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Flesh and Blood: A Novel by Michael Cunningham
Book Summary InformationAuthor: Michael Cunningham Edition: Paperback Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published) Published: 2007-04-17 ISBN: 0312426682 Number of pages: 480 Publisher: Picador
Book Reviews of Flesh and Blood: A NovelBook Review: Engrossing family saga Summary: 5 Stars
Covering many years and concluding well in the future, this family saga centres on the lives of three children, including the son who is gay, and their parents a Greek immigrant and his Italian wife.
Of the children, Susan readily marries to escape he father; Billy goes to Harvard; and Zoë takes up a free lifestyle in New York. Each finds love in his or her own way, and of course the problems that go with such. As the children in turn have children their lives become part of the saga. Each member of the family is a distinct and very individual character, from the down to earth, physical, abusive and self made patriarch Constantine, his sensitive wife Mary, the rather prim Susan, level headed Billy who is gay and perhaps the most endearing member of the family, and Zoë who is into free love and drugs. The one outsider to the family who figures strongly in the story is Cassandra, Zoë's flamboyant transvestite and very caring friend, and an appealing individual.
Between them they face innumerable troubles including divorce, abuse, illness, discrimination, drugs, AIDS, adultery, suicide, death, and family rejection. But these troubles are tempered with the more positive, essentially the love that binds a family, and the love that some find beyond the family, including gay love. As the saga draws to its conclusion way in the future it is the less conventional family members, those at times rejected, who come through with credit and prove to be the true survivors.
Flesh and Blood is an engrossing family drama with vividly drawn and diverse characters, a very moving and ultimately heart warming story.
Summary of Flesh and Blood: A NovelFrom the bestselling author of The Hours and Specimen Days comes a generous, masterfully crafted novel with all the power of a Greek tragedy. The epic tale of an American family, Flesh and Blood follows three generations of the Stassos clan as it is transformed by ambition, love, and history. Constantine Stassos, a Greek immigrant, marries Mary Cuccio, an Italian-American girl, and they have three children, each fated to a complex life. Susan is oppressed by her beauty and her father's affections; Billy is brilliant, and gay; Zoe is a wild, heedless visionary. As the years pass, their lives unfold in ways that compel them--and their parents--to meet ever greater challenges.
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