Five-Part Invention

by Andrea J. Buchanan

The searing and haunting debut novel from PEN finalist and New York Times bestelling author Andrea J. BuchananSpanning five generations of women, Five-Part Invention wrestles with the question—if trauma echoes through generations, can love echo, too? Is the love we transmit enough to undo the trauma of the past that we unwittingly carry with us and often re-enact in the present? When Lise, a pianist, suffers a nervous breakdown early in her marriage, her husband, in a warped act of protection and jealousy, has her piano taken away. With prose that is precise and emotionally affecting, Buchanan vividly renders how Lise's separation from her one source of expression and fulfilment cascades into her relationship with her daughter, leaving a legacy of trauma that echoes through the generations to come. Characters emerge broken and passionate, jagged, and yet hopeful and emotionally resonant, written in a way that only Buchanan, herself a conservatory-trained pianist, could achieve. Five-Part Invention is by turns frightening and exquisitely observed, and establishes Buchanan as a literary force.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Audiobook

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 5, 2022

Reviews

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five-Part Invention was so wholly memorable and an accidental find sifting through the audiobook options available at my local library. A little after the half way mark, I was quite certain that I’d score this book highly and towards the end, that rating still felt uncontested. Even before I detail my reading experience of the book, I must commend the nuanced, emotionally reverberating quality of the audio book that did so much justice to the generational story of women across different ages.

The premise of a cross-generational story, knitting daughters, mothers, grandmothers, great grandmothers together is not uncharted territory but I think it’s also not an exhausted terrain. I would liken Five-Part Invention to a dollhouse in time, with its various protagonists as inhabitants within their own rooms and their worlds. Each room, even when glimpsed through the keyhole of letters and pockets of time, is always uniquely its own and never spartan.

There is always the texture of feeling and conflict, the weft and warp of misfired interactions and plans spiraling out of control. The women, across time and along the family tree, all endure best they can against a familiar inherited devil just clothed differently as time passes - patriarchy. They carve out what limited space that they have to explore the best prospects they can - living in a reality so trodden upon by seemingly innocuous and yet oppressive patriarchs. The cries of agony overheard in one room of the dollhouse echoes along the corridor and finds other insidious counterparts in the lives of daughter and granddaughter. A mother’s pain seems to foretell the pain of a daughter but the strategies a mother employs to bargain after the agency of her own life is echoed too in the paths of daughters, and each generation hopefully does better than the one before but it’s not an accrued debt.

Buchanan’s novel seems to suggest that pain is not the only thing women stand to inherit from their mothers but also hope because the path ahead may dip and bend but it never breaks. This book has been such a distinct and memorable companion, and a reminder of women as brilliant, complex, difficult and incendiary.

[Brianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely stunning. Though the voice of the last 10%~ didn't mesh with the rest of story, the change in voice feels intentional and rounds out the theme of generational trauma and breaking the cycle very well.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Karli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was given the opportunity to listen to this audiobook by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

The writing is fantastic, and I believe that the way that the audiobook was produced and cast with various women voicing each of the women was beautifully done, and gave the listener a much better feel for each of the characters.

The story gives us glimpses into the lives of 5 generations of women from the same family, starting with Lise, who was a talented pianist training in Paris in the 1920's when she met and married an artist and moved to New York. The story moves to her daughter Anna, granddaughter Pauline, great-granddaughter Hope, and great-great granddaughter Zoey. In each generation the women tell their stories, and we see what lessons are passed on, and what changes come with each generation.

Each of the women experience pain, and and also great triumphs over the course of their lives and this book. The knowledge of these women are implied through the stories as they unfold and spoken in the dialogue, and they are lessons worth listening to.

Ultimately, Five-Part Invention is a well-written, interesting book that recognizes the strength of women and how they are the foundation of our own lives today. I believe that the audio performance makes it even better.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve read a few books about generational trauma recently and there is something completely fascinating about this concept to me. This is the part of the synopsis that got me 👇🏻

Spanning five generations of women, Five-Part Invention wrestles with the question—if trauma echoes through generations, can love echo, too? Is the love we transmit enough to undo the trauma of the past that we unwittingly carry with us and often re-enact in the present?

It starts with Lise in the 1920’s and 1930’s the in subsequent chapters you hear from four other women in the next generations. I really liked the way this story unfolded and slowly told a tale. There was something both quiet and intimate about both the writing and the format and it really captivated me. I don’t always mesh well with literary fiction as sometimes it’s too wordy and flowery but this one really worked well for me. It was a complex story with many triggers and some disturbing content but I also found it to be oddly inspiring and at times wise. I loved the focus on art in various forms and found myself forming connections with all five women in some manner. Overall it was profound, deep and really beautifully written.

