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    Commonwealth
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    Commonwealth
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    Commonwealth
    Ebook364 pages6 hours

    Commonwealth

    By Ann Patchett

    4/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    'Dazzling … life-affirming and compulsively readable' Sunday Times

    'Patchett blends wisdom and humanity jointly with the icy forensic gaze of someone not afraid to expose the frailties of human behaviour ... Read it' Jojo Moyes

    'An outstanding novel ... a master of her art' Observer

    It is 1964: Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating's christening party uninvited and notices a heart stoppingly beautiful woman. When he kisses Beverly Keating, his host's wife, he sets in motion the joining of two families, whose shared fate will be defined on a day seven years later.

    In 1988, Franny Keating, now twenty-four, is working as a cocktail waitress in Chicago. When she meets the famous author Leon Posen one night at the bar, and tells him about her family, she unwittingly relinquishes control over their story…
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateSep 8, 2016
    ISBN9781408880371
    Author

    Ann Patchett

    Ann Patchett is originally from Los Angeles and is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College. She is the author of eight novels, The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft, The Magician’s Assistant, Bel Canto, Run, State of Wonder, Commonwealth and The Dutch House. She lives in Nashville.

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    Reviews for Commonwealth

    4/5

    1,177 ratings118 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Wat een geweldig boek is dit. Vooral het begin (heel traag maar erg intrigerend) en het einde zijn bijzonder mooi. Maar daar tussenin prachtige ontroerende passages. Over twee gezinnen die uit elkaar vallen omdat de man (Bert) van het ene echtpaar een relatie begint met Beverly, de vrouw van het andere stel. In totaal zes kinderen die ieder hun eigen verhaal hebben. Het boek verspringt in de tijd en dat maakt het ook interessant. Ik had het uit en begon direct weer opnieuw te lezen.
    • 5/5
      Ann Patchett's writing is brilliant. She takes what seems like an ordinary story and tells it in such a way that you get pulled into each character's tale. While reading her books, I always feel a sense of connection to the stories within the novel. I find her writing similar to Anne Tyler. Comonwealth is one of the best books I've read. The novel isn't driven by a plot, but by family and their stories. Many of the chapters read like a short story. I love the simplicity of the novel, yet the complexity of the lives and how they are all connected.
    • 4/5
      A story of two broken families, the Keatings and the Cousins, and how one decision to crash a christening party results in broken marriages, fractured memories, and is about how families remember and judge themselves. Told in eliptical style, there are missing decades and out of order story telling. The first 32 pages set up the rest of the book. In many way's this could be read as several short stories glued together. The setting is California and Virginia.Reading more on past reviews adds more meaning to this story.
    • 3/5
      Decades ago, I read Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto and thoroughly enjoyed the story. Commonwealth opens in suburban California with a christening party and a party crasher breaking two families apart. Ann Patchett’s interviews about this novel suggest that many parts of the story follow your own life. The story shows the change in public opinion concerning divorce and illicit romance beginning in the 1960’s. Patchett explores the story line of each of the six children and the two sets of parents during a span of fifty years. One daughter, Franny, shares her life history with her lover, who then writes a novel which is then produced as a movie. I enjoyed Patchett’s heightened suspense when one of the children dies with no explanation as to what happened. This remains unsolved until the end of the novel. The intimate details of the six children maturing to adulthood remains cloudy regarding their spouses and their children, they seem to hatch fully grown. I also felt that Bert, Beverly, and Teresa needed more development.
    • 5/5
      I was just blown away by what a good job Patchett did not only surprising me with the solution to a mystery, my assumptions about which formed my early opinions of the characters, but by how the solution also exposed and exploded my biases. I would not say that this is a mystery though--No. It's a family epic. Loved the twists and turns that each family member's life took, and loved the dynamic, deft way that the prose moved, transitioning from period to period in the family's history and from character to character without losing me.
    • 5/5
      Best book of 2016 so far.
    • 3/5
      A somewhat quiet character study.
    • 4/5
      I love Ann Patchett, and loved this book. Most of the characters are pretty believable, and there are really no good guys or bad guys, just a lot of flawed individuals. Two marriages, with 6 children between them break up, and all sorts of life (and death) ensues. The children are flawed, but they are children after all, and they go through a terrible experience (for much of the book the details of this are confusing, but it all becomes clear.) The children work to become responsible adults. The adults work to understand each other. The ending was a bit abrupt and unsatisfying. I wish it had tied up a few more loose ends. But then I'm not the author, and it had to end somewhere, sometime.
    • 5/5
      This is the story of how. a seemingly innocent kiss has the power to destroy two marriages and families. A tragedy bonds step siblings together as they struggle to come to terms with the incident. A novel based on their childhood-into a film which e family to look back at their past. This is very well written with all the emotions implicit in familial relationships.
    • 3/5
      I know this book was a best seller for quite a while, but I'm not sure why. It centers around two families fractured by divorce with six children between them. Some of the kids - and adults - are mentioned only briefly, and the story skips around in time making it somewhat confusing. It was OK, but not great.
    • 3/5
      Commonwealth is the story of divorce and remarriage, of blending families together and of coming to terms with your own story. Bert Cousins leaves his wife for Beverly who is also married. The two move from the LA area to Virginia where they raise her two children and where Bert's four children come to spend their summers. The story flashes back and forward over five decades, following some of the children into adulthood and rehashing critical turning points in family members lives. Their family story is ultimately turned into a successful book after Franny, an infant when her parents divorced, tells her life story to her boyfriend and famous author. The best selling book is titled Commonwealth which later becomes a movie, forcing family members to take yet another look at their past.
    • 3/5
      Have you ever wondered if a life event had not happened what impact this would this have had on your future? This is the premise of the latest Ann Patchett novel. Bert Cousins invites himself to Franny Keating's christening party. Prior to the end of the party, Bert Cousins kisses Franny's marriage resulting in the dissolution of two marriage and the combing of two families. No author I am currently reading can squeeze so much from ordinary life as Ann Patchett. Although not the best of her work, I'm glad I read this thought-provoking novel.
    • 4/5
      A special thank you to Edelweiss and HarperCollins Canada for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

