The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo

 

Reviewed by Kristin

While browsing Tennessee READS for an audiobook, I came across The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo. I almost didn’t check it out because I had never heard of the author (despite the fact that this debut was a New York Times bestseller—I just missed it!) and also it was long—20 ½ hours! The cover was attractive though, with four yellow ginkgo leaves lying in a vertical line with the title overlaying the image. The title itself is also a little non-descript, but I decided to give it a try. I’m glad I did.

David Sorenson and Marilyn Connolly met, fell in love, married, and started a family, all in quick succession. David is a young doctor and is struggling to build his family practice. Marilyn is almost done with her own degree when first daughter Wendy is born, and she quickly decides that balancing exams with motherhood is too difficult. Not to mention, second daughter Violet comes along less than a year later. When Liza arrives there are three, and then a decade later there is Grace.

The story moves back and forth in time, telling the Sorenson’s story in pieces. David and Marilyn remain madly and demonstratively in love with each other through the decades, creating a “perfect” relationship model. With their parents seeming so happy, the girls question whether they will ever find true love. Despite their common roots, each of David and Marilyn’s daughters grow up to be very different and unique people.

Wendy is an independent soul from the start. Wendy married a wealthy, somewhat older man and then is widowed all too soon. At first, this is presented a bit stereotypically with a lot of alcohol and an extravagant lifestyle, but as the story progresses we learn more about both the happiness and the pain Wendy has endured.

Violet is definitely a type A personality, making straight A’s, going to college and law school, and eventually becoming a stay-at-home mom who manages her family’s schedule as if she’s still billing in six minute increments. Tightly wound, Violet still has insecurities that she tries to hide from everyone, perhaps even herself.

Liza is overshadowed by her older sisters, but manages to become a tenured professor in her early 30’s. She has been living with Ryan for almost a decade, and they are having a baby. But Ryan won’t get off the couch, and living with someone who is likely clinically depressed is wearing on Liza.

Grace has finally left the family home in Chicago, going to college in Oregon and then applying to law schools on the west coast. She is the furthest away geographically, and perhaps the one most uncertain of herself. Grace feels the pressure of measuring up to her older sisters who have always thought of her as the baby.

And there is Jonah. The baby given up for adoption fifteen years ago by one of the daughters, who is back in their lives after a series of events which left him in foster care for most of his life.

This cast of characters is woven together with strands of love, but pulled and pushed in different directions with the stresses of their situations and the decisions they have made. Lombardo’s writing is moving, and she skillfully reveals motives for characters’ previous actions at just the right moments. This is a family saga worth reading; yes, even over several hundred pages or many hours in the car.