Even in high school, India Allwood knew that she would be a great stage actor one day. So what if she couldn't sing, not all Broadway hit shows are musicals, are they? And India was certain that nothing could - or should - keep her from achieving her dream, not even giving birth to a baby girl during her senior year. So after helping to choose an adoptive mother for her daughter, it was off to New York to attend the prestigious Lenox University School of Dramatic Arts where history repeated itself. This time just before graduation India gave birth to a son for whom she picked out what she believed would be wonderful parents for him.
In the present day, India Allwood is a TV superstar with two adopted children of her own and a hit TV series that gives her the opportunity to star in a movie about a subject dear to her: adoption. India believes that too many books, movies, and TV shows portray adoptions as tragedies for all involved, and having experienced it herself now from both sides of the adoption equation, she wants to change the narrative by making a movie with a more positive message about the experience. Unfortunately, India admits out loud one day to an interviewer that the movie itself is not really very good. And now she is receiving criticism not only from studio executives afraid that she has killed the movie's prospects, but from some who want to hear a stronger pro-choice message from her and others who want to hear a stronger pro-life message. India is learning quickly that is impossible to appease those on both sides of that argument at the same time.
It surely cannot get more complicated than that. Oh, but it does.
First Rebecca, India's 16-year-old biological daughter decides to come to India's rescue via a TikTok video that immediately goes viral. Then her adopted twins, Fig and Jack (especially Fig who loves the idea of having an older sister), team up with Rebecca to enlist India's biological son, Lewis, to the cause. Well, you get the idea. Suddenly, India has more support than she can handle: her four children, Rebecca's adoptive mother, Lewis's two adoptive fathers, Rebecca's biological father, and Lewis's biological father. Keeping up?
No longer does being cancelled from her chosen career seem to be the most important thing in India's world. She and her bunch are about to figure out that you don't have to share blood to be family, that you don't have to be family family in order to be part of a family.
Unfortunately, this very worthy message seems a little heavy-handed at times, and even my favorite characters never quite seem real. Because of its quirky characters Family Family reads more like comedy than drama, and somehow that serves to lessen the impact of the book's message about the infinite number of ways that a family can be formed. This is one of those books I wanted to like a lot more than I ended up liking it. Rating: 3 Stars
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| Laurie Frankel jacket photo |
That's quite the quirky family she amasses. Sorry you didn't end up liking this one a little more.
ReplyDeleteIt surprises me that I didn't, Lark, because I really enjoyed some of the children characters in the books, the really precocious ones, especially. But my overall impression is that it jumped the shark at some point and seemed to be trying too hard to get the message across. I do like Laurie Frankel as an author, though, so I'll be back.
DeleteYes, I think I'd be a bit so-so about this one too. Rather too much going on by the sound of it and I think it's best if a book either treats a topic seriously or it doesn't, halfway in between does not always work.
ReplyDeleteProbably right, Cath. The book has a very serious message and theme, and the comedy and the antics of the children seemed to lessen the impact and clarity of the message at certain points despite the author's personal experience with the adoption process and all of its implications and inherent obstacles to be overcome.
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