After reading Blue Sisters, I’ve been really interested in reading books about families. They can get messy, but the emotions and motivations are interesting to read about. That’s why This Is Not About Us caught my eye. Today I want to tell you about this book and what I thought.
A big thank you to Netgalley and The Dial Press for providing me with an eARC to read and review. This doesn’t affect my opinion in any way.
A kaleidoscopic portrait of a modern American family—steadfast, complicated, begrudging, and loving—from the bestselling author of Isola
Was this just a brief skirmish, or the beginning of a thirty-year feud? In the Rubenstein family, it could go either way.
When their beloved sister passes away, Sylvia and Helen Rubinstein are unmoored. A misunderstanding about apple cake turns into a decade of stubborn silence. Busy with their own lives—divorces, dating, career setbacks, college applications, bat mitzvahs and ballet recitals—their children do not want to get involved. As for their grandchildren? Impossible.
With This Is Not About Us, master storyteller Allegra Goodman—whose prior collection was heralded as “one of the most astute and engaging books about American family life” (The Boston Globe)—returns to the form and subject that endeared her to legions of readers. Sharply observed and laced with humor, This Is Not About Us is a story of growing up and growing old, the weight of parental expectations, and the complex connection between sisters—a big-hearted book about the love that binds a family across generations.
Review
Most of us know that family can be complicated and that’s something I enjoy seeing in books. It’s interesting to read about a family and everything they’re going through. How certain relationships develop, people change, and how this affects others is something that fascinates me. So This Is Not Us really caught my eye.
This Is Not About Us follows different generations of a Jewish American family after a family feud that starts after a family member passes and someone makes apple cake. I think that shows us how simple things can make relationships complicated and how that seeps through to other aspects in family dynamics. We see the family process grief. celebrate holidays, new relationships, and even different family traditions. This family felt real and the characters felt like people you could run into while out and about.
The book has chapters that focuses on a different family member and they don’t seem interconnected other than them being part of the same family. Which is what made it hard for me to connect to these characters. I enjoyed the stories while reading them, but I’m not sure how memorable this will be for me a year from now. I do feel like this is a book many people will be able to relate to and can love. I do want to read more by this author.
This Is Not About Us definitely proved to me again that I love reading about families. Do you have any recommendations for me? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.
