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Overview
The Cousins is a story of family in the nineties, and of a particular family of cousins who grew up together in a magnificent dreamlike summer estate, Mandelay, and who have now scattered all over the country to lives and families of their own, meeting only for events of family significance. When they are together they long for their vanished past, forgetting its dark secrets, knowing but not quite acknowledging they will never be able to create it again. One of them will not even be able to survive its memories and betrayals. It is a story of family loyalties and disloyalties, of secrets people keep from each other and from themselves, of choices, compromises, destruction and survival.From the bestselling author of Class Reunion comes a story of family loyalties and disloyalties, choices and compromises, destruction and survival. Fans of Rona Jaffe will love this wise and moving novel of family. Fine.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Once upon a time, Jaffe comfortably occupied a fictional territory pretty much all by herself: such bestselling fare as Class Reunion and The Last Chance sated readers' appetites for sexy domestic melodramas. But others moved onto this turf, many with franker and more graphic tales to tell. So now Jaffe may strike some as a trifle tamer, her small talk a little smaller. Her story of a wealthy department-store clan once held together by their summer manse but now scattered across the country seems almost familiar: nods of recognition may greet the Millers' criss-crossing encounters (at funerals, bar mitzvahs and the like), their grievances and their assorted peccadilloes. Twice-divorced cousin Olivia and her longtime companion Roger, veterinarians who share an N.Y.C. home, a practice and a comfy if unexciting life, anchor the proceedings; Roger strays and returns, Olivia does the same. But fictional familiarity can breed contentment, and though these cousins' distance from one another at times distances readers, too, the good news is that Jaffe has not lost her wit, her keen eye for human frailties and her ear for the small but telling remark. Though not bursting with excitement, Olivia and her relatives are an altogether agreeable lot. 60,000 first printing; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selection; author tour. (Sept.)Library Journal
In her previous novels, Class Reunion (LJ 5/15/79) and After the Reunion (LJ 8/85), Jaffe addresses troubled relationships and women who seek happier lives. The novel centers on Olivia Miller Okrent and her lover, Roger. The cousins of the title appear sporadically, gathering briefly for funerals and bar mitzvahs and then dashing off on exotic vacations. Olivia and Roger share a veterinary practice and a lovely townhouse. Their idyllic life is ruptured by Roger's succumbing to a sexual fantasy. Olivia, in turn, embarks on an affair of her own, all the while reflecting on her family ties and tensions. All is forgiven and forgotten by the last chapter. Fans may be disappointed that this novel never quite takes off, and the story is light fare even if it were summer reading. Purchase only where the author has a following.-Jan Blodgett, Davidson Coll., N.C.Book Details
Published
January 1, 1996
Publisher
Thorndike Pr
Pages
483
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780786205783