Friday, March 9, 2012

Family by Micol Ostow - PUBLIC


Ostow, Micol. Family 376 pgs. Egmont USA $17.99, 2012. Rated R for graphic violence and sexual references. Mel is broken. She comes from a broken family and when she meets Henry he offers to be her everything. It seems too good to be true and Mel loves her new life and loves being part of a family, but has second thoughts when her “family” asks her to commit unspeakable acts of violence against someone she doesn’t know. 

The content of the book was strange and the format was written in a stream of consciousness format. There are few punctuation marks and capital letters are reserved for Henry and references to him e.g. Him He His. It was hard to get into the book, but once I did I could see a whole counterculture of people living like Henry and Mel and the rest of the “family” members. It’s a sad commentary on society and what people can be driven to do and accept based on their upbringing. PUBLIC ONLY. Shauna, reading teacher.

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