[Brenna Sherrill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this to be a frustrating, repetitive, and overly long read, even on audio. I was intrigued by the description of generational trauma, but found that it felt like essentially the same story repeated again and again—bad men and their victims. I don’t mean to oversimplify, but that’s why I got frustrated with the lack of nuance to these stories when it seemed like just repeating the same thing over and over. I also really didn’t like the writing or narration of Lise’s sections, as they felt like long, overly dramatic monologues. Though I appreciate what this book set out to do, it’s not a book I’d recommend.

[Min · Rating 5 out of 5]

"No one chooses to fall in love with a madman, they fall in love with a man, and ignore the signs of what he is sure to become."

Ease of Reading: 4✨
Characters: 5✨
Plot: 5✨
Writing: 5✨
Overall: 5✨

Format: Audiobook
Month Read: Aug 22
Recommend: 100%

This is 100% amazing. The book explores five generations of female experience, through deeply emotional narrative, the women and their relationships with themselves, their mothers and the men in their lives.

From a women being admitted to a mental asylum by her husband for outshining him, to her great great granddaughter coming out as a trans woman and being accepted by her family and friends, and the complex lives of the generations in between, this book is a beautiful exploration of how far women have come and how far we still have left to go.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 couldn’t put this down….very difficult reading re: mostly mental (and at times physical) abuse passed down and repeated thru generations, good writing. Frustrating with female victims choices.

[Lolly K Dandeneau · Rating 4 out of 5]

via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
𝑰𝒕’𝒔 𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒊𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒎𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒏𝒅, 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌, 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒆𝒚𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒄𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒅, 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒏 𝒔𝒖𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏. 𝑫𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔. 𝑬𝒏𝒅𝒍𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔.

This novel blew me away. Where do bad mothers go? They go to places their husbands send them, where there is nothing but time to think, to suffer, places where a woman no longer has agency over herself. It is 1933, Lise is married to Mor, but her life’s breath is playing the piano. Her husband is convinced her playing has become an obsession, that it drives her to do terrible things to herself and makes her a failure as a wife. She has a nervous breakdown, but how can a piano and Lise’s love of music cause such a thing? The only solution is to have the music that is always in her head medicated out of her; what better plan than to have her committed. Mor just wants her well, doesn’t he? He isn’t doing it to punish her, he just wants her to stop hurting herself. He gifted her the piano, he wouldn’t take it away without a reason. Lise is pure music, but it is retreating as the treatments numb her. The piano in the corner of the common room is calling to her, but she isn’t ‘allowed’ to play it, unless her husband gives his permission. The doctors don’t understand, they only know drugs and constraints, they are only swayed by husbands.

It wasn’t always like this, upon first meeting Mor, Lise is on a student scholarship in France, her chance to study with Cortot and secure a career as a concert pianist. A brave act, considering her father is against it and wants her to get married. According to him, she is an old maid, at twenty, and needs to stop dreaming. Her musical gifts are a fever, much like a love affair. She proves him wrong, in a masterclass she is signaled out, the only way is up so long as she continues her level of work. Then she meets Mor, “floating on a high of praise” from Cortot, and it is like a fairytale. He is an artist, whose work ‘aims at realism’, a man passionate about politics. There is an instant “profound” connection upon meeting him, his drawings of her only make her seem a better version of herself and his protectiveness seals her feelings of love. He claims her immediately, and before long they marry, returning to America at the cost of abandoning her studies. New York is meant to be an adventure, according to Mor, it is “a place brimming with music”. Before she knows it, practicalities take over, necessitating work and her music is further out of reach, with little time to play. Worse, her husband is like a stranger, a different man from the one she met in Paris. So begins the souring of love and the insidious creep of emotional abuse. When people callously ask how someone can be so dumb to put up with cruelty and domestic abuse, this novel is a witness to the unfolding horrors. It starts with little things, until you are questioning your sanity and wondering “is it me?”

