The Brambles

by Eliza Minot

This is the story of the Bramble family--Margaret, Max, and Edie--three adult siblings careening through wildly different byways of adult life. Margaret, mother of three, is about to take her ailing father into the tumult and chaos of her already overcrowded home. Edie is young and single, but struggling mightily to anchor her solitary life. Max, newly married, newly a father, is buckling under the weight of new responsibilities. Over the course of one critical season, a long hidden secret will be revealed, remaking each of them, and all they thought they knew about themselves.

Genres: Fiction, Family, Contemporary, Literature, American, Novels, Book Club

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Eliza Minot (pronounced Mine-it) is the author of the critically acclaimed novels The Tiny One and The Brambles. Her third novel, In The Orchard, will be published by Knopf in April 2023. Minot was born in Beverly, Massachusetts and grew up in Manchester-by-the-Sea. She lives in Maplewood, NJ with her family.

Reviews

[Deirdre · Rating 2 out of 5]

minot's style of writing puts you effectively in the mind of the switching narrators, siblings dealing with their own neurosis, but doesn't resolve anything, even with the big reveal at the end. i felt a little bit for the characters, but their trivial reactions when faced with everyday life and even life changing events started to piss me off.

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really tried to read this book. Even if I don't like a book I will normally finish it, but I just couldn't. I only made it about 50 pages in before I gave up.

Per the back cover, this book is about a woman who is struggling with the death of her mother. However, every character thinks in riddles and lists. The run on sentences were awful and I got so sick of 17 descriptive terms all separated by commas. I guess it was supposed to be poetic, but it was so hard to follow that I would zone out for whole chapters.

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

what at first seems like it will be a family melodrama (dying father, shocking secret from the past that will change their lives forever . . . ) is in fact a lyrical, at times hilarious, glimpse at the chaos of family life. best for fans of the domestic novel and depictions of wasp-y east coast life.

[Susan Steinhauer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tender story about family. Moving and true depiction of life with children and death and loss.

P. 30

Now that school's out, however, it's as though news of the world is suspended as well. It's summer, and the kids are home all day like they're babies again; 10:05 a.m. and there they are, watching something terrible on TV until Margaret tries to herd them into the backyard. The kids getting border, the kids needing rides, the kids getting sick, she and the kids, me and them, they're coming with me, we'll be there soon, we're running late, we weren't home yet, we'll be in the back, we'll be upstairs, we'll be downtown, we'll be next door, we're heading down, we're coming up, we're heading out, wee, wee, wee, all the way home . . . .

p. 51

They were like hired private detectives, the way at least one of them would descend upon her after she'd hung up, demanding immediate information. Usually at least one of them was there long before the phone call ended, asking for things they already had in their hands, orbiting the room, winding through her legs like a cat, getting in her way, looking for things, even if they'd been happily involved in something before the phone rang.

p. 145

"Don't you have a better broom?" The broom is about three feet long, its three primary parts in the three primary colors: red shaft, blue bristle holder, yellow nylon brushes.

"A better one? Oh, I don't know where the other one is." Long ago, she resigned herself to her children's tools which unlike her own, never seemed to disappear: the little training scissors and tiny nail clippers, the miniature snow shovels and rakes, Fisher Price flashlights, the orange plastic garden hoe, the red plastic spade, since she can never find the real one they gave her for Mother's Day. The calculator on the toy cash register is where she balances the checkbook, usually with a dehydrated felt-tip pen - in orange or hard-to-see yellow - from a marker set.

p. 166

Her father, here in her house. Something she's been expecting, dreading, and looking forward to for some time. Should the TV be in his room? Would he like to listen to the radio, some music? The things she hadn't considered. The hours to pass. Or, rather, the things she'd considered in her mind as though they were rotating on a lazy Susan: How long will he live? Will she be able to leave the house? To leave him alone? What will he want to do? How long will it last? - turning, turning, toward the forefront of her thought and then receding, circling away, to be approached and resolved at a later date. She lets the ideas retreat again, and with Gramps asleep and the kids somehow occupied, she takes the opportunity to make the dreaded call to her car insurance company.

p. 170

She's thought before that her life is simply made up of snippets, a connect-the-dots of moments of clarity, of instants, big and small, where life softly explodes in her head, which remain with her either because she simply decided to remember them for no reason at all or because it was something that was seared into her consciousness as if with a branding iron (Stephen's glistening body raised up into the air in the delivery room - who was holding him anyway, Brian? The doctor? - or the miniature of her own face, orbed and shiny like a Christmas tree ornament, reflected on the iris of one of Brian's eyes). Sometimes the dots are close together, and then sometimes there's a big long swoop of lagging line, like a sail that's lost the wind, like a stretched-out elastic. Margaret is aware that here, in Sarah's room, she is at one of those instants where the elastic gets pulled taut, the slack sail is given its breath of wind. It's the image of her father in bed, sitting up, her girls surrounding him. Sarah's lilting voice singing this gentle, eerie song.

pp. 202-203

"He went like this, Mom," says Stephen. Stephen makes one of the hup! inhales and then stops, frozen for a few moments. "And now, he's just...like this." Stephen's face remains there, frozen, looking askance.

