Family life in literature
Encyclopedia
- Grant AllenGrant AllenCharles Grant Blairfindie Allen was a science writer, author and novelist, and a successful upholder of the theory of evolution.-Biography:...
: The Woman Who DidThe Woman Who DidThe Woman Who Did is a novel by Grant Allen about a young, self-assured middle-class woman who defies convention as a matter of principle and who is fully prepared to suffer the consequences of her actions. It was first published in London by John Lane in a series intended to promote the ideal of...
(published in 1895) (a "New WomanNew WomanThe New Woman was a feminist ideal that emerged in the late 19th century. The New Woman pushed the limits set by male-dominated society, especially as modeled in the plays of Norwegian Henrik Ibsen . "The New Woman sprang fully armed from Ibsen's brain," according to a joke by Max Beerbohm...
" has a child but refuses to get marriedMarriageMarriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
) - Nina BawdenNina BawdenNina Bawden CBE is a popular British novelist and children's writer. Her mother was a teacher and her father a marine.-Life:...
: The Birds on the TreesThe Birds on the TreesThe Birds on the Trees is a novel by Nina Bawden first published in 1970 about a middle-class English family whose 19 year-old son does not live up to his parents' expectations....
(son failing to live up to his parents' expectations) - Christine Bell: The Perez FamilyThe Perez FamilyThe Perez Family is a comedy film released in 1995, about a group of Cuban refugees in America, who pretend to be a family. It starred Marisa Tomei, Alfred Molina, Anjelica Huston, Chazz Palminteri, and other well known actors. It was based on the 1991 novel The Perez Family by Christine Bell...
(CubanHistory of CubaThe known history of Cuba, the largest of the Caribbean islands, predates Christopher Columbus' sighting of the island during his first voyage of discovery on 27 October 1492...
exiles in FloridaFloridaFlorida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
) - Kate Bingham: Mummy's Legs (three generations of women thinking they can do without men)
- Lily BrettLily BrettLily Brett is an award-winning Australian novelist, essayist and poet who now lives in New York City. Much of her writing deals with her Jewish family semi-biographically and with her feelings about the Holocaust....
: Just Like That (HolocaustThe HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
survivors and their children in contemporary New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
) - James M. CainJames M. CainJames Mallahan Cain was an American author and journalist. Although Cain himself vehemently opposed labeling, he is usually associated with the hardboiled school of American crime fiction and seen as one of the creators of the roman noir...
: Mildred PierceMildred PierceMildred Pierce is a 1941 hardboiled novel by James M. Cain. It was made into an Oscar-winning 1945 film starring Joan Crawford and a 2011 Emmy-winning miniseries starring Kate Winslet.-Plot :...
(ungrateful daughter) - Erskine CaldwellErskine CaldwellErskine Preston Caldwell was an American author. His writings about poverty, racism and social problems in his native South like the novels Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre won him critical acclaim, but they also made him controversial among fellow Southerners of the time who felt he was...
: Tobacco RoadTobacco Road (novel)Tobacco Road is a 1932 novel by Erskine Caldwell about Georgia sharecroppers. It was dramatized for Broadway by Jack Kirkland in 1933, and ran for a then-astounding eight years . A 1941 film version, deliberately played mainly for laughs, was directed by John Ford, and the storyline was...
(poor whites trying to make ends meet in the American South) - Ernest CallenbachErnest CallenbachErnest Callenbach is an American writer. Life & Work =Born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, he attended the University of Chicago, where he was drawn into the then 'new wave' of serious attention to film as an art form...
: EcotopiaEcotopiaEcotopia: The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston is the seminal utopian novel by Ernest Callenbach, published in 1975. The society described in the book is one of the first ecological utopias and was influential on the counterculture, and the green movement in the 1970s and thereafter.-The...
(greenGreen MovementThe Green Movement refers to a series of actions after the 2009 Iranian presidential election, in which protesters demanded the removal of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from office...
utopia devoid of conventional sexual morality) - Ivy Compton-BurnettIvy Compton-BurnettDame Ivy Compton-Burnett, DBE was an English novelist, published as I. Compton-Burnett. She was awarded the 1955 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for her novel Mother and Son.-Life:...
: The Present and the PastThe Present and the PastThe Present and the Past is a novel by Ivy Compton-Burnett about the head of a family who, although outwardly powerful and in charge, is suffering under the fact that he is being belittled and at some point even outright ignored by family and servants alike.-Plot introduction:After five years of...
and all her other novels (love, hate and incestIncestIncest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
in EdwardianEdward VII of the United KingdomEdward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
England) - Amanda CraigAmanda CraigAmanda Craig is a British novelist. Craig studied at Bedales School and Cambridge and works as a journalist. She is married with two children and lives in London....
