This week’s Shelf Awareness Maximum Shelf pick is Fran Littlewood’s THE ACCIDENTAL FAVORITE, a wryly resonant and deeply moving family dramedy investigating the question so many of us have asked ourselves: do my parents have a favorite?
Vivienne and Patrick Fisher have done an excellent job raising their three daughters, Alex, Nancy, and Eva. They’re well-adjusted women with impressive careers, caring partners, exciting hobbies, and sweet children. So it’s with great anticipation that three generations of Fishers gather at a beautiful glass house in the English countryside for a weeklong celebration of Vivienne’s seventieth birthday. But when Patrick’s reaction to a freak accident on the first day of the trip inadvertently reveals that he has a favorite daughter, no one is prepared for the shockwaves it sends through the family.
Decades-old unresolved sibling rivalries are suddenly unmasked. And be it newly uncovered smoking habits, ancient crushes, or private doubts about life decisions both big and small, no one’s secrets are safe. Still-tender wounds are reopened amid an audience of friends, husbands, grandchildren, and even coworkers, and as the family’s past is re-written, they find themselves suddenly unmoored.
In a lively, poignant examination of memory, sisterhood, and family ties, Fran Littlewood reminds us just why it is that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
“Employing spot-on dialogue and strong pacing, Littlewood explores the nuanced nature of sibling rivalry and the ways people will sometimes hurt the ones they love the most…
While the bonds between the siblings are undeniable, Littlewood renders each woman as a complex individual with her own desires, insecurities, and issues. In fact, the interweaving of their emotional truths is what gives this dramatic family story such depth. They are grappling with the idea that their father might have a favorite child, while they are also coping with being a woman in her 40s and all that entails…
And while there are moments that may stretch the bounds of realism, every dramatic image contributes to the reader’s understanding of and sympathy for these people and the very real mess they have found themselves in. Readers may think, ‘I would never do that,’ but they will not be able to deny the universal feelings unearthed in this fascinating look at one family and their complicated truths. Full of tender moments and thoughtful insights, THE ACCIDENTAL FAVORITE will be a favorite of readers, perfect for those with imperfect families—which is to say all of us.”—Shelf Awareness
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