REVIEW for The Family Man

A huge, huge thank you goes out to the wonderful Elinor Lipman for sending me a copy of her newest book!!!

TITLE: The Family Man

AUTHOR: Elinor Lipman

GENRE: Contemporary Fiction

RATING: 4 Stars

I love, love Elinor Lipman - ever since I "discovered her writing" through The Inn at Lake Devine, I have been an avid follower of all of her books. I was thrilled when The Family Man was released. The storyline, is once again, both a little 'out of the norm' and touching at the same time. Lipman has a way of taking a somewhat difficult situation and turning it on its ear - all the while making the characters and the storyline touching and making me feel as though I want to root for everyone involved.

In Family Man, Lipman tackles the subject of a gay man who is trying to reconnect (although even he does not know that he wants this initially) with the family that he lost. As we get to discover Henry, Denis (his ex-wife who is in mourning) and Thalia the child that he left behind, we are confronted with three main characters that are flawed, but at the same time are human and I found myself wanting these people to re-connect.

Lipman writes a touching, touching novel about these people who are confused, but are also sincere in wanting to be closer to each other - they discover that they all truly do love each other - albeit, not in the way of a standard mom, dad and daughter do!!! Lipman also adds a ton of humour to her story and I loved this. It was not uncommon for me to have a tear in my eye reading one passage and then start giggling a few pages later!

I loved this story of redemption and true love - nobody is perfect and nothing is really what it seems.