: A Vicious CircleA Vicious CircleA Vicious Circle is a novel by Amanda Craig which dissects and satirizes contemporary British society. In particular, it describes the world of publishing -- its aspiring young authors, busy agents and opportunist literary critics...
and the other novels in her cycle (satireSatireSatire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
s of contemporary Britain) - Helen DunmoreHelen DunmoreHelen Dunmore is a British poet, novelist and children's writer. Educated at the University of York, she now lives in Bristol....
: Your Blue-Eyed Boy (the past catching up with a mother of two) - Jeffrey EugenidesJeffrey EugenidesJeffrey Kent Eugenides is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and short story writer. Eugenides is most known for his first two novels, The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex . His novel The Marriage Plot was published in October, 2011.-Life and career:Eugenides was born in Detroit, Michigan,...
: The Virgin SuicidesThe Virgin SuicidesThe Virgin Suicides is the 1993 debut novel by American writer Jeffrey Eugenides. The story, which is set in Grosse Pointe, Michigan during the 1970s, centers on the suicides of five sisters. The Lisbon girls' suicides fascinate their community as their neighbors struggle to find an explanation for...
(five sisters committing suicideSuicideSuicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
in quick succession in suburbSuburbThe word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
an America) - Joy FieldingJoy FieldingJoy Fielding is a Canadian novelist and actress. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.-Biography:Born in Toronto, Ontario, she graduated from the University of Toronto in 1966, with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature...
: Kiss Mommy GoodbyeKiss Mommy Goodbye- Plot :This novel concerns kidnappings by parents who did not get custody of their children.Donna Cressy loves her husband Victor but the love soon turns to hate when Victor starts mentally harassing her. This causes her to behave oddly owing to her trauma, and during the divorce proceedings a...
(divorceDivorceDivorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
, battle over custodyChild custodyChild custody and guardianship are legal terms which are used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent and his or her child, such as the right of the parent to make decisions for the child, and the parent's duty to care for the child.Following ratification of the United...
, and subsequent kidnappingKidnappingIn criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
) - David GatesDavid Gates (author)David Gates is an American journalist and novelist. His first novel, Jernigan , about a dysfunctional one-parent family, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. This was followed by a second novel, Preston Falls , and a short story collection, The Wonders of the Invisible World...
: Jernigan (dysfunctional familyDysfunctional familyA dysfunctional family is a family in which conflict, misbehavior, and often abuse on the part of individual members occur continually and regularly, leading other members to accommodate such actions. Children sometimes grow up in such families with the understanding that such an arrangement is...
headed by a hard-drinkingAlcoholismAlcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
, slightly paranoidParanoiaParanoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
father) - Kaye GibbonsKaye GibbonsKaye Gibbons is an American novelist. Her 1987 debut, Ellen Foster, received the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, a Special Citation from the Ernest Hemingway Foundation, and the The Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Prize in Creative Writing from...
: Ellen FosterEllen FosterEllen Foster is a 1987 novel by American novelist Kaye Gibbons. It was a selection of Oprah's Book Club in October 1997.-Plot introduction:The novel follows the story of Ellen, the first person narrator, a young white American girl living under unfavorable conditions somewhere in the rural...
(little girl looking for love and protection) - Jennifer HaighJennifer HaighJennifer Haigh is an American novelist and short story writer.She was born in Barnesboro, a Western Pennsylvania coal town 85 miles northeast of Pittsburgh in Cambria County. She attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Iowa Writers'...
: Mrs. KimbleMrs. KimbleMrs. Kimble is Jennifer Haigh's debut novel. Covering several decades from the 1960s to the late 1990s, it is about a man who marries three women and in turn ruins each of their lives. Accordingly, the book is about three rather than just one "Mrs. Kimble." Mrs...
(three women falling prey to a swindler) - Kent HarufKent HarufKent Haruf is an award-winning American novelist.-Life:Haruf was born in Pueblo, Colorado, the son of a Methodist minister...
: The Tie That Binds (several generations of a farming family on the Great PlainsGreat PlainsThe Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
of ColoradoColoradoColorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
) - Marlen HaushoferMarlen HaushoferMarlen Haushofer née Marie Helene Frauendorfer was an Austrian author, most famous for her only novel translated into English, The Wall. Haushofer was born in Frauenstein in Upper Austria. She attended Catholic boarding school in Linz, and went on to study German literature in Vienna, as well as...
: We Murder StellaWe Murder StellaWir töten Stella is a novella by Austrian writer Marlen Haushofer first published in 1958 about the death of the eponymous heroine, a 19 year-old woman who has just begun to experience her awakening sexuality...
