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A review by jg1876
Family Affair by Caprice Crane
2.0
I was lucky enough to win a copy of Caprice Crane’s new book, Family Affair: A Novel from a Goodreads contest. After reading the promising description and the endorsements from Booklist, Jen Lancaster, and Publisher’s Weekly, among others, I was really looking forward to reading this book.
The premise of Family Affair: A Novel involves Brett and Layla Foster, who met when they were in high school and married about five minutes after graduating from college, in Brett’s words. As they grew up together, Layla adopted his family and they adopted her, as she has no family of her own. The story stems from there, asking what happens when a couple who have been together since high school begin to grow up – can they grow up together or will they grow apart? When Brett asks for a divorce, Layla files for custody – of his family.
As much as I wanted to like this book, I was ultimately disappointed. It had no direction – often times, it seemed actions were performed by Brett and Layla simply for the shock value – i.e. Brett bringing a date to a Layla-begun tradition just to irk Layla, Layla chasing Brett and his family down and filing kidnapping charges to the police officers standing nearby, and so on. Toward the end, something happens to a major family character (though there are hints of it earlier on in the book) and it becomes predictable what will bring Layla and Brett back together. Even the custody argument begins to lose luster halfway through the book and is given a sort of last kiss of life toward the end when it has become redundant.
I often felt that the humor in the book could have been more developed. All the gags and shock moments were a bit quick to the punch line, leaving little time for the characters really to flesh themselves out as opposed to just being good stand-ins for a joke. For me, the more ridiculous moments felt better suited to a visual stage than a literal, almost as though it would have been easier to watch these interactions and laugh rather than read them. I actually spent more time tearing up for the characters than I did laughing at them, though admittedly, there was one incident involving a Mudball and a supermarket run that made me giggle.
I would have liked to see the humor become a little more focused, as well as the plot line, rather than “Well…how can I make these characters even more ridiculous and over the top than they already are?” On a similar note, while Crane’s effort to differentiate the character’s voices is admirable, they didn’t always feel authentic to me. I didn’t feel Brett was all that masculine in voice; I felt more like he was a depiction of what women want men to do when a break up is involved, as he constantly kept thinking about Layla and how wonderful she was. I can understand that Crane would want to create a sense of regret to lead to the inevitable conclusion, but it felt heavy-handed to me.
There are several side lines that are humorous without having any relation to Layla and Brett’s relationship: Layla’s pet photography business encounters a number of ridiculous moments, but again, the humor wasn’t as well developed as I would have liked. I was hoping for more surprises outside of the silly arguments and exchanges, but they never came.
Perhaps the most compelling moment comes when the entire family, biological and not, come together when it is uncovered that a family member is ill. It was in those moments that you begin to see Layla and Brett for who they really are, and not the disgruntled spouses trying to one-up one another as they do throughout the book. Brett begins to sound more like the Brett he’s been described as, and not what the author wants him to embody. I almost wonder if having the family crisis come earlier would have made a difference in my disappointment with the book.
All in all, Family Affair: A Novel was a quick and easy read, but it’s not one that I’ll be picking up again any time soon.
The premise of Family Affair: A Novel involves Brett and Layla Foster, who met when they were in high school and married about five minutes after graduating from college, in Brett’s words. As they grew up together, Layla adopted his family and they adopted her, as she has no family of her own. The story stems from there, asking what happens when a couple who have been together since high school begin to grow up – can they grow up together or will they grow apart? When Brett asks for a divorce, Layla files for custody – of his family.
As much as I wanted to like this book, I was ultimately disappointed. It had no direction – often times, it seemed actions were performed by Brett and Layla simply for the shock value – i.e. Brett bringing a date to a Layla-begun tradition just to irk Layla, Layla chasing Brett and his family down and filing kidnapping charges to the police officers standing nearby, and so on. Toward the end, something happens to a major family character (though there are hints of it earlier on in the book) and it becomes predictable what will bring Layla and Brett back together. Even the custody argument begins to lose luster halfway through the book and is given a sort of last kiss of life toward the end when it has become redundant.
I often felt that the humor in the book could have been more developed. All the gags and shock moments were a bit quick to the punch line, leaving little time for the characters really to flesh themselves out as opposed to just being good stand-ins for a joke. For me, the more ridiculous moments felt better suited to a visual stage than a literal, almost as though it would have been easier to watch these interactions and laugh rather than read them. I actually spent more time tearing up for the characters than I did laughing at them, though admittedly, there was one incident involving a Mudball and a supermarket run that made me giggle.
I would have liked to see the humor become a little more focused, as well as the plot line, rather than “Well…how can I make these characters even more ridiculous and over the top than they already are?” On a similar note, while Crane’s effort to differentiate the character’s voices is admirable, they didn’t always feel authentic to me. I didn’t feel Brett was all that masculine in voice; I felt more like he was a depiction of what women want men to do when a break up is involved, as he constantly kept thinking about Layla and how wonderful she was. I can understand that Crane would want to create a sense of regret to lead to the inevitable conclusion, but it felt heavy-handed to me.
There are several side lines that are humorous without having any relation to Layla and Brett’s relationship: Layla’s pet photography business encounters a number of ridiculous moments, but again, the humor wasn’t as well developed as I would have liked. I was hoping for more surprises outside of the silly arguments and exchanges, but they never came.
Perhaps the most compelling moment comes when the entire family, biological and not, come together when it is uncovered that a family member is ill. It was in those moments that you begin to see Layla and Brett for who they really are, and not the disgruntled spouses trying to one-up one another as they do throughout the book. Brett begins to sound more like the Brett he’s been described as, and not what the author wants him to embody. I almost wonder if having the family crisis come earlier would have made a difference in my disappointment with the book.
All in all, Family Affair: A Novel was a quick and easy read, but it’s not one that I’ll be picking up again any time soon.