The Most Fun We Ever Had: A Novel

by Claire Lombardo Narrated by Emily Rankin

Overview

A dazzling, multigenerational novel in which the four adult daughters of a Chicago couple — still madly in love after 40 years — recklessly ignite old rivalries until a long-buried secret threatens to shatter the lives they've built.

When Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson fall in love in the 1970s, they are blithely ignorant of all that's to come. By 2016, their four radically different daughters are each in a state of unrest: Wendy, widowed young, soothes herself with booze and younger men; Violet, a litigator-turned-stay-at-home-mom, battles anxiety and self-doubt when the darkest part of her past resurfaces; Liza, a neurotic and newly tenured professor, finds herself pregnant with a baby she's not sure she wants by a man she's not sure she loves; and Grace, the dawdling youngest daughter, begins living a lie that no one in her family even suspects. Above it all, the daughters share the lingering fear that they will never find a love quite like their parents'.

As the novel moves through the tumultuous year following the arrival of Jonah Bendt — given up by one of the daughters in a closed adoption 15 years before — we are shown the rich and varied tapestry of the Sorensons' past: years marred by adolescence, infidelity, and resentment but also the transcendent moments of joy that make everything else worthwhile.

Spanning nearly half a century, and set against the quintessential American backdrop of Chicago and its prospering suburbs, Lombardo's debut explores the triumphs and burdens of love, the fraught tethers of parenthood and sisterhood, and the baffling mixture of affection, abhorrence, resistance, and submission we feel for those closest to us. In painting this luminous portrait of a family's becoming, Lombardo joins the ranks of writers such as Celeste Ng, Elizabeth Strout, and Jonathan Franzen as visionary chroniclers of our modern lives.

Editorial Reviews

AUGUST 2019 - AudioFile

Narrator Emily Rankin's worldly voice complements Lombardo's heartfelt novel, which chronicles a forty-year marriage and the lives of the four daughters who are affected by it. David Sorenson and Marilyn Connolly met during college in 1975 and fell in love. By the spring of 2016, their daughters are facing difficult matters. Meanwhile, the Sorensons' marriage hasn't been easy, despite how it looks, and a secret could jeopardize the entire family. Rankin offers a dignified approach to her narration and provides precise depictions of each of the daughters, especially during turbulent moments. Her ability to intriguingly reveal family secrets and tenderly describe the closeness among the daughters makes this a compelling story of complicated family dynamics. D.Z. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

Lombardo's impressive debut is a gripping and poignant ode to a messy, loving family in all its glory. She juggles a huge cast of characters with seeming effortlessness, bringing each to life with humor, vividness and acute psychological insight.”
—Madeline Miller, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Circe

Library Journal

Winter 2018

Marilyn and David fall madly in love in the 1970s and stay in love through several tumultuous decades of raising four daughters: acidulous Wendy, widowed young; straight-arrow lawyer-turned-mom Violet; overlooked Liza, a professor fretting about her pregnancy and depressed boyfriend; and still unsettled Grace. A debut won in an eight-way auction.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171849108
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	06/25/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	200,049

Videos