchard but also how wondrous to grow food that sustains others. The family dynamics and conversations are often, but not always humorous, and I found myself laughing out loud a few times or saying "uh oh". Terrific, compelling secondary characters helped make this be truly special. Loved this!
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