Sarah puts in her version. "Mom, he went -" and she does her rendition of his last poof of breath, but just as she finishes it, Gramps gasps one more time. One determined, subdued, but hungry breath of air like he's about to swim the length of a pool underwater.

They all sit quietly, looking at his pleasantly surprised-looking face.

"That's it, Mom? He's dead."

Margaret touches her father's cheek. It's firm and cool as though he's just been outside on a cool day.

"Mom?"

"Yes, honey?"

"That's it?"

"Is Gramps dead?" says Sarah.

"Yes," says Margaret. She looks at the kids, the arrangement of them, three stems, looking at her calmly.

"He is?"

"Yes," she says. Her head feels as though it's about to melt apart into pieces, starting with her throat. Is that it? Margaret wonders this as well. From one moment to the next, just like that?

"Can I touch him?" asks Sarah.

"Sure, honey. You all can."

Sarah hops up close to his head, practically sitting on his shoulder. She places her hand on top of his head, cupping it proprietarily, then looks up at her mother. "Aren't you going to cry, Mom?"

"That was fast, Mom, wasn't it?" says Stephen. "I thought Gramps would be here for a while," he says. "I really thought that, Mom," he says. His eyes start to well up, a bloom of water; then the overflow quickly recedes.

"Look at his eyes," says Flo with nervous giddiness, as though she's entering a darkened room, as though she's awaiting a big wave coming her way at the beach.

Arthur's eyes are frozen, looking indeterminately at the upper edge of the window to his right. His mouth is open, the mouth of a dead man. Didn't the Romans stick a coin in it to pay for the passage across the Styx? Or something. Wasn't that right? He would know, but now Margaret can't ask him.

Stephen's gotten up on the bed next to Margaret. He sits on the other side of Gramps's head. "Can I close them, Mom?" His hand hoers above the old man's open eyes.

Margaret nods, thinking for a second that Stephen has seen that action too many times on TV, probably. The drama king Stephen. But then Stephen does it with such grace, such an assured unsqueamish maturity, that Margaret feels a pang of self-loathing. Why undermine her son? Why think of television?

Stephen looks up at his mother, his chin puckered like the skin of a walnut. He rests his hand roughly on Gramps's shoulder as he steadies himself, causing Gramps's body to jerk a little. "Sorry," Stephen says to him, like he might have hurt him.

Margaret smiles at her son. "He can't feel it, honey," she says.

The four of them are sitting quietly when the door opens and Brian comes into the room, tugging at the tie around his neck, looking at everyone expectantly, sweat like a sealant shining on his forehead. At the sight of him, Margaret begins to sob.

[Saurora Mirkin · Rating 3 out of 5]

My sister, and any other stay-at-home intellectual mom, should read this book. I am not a stay-at-home mom but I feel that there are situations and scenes in this book that would be best and most appreciated by someone who was. I am enjoying the book, and it deals with a lot more than mommyhood, but it centers on family dynamics and moms would be experts on that. Well-written and observed but slow beginning (put it down several times before pushing through)

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent writing distinguishes this book, but the text (story?) is rather disconnected and not all of the characters are very likeable.

[Beth]

I have to admit I'm not completely qualified to review this book because I did not finish the entire copy. I couldn't get past chapter 3.

In my opinion there are basically two different writing styles.

1. People who are blessed with the gift of writing their own thoughts so wonderfully that you feel as if they are your own. Writing done so beautifully that you feel like you can see, feel and touch the characters and settings in a book.

or

2. College English majors that were well taught on sentence structure, grammar and the need to use quaint literary turns of phrases to describe things.

I prefer #1...this book was #2.

I couldn't get past chapter three because it drives me crazy when an author uses an overabundance of words to describe the simplest aspects of a character or setting. There is no need! Get on with it already! I don't need to read an entire chapter about every aspect of Margaret's resentment at being a stay-at-home mom....and then the following chapter's page after page about Edie's free spirited outlook. This is suppose to be a story about relationships within a family and the first quarter of the book is still describing every nuance of the characters. How about the story?