(womanizing father) - Nick HornbyNick HornbyNick Hornby is an English novelist, essayist and screenwriter. He is best known for the novels High Fidelity, About a Boy, and for the football memoir Fever Pitch. His work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists.-Life and career:Hornby was...
: About a BoyAbout a BoyAbout a Boy is a 1998 novel by British writer Nick Hornby. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 2002.-Plot summary:The novel is about Will Freeman, a 36-year-old bachelor, and Marcus, an introverted, bullied 12-year-old who lives alone with his suicidal mother, Fiona...
(single mother suffering from depressionClinical depressionMajor depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
) - Josephine HumphreysJosephine HumphreysJosephine Humphreys is an American novelist.A native of Charleston, South Carolina, which is also the setting of her novels Dreams of Sleep, Rich in Love and The Fireman's Fair, Humphreys was educated at Ashley Hall , studied creative writing with Reynolds Price at Duke University , and went on to...
: Rich in LoveRich in LoveRich in Love is a 1993 drama film based on the 1987 novel with the same name by Josephine Humphreys. The film stars Albert Finney, Katherine Erbe, Kyle MacLachlan, Jill Clayburgh, Suzy Amis, and Ethan Hawke.-Plot:...
(wealthy Southern family experiencing an unexpected domestic crisis) - Marsha HuntMarsha Hunt (singer and novelist)Marsha Hunt is an American singer, novelist, actress and model.-Early life:Hunt was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1946 and lived in North Philadelphia near 23rd and Columbia then in Germantown and Mount Airy for the first 13 years of her life...
: JoyJoy (novel)Joy is a novel by Marsha Hunt about the relationship between two African American women which is based on secrets, lies, and delusion. Mainly set in a posh New York apartment in the course of one day in the spring of 1987, the novel contains frequent flashbacks that describe life in a black...
(family secrets) - Christopher IsherwoodChristopher IsherwoodChristopher William Bradshaw Isherwood was an English-American novelist.-Early life and work:Born at Wyberslegh Hall, High Lane, Cheshire in North West England, Isherwood spent his childhood in various towns where his father, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army, was stationed...
: All the Conspirators (evilEvilEvil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
mother) - P.D. James: Innocent BloodInnocent Blood (novel)Innocent Blood is a mystery novel by P. D. James.- Plot summary :A young woman, Philippa Palfrey, finds out that her father and mother are actually her adoptive parents. Her adoptive father, Maurice, is a lecturer at a school. He is also a spokesperson for the Young Socialists party and a writer...
(blood ties are stronger than anything else) - Tama JanowitzTama JanowitzTama Janowitz is an American novelist and a short story writer. The 2005 September/October issue of Pages magazine listed her as one of the four "brat pack" authors, along with Bret Easton Ellis, Mark Lindquist and Jay McInerney.-Life:Her parents, a psychiatrist father, Julian Janowitz, and...
: By the Shores of Gitchee GumeeBy the Shores of Gitchee GumeeBy the Shores of Gitchee Gumee is a satirical novel by Tama Janowitz about the Slivenowiczes, a trailer park trash family who are forced to leave their home in a polluted swamp area in upstate New York By the Shores of Gitchee Gumee (1996) is a satirical novel by Tama Janowitz about the...
(white trashWhite trashWhite trash is an American English pejorative term referring to poor white people in the United States, suggesting lower social class and degraded living standards...
heading for Hollywood to realize their American DreamAmerican DreamThe American Dream is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each...
) - Nella LarsenNella LarsenNellallitea 'Nella' Larsen Nellallitea 'Nella' Larsen Nellallitea 'Nella' Larsen (born Nellie Walker (April 13, 1891 – March 30, 1964), was an American novelist of the Harlem Renaissance. She published two novels and a few short stories. Though her literary output was scant, what she wrote earned...
: Passing (African AmericanAfrican AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
wife and mother torn between allegiance to her race and her friendship with another woman) - Eric MalpassEric MalpassEric Lawson Malpass was an English novelist noted for his humorous and witty descriptions of rural family life, in particular that of his creation, the extended Pentecost family. However, Malpass also wrote historical fiction, ranging in scope from the late Middle Ages to Edwardian England...
: Oh My Darling DaughterOh My Darling DaughterOh My Darling Daughter is a humorous coming-of-age novel by Eric Malpass first published in 1970. Set in the fictitious Derbyshire village of Shepherd's Delight during Harold Wilson's first term as Prime Minister , Oh My Darling Daughter is about the Kembles, a well-to-do, conservative and...
(a 17 year-old girl takes charge of the household when her mother walks out on her family) - Roland MerulloRoland MerulloRoland Merullo is an American author who writes novels, essays and memoir. His best-known works are the novels Breakfast with Buddha, In Revere, In Those Days, A Little Love Story, Revere Beach Boulevard and the memoir Revere Beach Elegy...
