Stephanie Spence’s Reviews > Fault Lines: Fractured Families and How to Mend Them > Status Update

A thoughtful and compassionate look at family estrangement. Pillemer shows that for many parents, the bond remains central and enduring, while adult children are more likely to see it as contingent.

The book leans toward reconciliation, which can feel limiting. Unexplored: if a generation comes to view parent–child ties as optional, how will that shape their own expectations as parents?