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Summary: ¿We don¿t belong to nobody in the end; nobody but ourselves"
Review: When Natalie and David decide to find their birth parents, the effects of their decision echoes outward like ripples in a pool of water. The eventual meetings with their respective mothers take on unexpected turns and produce surprising results, which neither of them could have expected. Trollope has done a good job at presenting the angst-ridden trials and tribulations of the British middle class in this subtle and fluid account of adoption, acceptance, and family relationships. Anyone who remembers the British television series Howards Way, from the nineteen eighties, is going to find a lot to like in Brother and Sister, as, like in the TV series, Trollope seems to almost revel in placing a tormented and beleaguered group of people in a situation, then watching them fight and shuffle amongst each other, just like a deck of cards. Although the decision to find your birth mother probably isn't as fraught with as much drama, anxiety and fretfulness as described in this story, the situation probably does come with a certain amount of hesitation, concern and emotional baggage. The narrative of Brother and Sister centers on a group characters, each revealing, through a series of interior monologues, and with surprising intuition, their fears and hesitations. Steven, Natalie's wife, is frustrated in marriage and is aware that time is seemingly bundling him forward, like someone impatiently, ceaselessly dribbling a football. He becomes attracted to a girl who interviews Natalie and finds that he has "so departed from all the codes of conduct he has followed all his life that he now finds himself in the middle of a maze." David, Natalie's brother, struggles with his savage sense of physical belonging. Part of him strays away and there is a part of him that is still engaged upon the lifelong struggle of discovering exactly who he was and how to live with that person. He's "sick of wearing labels that aren't his for years without complaint" and finding his birth mother is like relief, "like not having to keep going back to the past and like being freed from something." Similarly, Natalie needs to stop being this person of her own creation, stop feeling so separate, and find out what really happened. How could she have passed herself off - eloquently, frequently and confidently - as being one kind of person all these years when she was in fact quite another. Marnie, a complex character, and a Canadian transplant, is frustrated with her life in England, and as David's wife, is busy doing the loving, wifely thing in urging David and Natalie to find their birth mothers. Marine is constantly questioning the supreme maternal role she has chosen. Carole Latimer, David's birth mother, has been able to arrange and dispose of her desires, needs, and fears in such a way that they have not stalked her or haunted her. And her life with her husband Connor has been something satisfying, controllable and without menace. The scene where David first comes to her house for tea is probably one of the most emotionally charged and gut-retching scenes in the book. Her sister Betty thinks of Cora, Natalie's birth mother, as a child, and as someone who couldn't be expected to shoulder the full burden of adult life. She is either unable or unwilling to develop any further, and to "venture deeper into the world of expectation and feeling that might only bring more pain." And then there's Lynne, Natalie and David's adopted mother, who stoically shoulders the emotional burdens of all the characters. She adopted David and Natalie because she was scared of her private life thinning out until there wasn't anything there and she was left with "just the wanting." She feels proud that she took them into her home, schooled them, and taught them how to live in the world. Trollope's prose clean and precise, and her dialogue is honest and sincere. The narrative is nicely paced, and the story unfolds in a series of vignettes, as each character is gradually and methodically introduced. Readers, who appreciate intuitive, finely tuned, and sophisticated domestic melodramas are certainly going to enjoy, appreciate, and be pleased about Bother and Sister. Mike Leonard May 04
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Summary: A Bit Different
Review: When you upset the delicacy of a family, you never know what the outcome will be so when Nathalie and David agree to search for their birth mothers, the applecart turns upside down and we watch the apples tumble out. Everyone is affected by this decision. Their adoptive mother has serious concerns over her role in their life once they've met the women who gave birth to them. Their spouses have to sort through where they fit in the overall picture. The birth mothers have to face their past and decide how or if it will fit in with their present. Even the children of the two siblings feel the changes around them and react in their own way. Trollope tells a good story. Perhaps there are some issues that seem to be a little thin. I would have liked to know a bit more about the after affects to Cora and Carole, the two birth mothers. But overall, it's an interesting storyline and has some merit to it.
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Summary: Good news: Trollope back at her best with pen in fine fettle
Review: Whew, what a relief that this is a good novel, the sort of quality experience I expect from Trollope since her last novel (Girl from the South) was inferior. This one, however, is mighty fine reading and particularly involving. Definitely THE story for those interested in adoption from whichever view you want (adoptee, adopter, married to, sibling with, etc.). Wonderful book replete with the details, texture and ungovernable emotions of family life. Finest kind of reading. I have to say I learn from Trollope's novels and I mean that in a good way. When it comes to the family and our human hearts, Trollope has insights that entertain, sure, but which also are useful. Mind you, I hate that touch-feely stuff! but I love Trollope's novels.
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