Slow to start ... Once the story is set up, the conflicts build enough momentum to sustain the narrative ... What Fallon has successfully highlighted is the conflict any ambitious creative person feels when it comes to raising a family ... An exploration of how a person can have competing desires and the damage serving more than one ambition can create. Fallon has found a compelling way to tell that story, and as the novel progresses, so does the reader’s longing for an answer.
The story moves gracefully across timelines ... While occasionally overindulging the dramatic – numerous mementos are, quite unnecessarily, burned, sliced, and drowned – these pages are filled with love, even as that love is strained and misshapen. Fallon’s faith in sincerity is disarming ... What keeps Family Drama from collapsing into melodrama is Fallon’s exquisite attention to physicality ... A soap opera may deal in illusion, but Family Drama returns us to the body – as proof of love, damage, and the inheritances parents leave behind, willingly or otherwise.
Fallon’s striking debut delineates the whipsaw nature of duality ... Assured in her craftsmanship, radiant in her compassionate characterizations, Fallon invites comparisons to Ann Patchett, Ann Napolitano, and Anne Tyler.
Aptly titled ... Fallon’s debut intertwines the lives of the members of the Bliss family, unwrapping how Al and his children seek closure years after Susan’s death. Recommended for readers who enjoy contemporary family sagas.
Strange and unforgettable ... Told in an elegant double-helix of intertwined timelines, Family Drama is a sharp, emotionally astute meditation on ambition, motherhood and inheritance. Fallon writes with assurance and restraint, capturing the ache of unfinished relationships and the multiplicity of selves we present to the world.
Brilliant ... Assured ... Fallon adeptly depicts the different ways Viola and Seb deal with their mother’s death and how it shapes their lives. Fans of Ann Patchett and Claire Lombardo will love this emotional story.
