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Commonwealth: A Novel By Ann Patchett | Conversation Starters
Limited Time $3.99 ($4.99)
Commonwealth, the latest novel from author Ann Patchett, tells the story of the Keating and Cousins families. At Franny Keating's christening, Beverly Keating and Bert Cousins fall in love with each other and share a kiss that forever changes the lives of the two families. The families will now be split up between California and Virginia. For fifty years, Commonwealth details the lives of the Keatings and Cousins families. When Franny Keating enters adulthood, she meets the author Leo Posen, whose writing she has admired for many years. Leo chooses to write a story about her childhood experiences. The novel allows the family members to reconnect and face the circumstances that forever changed their lives years ago.
Commonwealth was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2016.
EVERY GOOD BOOK CONTAINS A WORLD FAR DEEPER
than the surface of its pages. The characters and its world come alive,
and even after the last page of the book is closed,
the story still lives on, inciting questions and curiosity.
Conversation Starters is peppered with questions designed to
bring us beneath the surface of the page
and invite us into this world that continues to lives on.
These questions can be used to…
• Foster a deeper understanding of the book
• Promote an atmosphere of discussion for groups
• Assist in the study of the book, either individually or corporately
• Explore unseen realms of the book as never seen before
Disclaimer : This book you are about to enjoy is an independent resource to supplement the original book, enhancing your experience of Commonwealth. If you have not yet purchased a copy of the original book, please do before purchasing this unofficial Conversation Starters .
Download your copy today for a Limited Time $3.99 ($4.99)
Read it on your PC, Mac, iOS or Android smartphone, tablet and Kindle devices.
Commonwealth, the latest novel from author Ann Patchett, tells the story of the Keating and Cousins families. At Franny Keating's christening, Beverly Keating and Bert Cousins fall in love with each other and share a kiss that forever changes the lives of the two families. The families will now be split up between California and Virginia. For fifty years, Commonwealth details the lives of the Keatings and Cousins families. When Franny Keating enters adulthood, she meets the author Leo Posen, whose writing she has admired for many years. Leo chooses to write a story about her childhood experiences. The novel allows the family members to reconnect and face the circumstances that forever changed their lives years ago.
Commonwealth was nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2016.
EVERY GOOD BOOK CONTAINS A WORLD FAR DEEPER
than the surface of its pages. The characters and its world come alive,
and even after the last page of the book is closed,
the story still lives on, inciting questions and curiosity.
Conversation Starters is peppered with questions designed to
bring us beneath the surface of the page
and invite us into this world that continues to lives on.
These questions can be used to…
• Foster a deeper understanding of the book
• Promote an atmosphere of discussion for groups
• Assist in the study of the book, either individually or corporately
• Explore unseen realms of the book as never seen before
Disclaimer : This book you are about to enjoy is an independent resource to supplement the original book, enhancing your experience of Commonwealth. If you have not yet purchased a copy of the original book, please do before purchasing this unofficial Conversation Starters .
Download your copy today for a Limited Time $3.99 ($4.99)
Read it on your PC, Mac, iOS or Android smartphone, tablet and Kindle devices.
66 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 18, 2017
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 24, 2022
This is a clever but very complicated story, and reading it is rather like doing a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle with no finished picture to guide you! I almost gave up on it several times, but am glad I kept going as it's beautifully and insightfully written.
Two households living in the same neighbourhood become irrevocably linked when the husband of one family and the wife of the other fall in love, thus breaking up two marriages and joining a total of six children in a stepfamily relationship.
The narrative jumps from one timeline and perspective to another, seemingly at random, and it's not until halfway through that the reader grasps the enormity of what's happening, and not until right near the end that the final missing bits of the narrative fall into place. The four parents are by turns selfish, desperate, neglectful, remorseful and forgiving, and the six children each act out their individual needs and anger in different ways, sometimes with catastrophic results.
It's worth sticking with, but tests the reader's patience sorely at times! Nevertheless it's psychologically spot-on as regards the traumatic legacy of family breakup and the different survival techniques instinctively employed by children as they struggle to make sense of a world without boundaries.
Two households living in the same neighbourhood become irrevocably linked when the husband of one family and the wife of the other fall in love, thus breaking up two marriages and joining a total of six children in a stepfamily relationship.
The narrative jumps from one timeline and perspective to another, seemingly at random, and it's not until halfway through that the reader grasps the enormity of what's happening, and not until right near the end that the final missing bits of the narrative fall into place. The four parents are by turns selfish, desperate, neglectful, remorseful and forgiving, and the six children each act out their individual needs and anger in different ways, sometimes with catastrophic results.
It's worth sticking with, but tests the reader's patience sorely at times! Nevertheless it's psychologically spot-on as regards the traumatic legacy of family breakup and the different survival techniques instinctively employed by children as they struggle to make sense of a world without boundaries.
Displaying 1 of 1 review