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Family Dynamics Explored As Sisters Raise A Baby

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By STEPHANIE REBEIN

Published: November 25, 2007

"The Faraday Girls: A Novel," by Monica McInerney (Ballantine Reader's Circle, $13.95)

"The Faraday Girls" is the story of a father, five daughters and a granddaughter, set primarily in Australia, spanning about 28 years. Leo Faraday, widowed when his daughters were still young, is dumbfounded to learn his youngest daughter, Clementine, is pregnant at age 16.

He's even more surprised when Clementine and her four sisters decide to band together as a team to raise the baby and live at home until the baby is at least 5 years old.

After Leo agrees with the plan, the story moves forward by detailing the logistics they agree upon for sharing child care and household duties.

Readers also quickly learn something about the daughters: Juliet, the eldest, is the family caretaker and chef. Miranda, next oldest, is the glamorous, witty one of the bunch. Eliza is a determined jock. Sadie is the undecided student who eventually blossoms into the baby's primary caretaker.

Clementine is the brainy scientist.

The baby, Maggie, is a charming child who becomes the apple of her family's eye, status that continues into her adulthood.
Family tensions abound, romantic partners come and go and, after a shocking event, one sister separates from the family.

With clear, simple prose, Monica McInerney slowly develops a cast of characters that entertains while illustrating how large family dynamics often work. By the end of the novel, the diverse characters come to feel like friends one would like to have. But there's also a sense of wanting to know more of their story.

Stephanie Rebein of Kansas City, Mo., is a book reviewer.

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