      A chance encounter at a christening party for Franny Keating, ignites a spark between the hostess and an uninvited guest that puts in motion a chain of events that will span five decades and forever join two families.

      When she is in her twenties, Franny begins an affair with the legendary author Leo Posen. She tells him stories about her family which he then uses as the basis for a novel that becomes extremely successful which sets another chain of events in motion; the children must come to terms with their guilt over the loss they share and the responsibility that it brings which binds them together.

      What is amazing about Patchett's novel is that many of the characters go one step beyond flawed to be unlikeable, and that for most of the story, it feels there is not much going on. That being said, there are so many nuances and layers that unfold and it becomes a truly mesmerizing, heartbreaking, and relatable story.
    • 3/5
      Two families, six children, a divorce, and living on different sides of the country - that's the situation for this novel. It kept my attention, but I would categorize it as just ok. The time frame changes a lot, and the transitions are often confusing. I had to reread sections or flip back several times. It's not consistent time frames either, so it's hard to keep track. The idea of a novel with the same title as this book was introduced and was intriguing, but nothing really developed around that idea.
    • 4/5
      I am a fan of Ann Patchett! this novel did not disappoint me. I like how the novel moved through time and how are the characters were devolpted. each had strengths and large flaws.
    • 4/5
      Ann Patchett is a superb writer - that's unquestionable. That said, Commonwealth is a less immediately accessible book than the perfectly crafted Bel Canto, which rates on my 'top novels of all time' list. It lacks the tight crucible of the earlier book, and requires investment to get to know the range of characters before the threads start weaving together. It repays that effort, creating by the end a deeply satisfying read - if it doesn't hook you in straight away, keep reading - the gold is coming.
    • 4/5
      It begins at a party. Then the next couple of chapters made me think it would be like a collection of short stories about a couple of families and their kids at various times in their lives. But the more you read, the more the stories unwind, entwine, and reveal the family secrets. It captivated me, as most of Ann Patchet's books do. They are about life or a single event, but they capture people and life wonderfully.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed the weaving of the character's stories, perceptions, self-reflections, and relationships. Although the focus began with the parents you soon enjoyed glimpses of the children growing up and into adulthood. There is a regret, sadness and bittersweetness to their stories, yet also a sweet message of family and forgiveness. The reflections were engaging and characters had depth.
    • 5/5
      A chance meeting at a party changes two families' fortunes forever. As the (step-)siblings grow, and the parents age, they are pushed apart and come back together, bonded by tragedy and shared experience.Patchett never disappoints. Commonwealth is broader in scope than some of her earlier books, and some of the characters are stronger than others, but ultimately a very satisfying story of love and redemption from one of the best modern American authors.
    • 5/5
      Exceptional
    • 3/5
      This tale of divorce, remarriage and combination families seems to be very self-consciously told. I would have liked a deeper involvement with the characters. It has the premise of an old time family saga, but told with modern skimpiness.
    • 4/5
      It seems like a fairly regular day in Southern California: the day of young Franny Keating's christening party. When her father, Fix, opens the door, he's surprised to see Albert Cousins there. Fix, a cop, doesn't associate much with the DAs on his beat, and he certainly didn't invite Bert. But Bert has shown up with a bottle of gin--looking to hide from his own wife and children--and he soon joins the party, making drinks with Fix's beautiful wife, Beverly. By the end of the evening, Bert and Beverly have kissed, triggering a chain of events that will alter the lives of all involved.