Granted, some readers probably love this style of writing and will enjoy the book completely. To you, I say, "Go for it". For me...not so much.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book, though based on all the other reviews I've read, I may be in the minority on that. The story follows a set of older adult siblings dealing with everyday life following the death of their mother and their father's terminal illness. Sounds like a drag, I know, but it's actually not so dour as all that. Beautifully written from each sibling's point of view, with plenty of funny moments.

What I really loved was the perspective on motherhood. The descriptions showing the thoughts of the stay-at-home mom were hilarious and uncannily accurate--she describes things I've felt but never would know how to put into words. The author added some interesting (or dumb, depending on your view) plot twists, but the book is more about the characters and the relationships between all the members of the family.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Minot's writing is beautiful. I can see why she's compared to Virginia Woolf. She's poetic and lush and there's beautiful sections that feel as though we can see a mind at work, sort of stream of consciousness, but not exactly. What happened is that I finished Living to Tell by Antonia Nelson and the characters and the plot in The Brambles just weren't as compelling for me as they were in Nelson's book. There was also a plot twist at the end of Brambles that didn't feel earned...just too out of nowhere. But I love stories about families, and this dysfunctional family pulled me in. We constantly read books in relation to each other and I was so aware of it in the case of The Brambles because I read it right on the heels of Living to Tell.

[Fay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Minot is a great writer--lots of wonderful lyrical passages in here, especially about motherhood, but the plot was all over the place. And the "conclusion" at the end felt extremely forced. The dialogue felt a bit unrealistic as well. Too clever or something. Still, the characters were engaging and quirky, which kept me reading.

[Sheri · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was just ok. I only cared for 1 of the 3 main characters. It's about the lives of 3 siblings and their parents, but there just wasn't anything there.

[Linda Nonalaya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started this book last year. I put it away. I returned to it this year and finally finished it. I found that I could not get into any of the charactersI felt the story jumped around to the past a lot which I found to be distracting. The purpose of the story line is much further in the chapters. The writing was very flowery like poetry. I was hoping the story would have focused on sibling’s relationship. The author had a good idea. I will not spoil it. In some of the reading I could not tell if the father was friendly or gruff. I did not get to know Arthur. I did not cry about what happened to him. Max the brother to me was all over the place in the story. He should have been the support for the sisters. I did not see a personality in his character. Also Edie had another unresolved issue that propped up toward the end of the book. Margret’s family life looked chaotic. The kids interrupting her several times. They were very sick in the book but some how after going to the doctors they recovered that day.

[Terra · Rating 4 out of 5]

ho preso questo libro consigliata da nick hornby - non personalmente, lo ammetto, ma leggendo "shakespeare scriveva per soldi". è la storia di tre fratelli (un fratello e due sorelle, per la verità, ma in italiano ci manca una parola intelligente come siblings) che devono affrontare la malattia terminale e la morte del padre senza aver ancora metabolizzato la morte della madre in un incidente aereo. i fratelli sono adulti e ciascuno di loro ha la sua vita, che arriviamo a conoscere piuttosto bene. quella che viene fotografata con maggior realismo, secondo me, è l'esistenza di margaret, giovane madre di tre figli piccoli. la tenerezza e l'esasperazione che le suscitano i rampolli sono rese proprio bene. come dice hornby, però, la trama è appesantita dal disvelamento di un segreto che nulla cambia nella vicenda, e io aggiungo che le ultime tre-quattro pagine di tirate sul senso della vita e dell'avere figli si potevano felicemente evitare. a parte questo, però, è un libro molto piacevole, scritto bene e poetico qua e là. lo consiglio.

[May Mccalmon · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this book up with no expectations, I found it at a used book store, and the description seemed intriguing enough. This is where my interest ended. The novel follows the lives of three adult siblings as their father is dying. There is little connection between the siblings. While Minot writes well enough about the banality of every day life, the book is riddled with unrealistic dialogue that falls flat and empty. I felt little to no sympathy toward any of the main characters. The big secret revealed in the last chapters has little shock value, or even impact on the lives of the characters. The moment has passed as quickly as the information is discovered. The most interesting part of this novel is the fixation the siblings have surrounding the crematorium’s oven and it’s likeness to a brick pizza oven, which aptly captures the details a grieving individual may cling to.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I savored Minot's In the Orchard, so I turned to this earlier family tale while I went on vacation with my adult sister and brother. The Brambles is also lovely and observant, with some humor as well as tenderness and surprises.

It was a bit of a shock to learn, on about page 6, that the matriarch dies in a plane crash. Not the vibe I was seeking for my extended family time! And the patriarch is slowly, sweetly, dying for most of the book. But sadness and joy co-exist in real life and in fiction, so it was OK, it was good and poignant. The story line with Max was exasperating, as it was meant to be, but then it turns out well.

