Good Family

I just finished Good Family by Terry Gamble.  Published in 2005, this is not a new book, but until I picked it up at my mom's it was new to me.  I'm glad I picked it up at my mom's.

Maddie Addison is the baby of her family.  Born in the late 1950's, she lives in Pasadena, CA, but spends her summers on the exclusive, WASPY Sand Isle in Lake Michigan where traditions, appearances and good taste are everything. (As Maddie's Aunt Pat liked to say of anyone flouting these rules: '"NOCD" for "not our class, dear"'.) But underneath the veneer the flaws lurk, as flaws tend to do, and Maddie's alcoholism, failed marriage and unbearable personal tragedy have served to estrange her from her family and the expectations on Sand Isle. After a long eleven years she is now returning to the family summer home, to the bedside of her dying mother, her quirky cousins and her memories.

Good Family by Terry Gamble is a story for everyone, for don't we all wish for the perfect family, and don't we all know that there is no such thing? It takes a crisis to reunite Maddie with her family. Craziness, conflict and redemption ensue, and in the end Maddie realizes there is no escape from the ties that bind us to our family tree, no matter how twisted and gnarled the branches are.