      This is an expansive book, covering the lives of the intertwined Cousins and Keating families in a series of almost interconnected stories. They are linked, of course, and form the framework of Packer's novel, but almost seem as if they could stand on their own. They are also set against the backdrop of another Commonwealth: when Franny, then in her twenties, meets famous author Leon Posen, she tells him the many stories of her misguided family. He spins them into the tale of his novel, Commonwealth, forcing the family to face up to some of their most awful losses and decisions in the starkness of print.

      Some of the chapters of COMMONWEALTH aren't always particularly exciting, but they are poignant, and there is a deepness to them. They offer an amazing insight into these families-- an almost "behind the scenes" look at five or so decades of their lives. The varying viewpoints of the narrators helps as well, and you can watch a Cousin or Keating child age in just a couple of chapters. It's also interesting to watch the spouses--so changed by the affair--and how it's affected their lives.

      Overall, this is a lovely book, tender in many ways, and a little heartbreaking. It's not a page-turner, but it's beautiful and leaves you thinking.

      I received a copy of this novel from the publisher and Edelweiss (thank you!); it is available everywhere on 9/13/2016.
    • 5/5
      Perfect. Just perfect.
    • 4/5
      For me, reading Patchett is always a pleasure. Commonwealth is an unusually complex narrative, back and forth in time across two intersecting families (with part of the novel's narrative becoming a novel within the novel). What I love most about Patchett is the compassion she brings to her characters, and the careful attention to their idiosyncratic natures. In this work, there is also the fascinating interplay between memory and experience, which makes the final paragraph especially powerful. (Brian)
    • 3/5
      A rambling narrative with lots of names, first names, traveling back and forth in time and in the end not saying very much.
    • 3/5
      Commonwealth has one of the most memorable opening chapters -I immediate read it again to be sure no connections were missed.Finding my first favorite character in the hospital was unexpected and sad.Reading on, the rating dropped from a possible 5 to barely a 3,yet it could rate quite high as a bible for Therapists to give to clients contemplating an affair.Midway through the book, it felt like something was left out with Franny, Leon Posen, and the summer mansion:how could she not have said ANYTHING about her new servant role when they were in bed each night andwhy did she continue to accept it? Even low ambition and few goals don't account for this.She took better care of the lobsters than of herself.So much death and too many characters who don't make sense with all the ends tying up so neatly.Kumar and kids end up as my favorite characters.
    • 3/5
      Blended family story with an attempt to track 5 of the family members through their young lives. I didn't really identify with any of the characters and wonder if she didn't take on one or two more than she might have to.
    • 3/5
      This is my first Patchett novel and while I didn't love it, I wasn't necessarily disappointed either. It explores a divorce and how that affects the children involved. I really liked that Patchett leaves a decent amount for you to fill in the blanks. What bugged me most about this novel was probably the amount of characters and the length of the novel itself. There were a lot of characters involved, but the book wasn't very long. That left me feeling like there were some characters who I just never really had the chance to understand, because I never really had the time to know them. . . despite spending decades with them.
      A Line or Two: "For the vast majority of people on this planet. . . the thing that's going to kill them is already on the inside."
    • 4/5
      24. Commonwealth (Audio) by Ann Patchettreader: Hope Davispublished: 2016format: Overdrive digital audio, 10:34acquired: Libraryread: May 17-26rating: 4I like Ann Patchett and her clean prose that seems to always read well. [Commonwealth] is a book that accumulates attachment, and that has a lot of parts, and some parts work exceptionally well, and others don't work...or didn't for me. Initially I wasn't all that interested, but it was on audio and I didn't really mind it. Then I was loosely attached and then I was very much involved in all these characters and felt pretty good about the whole upon finishing. A plot summary won't do it justice. There are many kids from two marriages thrown together by parental affairs, divorces and second marriages. And they grow up each in their own way. They are children in the 70's and there is a lot of now, and a lot in between. And if there is a main point, I couldn't place my finger on it. I think the story is very personal and has echoes that go back into Patchett's own life, and her own parents divorce and east-west coast split. And, notably, having a police officer as a father. In her essay collection [This is the Story of a Happy Marriage] she has an essay about where she meets her father in California and goes through officer training as preparation for a book. I thought she had said in the essay she decided not to write the book (I don't know when the essay was written, but TSoaHM is from 2013.) This, it seems, is that book. note: The reader, Hope Davis, was excellent.
    • 4/5
      I was skeptical at first, and it may be a bit too self-conscious for some. Very much a writer's book for writer's. That said, some excellent observation of character and moments of insight and tension.