The grip of trauma never loosens on Lise, it’s a wall in her relationship with her daughter Anna, who finds love and tenderness only with her father. Lise is a master at wounding her, but once she has children of her own, Anna knows it is impossible for a child to deserve such coldness from their mother. She has kept Lise at a distant, an act of self-preservation but it’s a cycle, and Anna’s own love life is a beast that leaves its mark on her own children. This is one of the most genuine books I have ever read about living in a dysfunctional home. It is unnerving, particularly the incidents with volatile husbands/fathers. It changes every family member, mothers, children, all try to tread lightly as not to wake the beast. You can never know with unbalanced people what will set them off. The bitterness trickles down the line, it’s hard to keep a smile through pain and while children are innocent, they can sense the wrongness in the atmosphere, the ugliness in the adults, even if they don’t understand it. The need to please, to be loved, it’s a natural human desire, to find fault with oneself for another’s misery. There is no end histrionics and somehow abusers always have the audience they so desperately crave and what are children but captives of their home? The time period serves this novel perfectly because you didn’t air your dirty laundry in public then. There weren’t many avenues of escape, nor were there campaigns for domestic and child abuse, not like today. In fact, even when things feel wrong in the gut, how do you measure normal when you know nothing else? Pauline, oh how I suffered for her, and the senselessness of fate, why some are born to bear so much. There is goodness too, hope, as with Samuel’s presence but the characters are drowning in pain. We carry our past, our upbringing changes us, as does all our relationships whether we embrace or reject patterns, we are still affected by them. The hardest thing is our need to understand why, and yet even knowing things doesn’t repair all the damage. The story walks us through five generations, and it

This novel left me with a gush of emotions and it is very telling how one’s world shrinks when they are subjected to an abuser. This line, “How did some people go through the world like that, never snagging on anything rough?” How indeed? Every person in a family is forced into being a fraud, wearing a brave face, hiding evidence of their suffering, keeping poisonous secrets, denying their own needs and it does something to you. It is an inheritance no one wants. The novel captivated me, it is not an easy read, but the intelligence and observations of trauma makes it an unforgettable book. The character Zoey, it does fit with the identity struggles, and it seems it is personal to the author, but isn’t what I was expecting the novel to become. For me, the biggest pull was Lise, Anna and her children. Whoa, it’s a read!

Publication Date: July 5, 2022 Available Now

Pegasus Books

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

f you are looking to read a new family drama, please choose this one. Five-Part Invention is so perfectly named as it heartrendingly explores the lives of five generations of women. Generational trauma and the identity formed within that context is a major theme. We see how women can both overcome and feel trapped by the experiences of their own mothers. The experiences of being a mother and daughter are so inextricably bound up in each other that making choices that feel deliberate can be difficult. Beautifully written and excellently developed, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

[Erika Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

90% of this book was a PERFECT MASTERPIECE.

However, the account of the final daughter was such a different tone that it didn’t work for me. It felt like the author was trying to fill a ton of social stigma quotas in such a small amount of space, and the writing for the final character was so immature compared to all the previous women that it felt forced and cliché.

But I will say it again - the stories of the first four women were perfection and a complete masterpiece.

[Marielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If trauma echoes through generations, can love echo, too? Is the love we transmit enough to undo the trauma of the past that we unwittingly carry with us and often re-enact in the present?"

When Pegasus books reached out to me to review an ARC of Five-Part Invention, I jumped at the chance. Music is embedded in my DNA: my grandfather played trumpet and was bandmaster at his university; my mother is a piano teacher and composes music; and my sister and I received piano lessons from a teacher who was classically trained at the Moscow Conservatory. Music has always been a staple in our house, our family gathering around my mother's baby grand piano to play and sing. The title of this debut novel references the great composer Bach's Inventions, conversation like brief musical compositions, which is apropos to the telling of this story.

You know when a book just impresses the heck out of you? For me it is this beautiful story of 5 strong women- Lise, Anna, Pauline, Hope and Zoey- and how they experience, survive and thrive despite their intergenerational trauma. Well-written, compelling and will tug at your heart strings- this book is quiet in its power, which is my favourite kind of book.

"... how that made her cold as a mom, and how her coldness just kept spreading and spreading like a frost that branched out and touched everyone".

The story starts with Lise circa the 1930’s and switches POVs as the chapters follow the subsequent generations of women all the way to current day pandemic. I loved each and every one of their stories through the highs and the lows and despite the topic at hand, this didn't feel overly heavy, it hit just the right note. Lise's story was especially heartbreaking and there are also themes of mental health and abusive relationships. I also loved how art as a whole was a woven thread throughout the novel, as if this too was in the bloodstream of Lise's offspring.

I really cannot recommend this book enough and will be purchasing a physical copy for myself and for my mother come pub date. Read this book if you liked Notes On An Execution, Everything I Never Told You, The House We Grew Up In or Homegoing. A 4.5 stars up-rated to 5 stars. Pub date is July 5. Thank you to Pegasus books for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Netgalley for this audio edition of Five-Part Invention by Andrea J. Buchanan.