: In Revere, In Those Days (an 11 year-old boy, orphaned by tragedy, is adopted by a large, extended Italian-American family) - Nancy MitfordNancy MitfordNancy Freeman-Mitford, CBE , styled The Hon. Nancy Mitford before her marriage and The Hon. Mrs Peter Rodd thereafter, was an English novelist and biographer, one of the Bright Young People on the London social scene in the inter-war years...
: The Pursuit of LoveThe Pursuit of LoveThe Pursuit of Love is a novel by Nancy Mitford, first published in 1945. It is the first in a trilogy about an upper-class family in the period between the wars...
(eccentric aristocratic family spend the interwar years in Britain falling in and out of love) - Bharati MukherjeeBharati MukherjeeBharati Mukherjee is an award-winning Indian-born American writer. She is currently a professor in the department of English at the University of California, Berkeley.-Background:...
: JasmineJasmine (novel)Jasmine is a novel by Bharati Mukherjee set in the present about a young Indian woman in the United States who, trying to adapt to the American way of life in order to be able to survive, changes identities several times.-Synopsis:...
(IndiaIndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n immigrantImmigrationImmigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
ends up as the mother in a patchwork family) - Marge PiercyMarge PiercyMarge Piercy is an American poet, novelist, and social activist. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Gone to Soldiers, a sweeping historical novel set during World War II.-Biography:...
: Woman On the Edge of TimeWoman on the Edge of TimeWoman on the Edge of Time is a novel by Marge Piercy. It is considered a classic of utopian "speculative" science fiction as well as a feminist classic.-Plot summary:...
(feminist utopiaUtopiaUtopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
advocating complete equalitySocial equalitySocial equality is a social state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group have the same status in a certain respect. At the very least, social equality includes equal rights under the law, such as security, voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, and the...
between men and women) - Bernice RubensBernice RubensBernice Rubens was a Booker Prize-winning Welsh novelist.-Background:She was of Russian Jewish descent and born in Cardiff, Wales where she attended Cardiff High School. She came from a very musical family, both her brothers becoming well-known classical musicians. She was married to Rudi...
: A Solitary GriefA Solitary GriefA Solitary Grief is a novel by Bernice Rubens about a Harley Street doctor who cannot cope with his own life. Increasingly alienated from his wife and daughter, he also considers himself unable to help his patients any longer and decides to start a new life together with a newly-found friend...
(a father unable to cope with the fact that his child has Down's syndrome) - Matthew SharpeMatthew SharpeMatthew Sharpe is a U.S. novelist and short story writer.Born in New York City, but grew up in a small town in Connecticut.Sharpe graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio. Afterwards, he worked at US Magazine until he went back to school at Columbia University, where he pursued an MFA...
: The Sleeping FatherThe Sleeping FatherThe Sleeping Father is a novel by Matthew Sharpe first published in 2003 about an average middle-class American family struck by betrayal, separation, and illness...
(promiscuous mother leaves her family, father has a stroke) - Irwin ShawIrwin ShawIrwin Shaw was a prolific American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best-known for his novel, The Young Lions about the fate of three soldiers during World War II that was made into a film starring Marlon...
: Lucy CrownLucy CrownLucy Crown is a novel by Irwin Shaw first published in 1956. It is about a wife and mother—the eponymous character—who, in the summer of 1937, begins an affair with a young man whom the Crowns have hired as a companion for their fragile son Tony.Lucy Crown's deliberate act of infidelity...
(a married woman destroys her seemingly perfect marriage and alienates her son by having a fling with a young man) - Graham SwiftGraham SwiftGraham Colin Swift FRSL is a British author. He was born in London, England and educated at Dulwich College, London, Queens' College, Cambridge, and later the University of York. He was a friend of Ted Hughes...
: TomorrowTomorrow (novel)Tomorrow is a novel by Graham Swift first published in 2007 about the impending disclosure of a family secret. Set in Putney, London on the night of Friday, June 16, 1995, the novel takes the form of an interior monologue by a 49 year-old mother addressed to her sleeping teenage children...
(impending disclosure of a family secret) - Anne TylerAnne TylerAnne Tyler is an American novelist.Tyler, the eldest of four children, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her father was a chemist and her mother a social worker. Her early childhood was spent in a succession of Quaker communities in the mountains of North Carolina and in Raleigh...
: A Patchwork PlanetA Patchwork PlanetA Patchwork Planet is a novel by Anne Tyler. Published in 1998, it tells the story of Barnaby Gaitlin, anti-hero and failure who suffers from more than the usual quota of misfortune...
(a young father as the black sheep of the family)