This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud

 

This novel follows the lives of one family over seventy years.  Gaston and Lucienne Cassars are separated during World War II and Lucienne take the couple's two children, Francoise and Denise, back to the couple's homeland of Algeria.  Gaston joins them after the war but when Algeria receives its freedom from France, the family is forced to leave and resettle in France.  Gaston and Lucienne portray the epitome of true love although Gaston is much younger than his wife.  Their marriage sets the goal for their descendants.

Francoise marries Barbara, who is much different than the family and who regards the closeness as obsessive and needy.  They have two daughters, Chloe and Lou-Lou.  Denise never marries and is prone to unspoken crushes that can last years and periodic nervous breakdowns.  Over the years to please Barbara, Francoise moves his family from France to Canada to Australia to the United States.  He becomes a business success although his boyhood dream had been to become an author.

This book was released to much anticipation and has been selected as one of this year's Booker Prize longlist.  The Cassar family's story is based on the author's own family history although probably not the final climatic twist.  The theme is that history will change, lives will change but family is all.  The reader will determine if Messud manages to demonstrate that theme or if family causes issues that could be avoided with less emphasis on family relationships.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.