Oh wow! This one got me right in the matriarchal feelers. I think often about being a granddaughter, daughter, and now mother of a daughter, and that strong chord that binds us all together. How do the experiences of older not trickle down to affect the younger? How do you learn from generational trauma while healing from it at the same time?

Lise has lost her piano privileges from her husband after suffering a breakdown that almost took her life. But her isolation away from the thing she loves the most only makes her life harder, and she is forced to act out in other ways. But now she is a mother and she must somehow raise this daughter, despite her own brokenness and disconnection.

I believe this follows five lines of daughters, and exhibits how deeply they are all affected by Lise's trauma and tragedies. But amidst all of it is also love, healing, forgiveness, and the benefits of living during times that address mental illness. It jumps timelines, but the author, and voice actors, transition flawlessly, and make it very easy to stay with the characters and story. This is written with a ton of heart, vulnerability, honesty, and raw pain. I felt so much of it, and it encouraged me to heal my own issues for the sake of my continued line.

[kmstullwriter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a generational novel, following the women of one family from the 1930’s to 2020ish. A 1st person letter by the oldest one (Lise) which is broken up through the novel and interspersed with 3rd person narration from her daughter (Anna), her daughter (Pauline), her daughter (Hope), and at the end, 1st person “college admission essays by her daughter (Zoey). The sections alternated back and forth in time, showing generational trauma as well as moments of hope & passion, particularly around music and art. Themes include motherhood and identify.

For me, too many POV characters and too much time spanned meant that no story felt complete. That could have been deliberate because we never really “know” another, even our mothers, but it felt frustrating. I thought the stories of Lise and Anna were the most intriguing, but it never delved into how Lise “left” Anna or was “there but gone” despite telling us that’s what happened. The last daughter’s college essays read as unnecessary, like an indulgence from the author, and that feeling is tripled by the “epilogue” from the future that is Zoey’s own obituary.

There is much to admire about the writing and the structure, but it feels wasted by having too many stories and not enough about the best ones.

[Ciarra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like each daughter, we only get a snapshot of their mother’s life and a limited understanding of who they are. We only get to know a brief period in each woman’s life and the only additional context we have comes from their preceding and following generations. At times I was frustrated with unanswered questions since we really only get to know what we’re being told directly by each woman and whatever version of them whoever is currently narrating knows. But I also appreciate the literary decision to do that.

The contemporary generational POV is that of high school-aged Zoey and at times the “relatable gen-z” stuff was too cringy, but overall it had the intended effect. Like, I hated the narration because it was immature compared to the other women and felt like a bad YA novel but also the narrator was what, 16/17? So I get it.

I just wish we had an explanation about the whole Deborah situation.

[alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mostly enjoyed this book so so much! I'm surprised that I had to rate it four stars, but that 2020 section was downright painful. As someone who was also a gay senior in 2020, Zoey would have been number one on my "worst people to talk to" list. However, I do appreciate that Buchanan included a trans woman as the final invention of the five-generation female trauma story. I also recognize that her own daughter inspired Zoey's story. But still. Gen z self-deprecating humor did not come across well at all after four generations of a fairly serious writing style.

What I will definitely remember from this book is the way Buchanan writes about music—specifically, piano. I'm a pianist, and this book perfectly conveys how that artistry bleeds into every aspect of your life. I will definitely be thinking about intention after reading this book.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a complimentary copy of this audiobook.

What a beautiful book! This novel is filled with lots of trauma, in the lives of the five generations of one family. We get the perspectives of five different women, starting with Lise, a pianist with a cruel husband who takes her music away from her, and ending with Zoe, a young trans woman. There are lots of cruel men along the way, and lots of identity issues, and a hopefulness that carries through and ties it all together. This book was beautifully crafted and I enjoyed the cast who performed the audio. I would recommend it to anyone who likes novels that explore messy families and generational trauma. The piano/music element was an added bonus for me.

[Yaya507 · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars!!

This brilliant family saga will take its place right on the top shelf of my e-book case where all my favorites go.  Andrea Buchanan has a wonderful writing style and her prose in this audiobook was music to my ears. 

I found myself experiencing ALL the emotions as Lise described her abusive husband's treatment of her.  As with most women of her time, she was very attentive to her husband's wishes, and unfortunately was verbally abused when she didn't meet his needs or tried to satisfy her own.  Towards the end of the book, I found myself cheering her on as she finally came to her own and was able to play the piano professionally as she did so well.

Buchanan's characters are well-developed, and you can easily identify with their emotions and experiences throughout the book. 

