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A review by ms_gouldbourne
Mum & Dad by Joanna Trollope
3.0
I found Joanna Trollope's Mum & Dad to be a pleasantly middle of the road read; nothing to write home about or particularly recommend to anybody else, but certainly enjoyable enough to while away a morning. It earns a solidly average three stars from me - good enough to take on holiday, definitely not good enough to read twice.
In Mum & Dad, we are introduced to Gus and Monica Beacham, a middle-aged English couple running a vineyard in Spain and struggling to maintain relationships with their three adult children. Gus Beacham is cantankerous and controlling; it was his vision that saw the couple emigrate while their children were still teenagers, leaving the eldest two in school in England. His long-suffering wife Monica struggles with his bad temper and foul mouth, running the shop attached to the vineyard and feeling sorry for herself about the state of her life. When Gus unexpectedly has a stroke, it sends Monica's world crashing to the ground.
Enter the three Beacham children. Sebastian, the eldest, is a henpecked husband to Anna and feels sidelined and ignored by his two teenage boys. Katie lives with her long-term partner Nic and worries about her sour relationship with her mother, when she's not worrying about her three daughters. And Jake, the youngest, flirts with the world and doesn't worry about anything at all, least of all his wife Bella and their baby daughter Mouse.
Trollope builds tension well in the opening chapters of the book; the Beachams are dysfunctional without being truly at odds with each other. I enjoyed the different dynamics that played out between the characters - the generational misunderstandings between Katie and Monica, Sebastian's slow awakening to the state of his marriage, and the long-standing and loving connection between Pilar and the entire Beacham family. Trollope is clearly a master at layering all the small pieces that make up a character so that they blend together into an entirely realistic turmoil of past history and present resentments.
At times, the characters were in danger of wavering into unlikeable territory, but for the most part Trollope saved them at the last moment. There were some characters I would have liked to have seen more of - Daisy, in particular, was given so much less of a voice than she deserved - but for the most part I felt that the protagonists were well-developed. Indeed, there were times I wished I could see a bit less of certain characters - Monica's constant whinging and crying, while all the time rejecting the support of the children who loved her best, was absolutely insufferable. And perhaps Gus secretly just wanted people to stand up to him, but that didn't make him any less detestable.
Plotlines, too, were resolved a little too quickly for my liking, with everything wrapped up within a few neat chapters at the end. After decades of resentment and poor communication, a new status quo between the family members was reached almost instantaneously, which felt unrealistic and a departure from the slow, introspective feel of the rest of the book. Jake, in particular, practically got away with murder - and I'd been so looking forward to seeing him get his comeuppance! Tensions were spackled over, solutions found to every problem, and I found myself frustrated with the easy way the characters folded into their new lives, as if, having understood that they had reached the end of the story, they had given up on having personalities in order to be obliging to the author.
Overall, however, I found Mum & Dad generally inoffensive and pleasant to read. Will I be picking up any more Joanna Trollope? I mean, if I'm bored at the dentist's office and it's the only thing lying around in the waiting room, then sure - but I won't be searching her out.
In Mum & Dad, we are introduced to Gus and Monica Beacham, a middle-aged English couple running a vineyard in Spain and struggling to maintain relationships with their three adult children. Gus Beacham is cantankerous and controlling; it was his vision that saw the couple emigrate while their children were still teenagers, leaving the eldest two in school in England. His long-suffering wife Monica struggles with his bad temper and foul mouth, running the shop attached to the vineyard and feeling sorry for herself about the state of her life. When Gus unexpectedly has a stroke, it sends Monica's world crashing to the ground.
Enter the three Beacham children. Sebastian, the eldest, is a henpecked husband to Anna and feels sidelined and ignored by his two teenage boys. Katie lives with her long-term partner Nic and worries about her sour relationship with her mother, when she's not worrying about her three daughters. And Jake, the youngest, flirts with the world and doesn't worry about anything at all, least of all his wife Bella and their baby daughter Mouse.
Trollope builds tension well in the opening chapters of the book; the Beachams are dysfunctional without being truly at odds with each other. I enjoyed the different dynamics that played out between the characters - the generational misunderstandings between Katie and Monica, Sebastian's slow awakening to the state of his marriage, and the long-standing and loving connection between Pilar and the entire Beacham family. Trollope is clearly a master at layering all the small pieces that make up a character so that they blend together into an entirely realistic turmoil of past history and present resentments.
At times, the characters were in danger of wavering into unlikeable territory, but for the most part Trollope saved them at the last moment. There were some characters I would have liked to have seen more of - Daisy, in particular, was given so much less of a voice than she deserved - but for the most part I felt that the protagonists were well-developed. Indeed, there were times I wished I could see a bit less of certain characters - Monica's constant whinging and crying, while all the time rejecting the support of the children who loved her best, was absolutely insufferable. And perhaps Gus secretly just wanted people to stand up to him, but that didn't make him any less detestable.
Plotlines, too, were resolved a little too quickly for my liking, with everything wrapped up within a few neat chapters at the end. After decades of resentment and poor communication, a new status quo between the family members was reached almost instantaneously, which felt unrealistic and a departure from the slow, introspective feel of the rest of the book. Jake, in particular, practically got away with murder - and I'd been so looking forward to seeing him get his comeuppance! Tensions were spackled over, solutions found to every problem, and I found myself frustrated with the easy way the characters folded into their new lives, as if, having understood that they had reached the end of the story, they had given up on having personalities in order to be obliging to the author.
Overall, however, I found Mum & Dad generally inoffensive and pleasant to read. Will I be picking up any more Joanna Trollope? I mean, if I'm bored at the dentist's office and it's the only thing lying around in the waiting room, then sure - but I won't be searching her out.