I also want to note that one of the characters has disordered eating, in case that's a trigger for anyone. Oh, and a stalker, but it's played for laughs.

[Wendy Powell · Rating 1 out of 5]

I lied. I don’t finish it. I stopped with about 10 pages to go. I just didn’t care about any of it. The big reveal made no sense to the rest of the story. I don’t care about any of the characters. I’m honestly thought it was me just struggling to focus until the story took a very random turn. Then I realized it’s just not a great book.

[Debra Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing in this book is beautiful and the observations the author makes via her characters are spot on. I found the book moving and hilarious, in places. I just felt the last third of the book didn't quite work. I could be missing something.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had some really great moments. I felt like it was on the verge of being a great book but the ending felt rushed to me. It fell flat.

[Betsy D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good writing. Insight into family life. But not a compelling story until quite near the end. I'd give it 3.5 stars.

[Jen Mosich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

Amazing that we think we really know our loved ones when there is always more to learn! Loved this story!

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not the most interesting story. I read it while on vacation and it took me so long to read because I kept putting it down. In the end it did all come together and was okay.

[Cobygirl517 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't get into it, I was falling asleep. A lot if people mention the "twist ending", but I just don't have the desire to stay with it that long.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gave up at page 99. So many details crammed into each paragraph. Just.too.much. Especially since nothing had happened in all those pages.

[Bea · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't follow and didn't finish :-(

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was hard to get into, but I'm glad I stayed. Stayed. It's a very frenetic style of writing. Hard to keep things straight but it is a beautiful puzzle when you put it all together at the end.

[Lynn Elmy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Struggled to get into the book because of the writing style. I did enjoy the perspective on the challenges of a parent dying and discussing with children.

[Felicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brambles on and on

Strange book. These people can’t seem to finish a coherent thought. How frustrating it would be to be part of this family who speak and communicate through what feels like a stream of consciousness poem. The storyline is strange and haphazard. I felt like they were all slightly delirious or unhinged. Bramble, as a verb, perfectly describes the style of writing and the way the story unfolds.

[Misha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so good, and to think I was putting it off, thinking “not another Minot novel”! Nancy Pearl put it on her top 10 books of 2006, and with good reason. It’s perfect for readers who enjoy family dramas and love character. Margaret, Max, and Edie are the three adult Bramble siblings struggling with family, work, self-identity, their mother’s tragic plane accident, and their father’s deteriorating health. The focus is really on Margaret, a mother of three who loves her children and her husband, while rhapsodizing over her stylish, carefree days in New York City. One review called her an “ambivalent mother” which I think is just wrong—she knows that she has sacrificed some of her earlier self to be a mother, but clearly relishes the roll—and the memories and thoughts that she shares about pregnancy, her eldest son’s intelligence, her panic over her children’s health, provide a complex portrait of a stay-at-home mom’s ups and downs. Max is married with a son, Rex, but is much less grown up than Margaret: he’s quit his job and hiding the fact from his wife, who begins to suspect infidelity. And then there’s Edie, a semi-addled bulimic who is the least developed of the siblings. Overall, this was a satisfying read. The “plot,” and the discovery that the Brambles make about their family’s past, was really secondary for me to the rich characterization and the empathy that Minot brought to each portrait. Unlike Franzen’s The Corrections, this was a family I could have spent much more time with.

[Bookmarks Magazine]

The author is the youngest of the seven siblings in her family and was seven when her mother died. Her father was an alcoholic, and the brothers and sisters had to fend for themselves much of the time. In addition to Eliza Minot's first novel, The Tiny One (1999), which focuses on the loss of a parent, Minot's siblings Susan (Monkeys) and George (The Blue Bowl) have also written about their family crises. The Brambles goes beyond individual coping mechanisms to explore the interactions of a family in unhappy, stressful circumstances. The exemplary prose and richly detailed characterizations take the lead, relegating the sometimes sketchy details of the plot and timeline to a distant second place. While some reviewers see more of the Brambles' love and warmth for one another and others notice more of their incompatibilities and disconnects, all seem to think their story is worth reading.

This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read about this book in O Magazine. I know, I know. But the plot summary sounded so intriguing, and I thought I would love it. Well, not so much. The first 9/10ths of this book sets up (it turns out, clumsily) a plot twist toward the end. I call it a "plot twist," as if there is much of a plot TO twist. Most of the book is spent introducing the characters, who are fairly interesting, but I never felt very connected to them -- maybe that's part of the problem. I kept waiting and waiting for something to actually happen. Were these people going somewhere? Was there a point? Because it didn't feel like it.

And then the aforementioned "plot twist" happens. I can just think of so many better ways to take that twist and craft it into an engaging novel with characters you care about. The Brambles definitely didn't do it my way.