Narration by Elizabeth Wiley, Jayme Mattler, Susan Hanfield, Jackie Meloche, and Jane Oppenheimer was near perfection with both soothing voices and excellent intonations.  Their voices made Buchanan's prose dance off the page. 

My thanks to #netgalley and #Dreamscapemedia for this ARC which I thoroughly enjoyed.  This opinion is my own.

[Jonnye Chasteen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this story that is framed around generational trauma… Another reviewer put it perfectly - “I found this to be a frustrating, repetitive, and overly long read, even on audio. I was intrigued by the description of generational trauma, but found that it felt like essentially the same story repeated again and again-bad men and their victims. I don't mean to oversimplify, but that's why I got frustrated with the lack of nuance to these stories when it seemed like just repeating the same thing over and over. I also really didn't like the writing or narration of Lise's sections, as they felt like long, overly dramatic monologues. Though I appreciate what this book set out to do, it's not a book I'd recommend.”

Tried to finish it - DNFd about 85% of the way through.

[Brook · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely incredible. One of the best books I’ve read so far this year. A stunning book about generational trauma told through the lives of 5 women, a lineage of abuse. The writing is lyrical and like a waltz, an ode to the musical nature of Lise and the piano. Though each girl is given only a 5th of the book, you so quickly come to love and feel for these characters. It hurt to witness the abuses they each suffered and how their relationships formed based on that abuse. The ending had me crying, it was beautiful and a perfect bittersweet ending to a hard but necessary book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

[Kyra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five-Part Invention is a compulsively readable and revelatory look into a deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant family. The story follows five generations of women from the same family and examines the painful, tender and deep connection between them. The book is so masterfully written with the narrators each having their own distinct voice and the seamless flow between time periods. Buchanan plants mysteries, unveils flaws that are passed down from ancestors to descendants and slowly unravels secrets that were carefully guarded for generations. This is a thoughtful exploration of intergenerational trauma and highlights the resilience of women reclaiming their agency. If you enjoy family sagas, I urge you to pick this one up.

[Salomé Esteves · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an incredible book this is! I knew I would like it (it had all the ingredients I usually like in stories), but I was expecting to love it this much. This was at least two books in one, but at no moment did I feel it was trying to accomplish too much. The character work is brilliant, the pacing is magnificent, and I felt genuine emotions, from disgust to joy, in several scenes. I genuinely believe this will be one of the best books I will read this year.
However, there was one detail that bugged me. No one can make me believe an 87-year-old woman e-mails like that. I buy everything else in this story except that.
Now can God please find me a Samuel?

[Jaye Murray · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, thought provoking novel- the result of a talented writer who worked on this for many years in order to produce such a great work to be felt, enjoyed, educated and surprised by.
I appreciate the time and energy put into writing actual literature as such seems to be scarce in the publishing world which is ripe with quick writes for easy sales.
Thank you for putting in the time and being so intentional with your five part invention.

[Amanda Ball · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled across this book in Barnes and Noble and it was a gift to read it. It follows the heartbreak and abuse across 5 generations of women. It has all of the emotions. I was sad that the last part of the book felt rushed and such a switch from the language and beautifully written parts prior. It also felt like it was politically and culturally charged, which felt different than the begining of the book. I felt my own biases and thoughts coming out in a harsh light during this.

[Seija Tikkis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm torn about this book - until Zoey's story I was fully prepared to give this five stars. But the final story felt really out of kilter with the rest of the book, and as someone else mentioned, like the author was trying to cram in as many cliched themes that it felt unbelievable and like I was reading a really bad fanfiction. It almost ruined the whole book for me.

I should mention that I read this as an audiobook and Lise's voice artist was absolutely outstanding.

[Leila Amiri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is heavy in pain, love, and redemption. The characters are so broken and yet they are able to find themselves. Exceptionally well written with just enough detail to let the reader feel what they are feeling.

[Billi · Rating 5 out of 5]

10/10 recommend for anyone working in social services, mental health, or social work. The character development on generational trauma and how it affected each generation was beautifully done. Each character was relatable and I couldn't help but feel connected and protective of each of them.

[Kathe]

This is the story of five generations of women: Lise, Anna, Pauline, Hope and Zoe. Nearly all the relationships between mothers and daughters are fraught, to say the least. Nearly all the men in the book are monstrously manipulative. And yet, you'll want to read their stories.

[Brandilyn]

dnf @ 21%

[Lyn Ostoich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning!

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want more more more of these characters’ stories! Such a good book.