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Overview
Joanna Trollope delves into the dynamics of stepfamily life and introduces us to two couples whose relationships are complicated by the enriching-and sometimes enraging-presence of others. From the grown daughter who insinuates herself into her widowed father's romantic life, to the sullen teenager whose loyalties lie with her estranged mother; from the awkwardness of tense celebrations to the discovery of surprising sources of strength, this novel is "a bittersweet tale of the painfully divided affection created whenever a stepfamily is formed." (Kirkus Reviews)
Synopsis
With The Best of Friends, American readers have taken Joanna Trollope into their hearts. That critically-acclaimed novel has climbed bestseller lists around the country and garnered raves from reviewers like Good Housekeeping who said that she "captures the poignant rituals of family attachment and detachment with delicious wryness and large doses of empathy." But with Other People's Children--a number 1 bestseller in England--she brings her work to a bold, new level, with a novel of rare seriousness and depth, about a subject that hits readers right where they live. Here, she delves fearlessly into the emotional dynamics of family life--or rather, life in that ever-expanding unit, the stepfamily. With her sensitive eye and unerring ear, she explores the hard-won truths and often harder-to-overcome difficulties of coping with present and former husbands and wives, and above all, with other people's children. And sometimes it becomes painfully clear that good intentions--and even love--are not enough. Joanna Trollope's understanding of the human condition and empathy with the frailties of her characters are unmatched. No one goes more fearlessly into the emotional and practical dynamics of family life, nor offers such bittersweet truths mixed with hopeful solutions. So moving, so provocative, and so unforgettable is the portrait she has created in Other People's Children that American readers and reviewers are sure to fall in love with Joanna Trollope all over again.
New York Times Book Review - Linda Barrett Osborne
[A]s set of vulnerable, maddening, often likable characters goes about the work of forging new families amid the disruptions that come when people remarry and are forced to raise — and love — kids who have little reason to love or trust them in return.
Editorials
Linda Barrett Osborne
[A]s set of vulnerable, maddening, often likable characters goes about the work of forging new families amid the disruptions that come when people remarry and are forced to raise — and love — kids who have little reason to love or trust them in return.—New York Times Book Review
From The Critics
Trollope seems more concerned here with delivering knowledge than literature, but that doesn't prevent her from breaking your heart.Publishers Weekly -
A skilled artisan of nuance and insight reveals a vigorous new edge as she explores the painful and contentious arena of stepfamilies. Here Trollope focuses on three women and two men who wrestle with new family configurations, along with their six children, ranging from eight to 28. When Josie marries Matthew, she already has experience as both a mother and stepmother, and she feels prepared for the impending battles with Matthew's difficult and bitter ex-wife, Nadine. But her patient determination crumbles as Matthew's three children turn sullen, mutinous and downright nasty to Josie and her eight-year-old son, Rufus. "Has it ever struck you that stepchildren can be quite as cruel as stepmothers are supposed to be?" Josie asks her sister-in-law, who later observes, "Everyone seems to expect so much of women it nearly drove you mad." Things seem at first to be a lot easier for Josie's ex-husband, Tom, an architect who has two other children besides Rufus (Tom's first wife died suddenly when his children were small). In no time Tom has a fianc e, the calm and reasonable Elizabeth, whom Rufus (who visits Tom regularly) seems to like rather well. It is Tom's 25-year-old daughter, Dale, who can't bear to see her father passionately in love. The narrative moves back and forth between Josie and Elizabeth as the latter finds her new life in sudden turmoil; the spare, dramatic revelation of Dale's psychological hold on Tom injects Hitchcockian suspense. Though Trollope's wry intelligence supports the plot, her command of raw emotional content--her portraits of the children, for example--is equally impressive. The urgency of her vision adds clout to this affecting drama. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections; Penguin audio; author tour. (Apr.) FYI: Berkley will publish The Best of Friends in March. Trollope will be Writer in Residence at Victoria magazine during 1999.Library Journal
Best-selling English writer Trollope, who has a following here as well, has the knack of rendering people's lives with infinite clarity and truth. Here she plumbs the effects of divorce and remarriage on children, as Josie and Matthew marry and try to create a family with her son and his three children. This is no Brady bunch, but the emotionally messy world of children and adults is so palpably real that the reader will know them as well or better than their own children. Those who have read Trollope e.g., The Best of Friends, LJ 5/15/98 know that her endings are never simple, happily ever after, and one outcome here seems similar to that in The Men and the Girls. Nevertheless, her writing and characterization place her far above the commonplace. Highly recommended. --Francine Fialkoff, Library JournalJonathan Yardley
Her characters are at once vexing and endearing, which is to say fully human.— The Washington Post
USA Today
Trollope knows how to build suspense of the heart.Linda Barrett Osborne
[A]s set of vulnerable, maddening, often likable characters goes about the work of forging new families amid the disruptions that come when people remarry and are forced to raise — and love — kids who have little reason to love or trust them in return.— The New York Times Book Review
Linda Mallon
[Trollope] is an observant chronicler of middle-class domestic mess, and she knows how to turn a tale...There are no heroes in this novel and no obvious villains, either. Just believably normal people trying to get it right. The endings are not necessarily happy, but they have the ring of truth.— USA Today