When Franny takes up with a famous writer and repeats the story of her family to him he uses it to write his first novel in years and it gets a rave review. Will this be another case of accidental discharge of a firearm causing death? Whatever the cause of his death it has a lasting impact on the five remaining children and the four parents. For instance, the kids discover Bert's gun in the glove compartment of the car and take it out. It takes us the almost the whole rest of the book to learn the cause of death but there are hints dropped here and there. On one visit they are staying with Bert's parents and the oldest son dies. Those four travel to Virginia every summer to be with their father except that Bert lets Beverly take all the responsibilty for looking after all six children. His first wife, Teresa, stays in California with their four children. Bert was from Virginia so he moved back with Beverly and her two children to Virginia. Later he kissed her and in the ensuing months the two had an affair and decided to leave their spouses. It was the first time he had seen Fanny's mother, Beverly, but he was smitten.
Bert just wanted to get away from his three kids and pregnant wife so, remembering a colleague's remark, he got a bottle of gin and went to the party. Bert was a state prosecutor and Fanny's father, Fix, was in the police department but the two barely knew each other. Fanny Keating's baptism was the reason for a party at the Keating's house and Bert Cousins crashed the party. The story centres on two families in California, the Keatings and the Cousins. I thought this was a wonderful book and Hope Davis as narrator just added more to the story.
Spending summers together in Virginia, the Keating and Cousins children forge a lasting bond that is based on a shared disillusionment with their parents and the strange and genuine affection that grows up between them. Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny’s mother, Beverly-thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families. One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating’s christening party uninvited. The acclaimed, bestselling author-winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize-tells the enthralling story of how an unexpected romantic encounter irrevocably changes two families’ lives. #1 New York Times Bestseller | NBCC Award Finalist | New York Times Best Book of the Year | USA Today Best Book | TIME Magazine Top 10 Selection | Oprah Favorite Book of 2016 | New York Magazine Best Book of The Year
“Exquisite. Commonwealth is impossible to put down.”
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