The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin
Oh the drama…
The premise – with narration that alternates between now and the past as well as from different points of view, we learn the story of the Skinner family. When dad dies, mom goes into a long depression which the children come to refer to as ”the pause”. During the pause, Renee, Caroline, Joe and Fiona manage through life parentless. During this time, they learn to rely on each other, to love each other and most of all, they learn how to keep secrets.
The book starts when Fiona (the youngest) is 102 years old, doing a speaking event about her best selling book of poetry, specifically her most famous poem, The Love Poem.
When asked about the inspiration behind the poem, Fiona enthralls the audience with the story of her life and that of her siblings…filled with sex, drugs, love, loss and, of course, secrets.
This book received very mixed reviews, but it seems that most of the low ratings were by people who didn’t like the content (drugs & sex – although nothing explicate!) or didn’t find the characters likable. While the characters are all flawed, I thought they were fairly loveable in a quirky sort of way. If you pick up this book, I’d be curious to know if you enjoyed it as much as I did!
Cocktails In The Library 