We Are the Brennans

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A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism. In the vein of Mary Beth Keane’s Ask Again, Yes and Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney's The Nest, Tracey Lange’s We Are the Brennans explores the staying power of shame—and the redemptive power of love—in an Irish Catholic family torn apart by secrets. When twenty-nine-year-old Sunday Brennan wakes up in a Los Angeles hospital, bruised and battered after a drunk-driving accident she caused, she swallows her pride and goes home to her family in New York. But it’s not easy. She deserted them all – and her high school sweetheart – five years before, with little explanation, and they’ve got questions.

I will absolutely been adding Lange’s future novels to my Must Read list. In the meantime, I highly recommend you add We Are The Brennans to yours. Throughout the course of the novel we will learn many of the things that the siblings and parents have kept from each other. This only seems to strengthen them as they fight to keep the pubs and their family intact!! We Are the Brennans” is literary domestic fiction at it’s finest. This is author Tracey Lange’s debut novel, and selfishly, I hope she writes more of the same quality fiction. The story is broken up into chapters, each narrated a different character. The chapters move so smoothly from one narrator to the other that the story just flowed. Rather than grumping about the bad decisions that are made, either actively or by not acting when acting would have been the only right decision, I couldn't help wanting this family to get find a way to get through to each other. They love each other but it seems that their love sometimes leads them to distance themselves physically and emotionally from the very person/people they care about the most. Sunday’s twin], was the executor of Sunday’s secret. …they had a special twin-bond. He was an artist (painted)…Sunday wrote stories. When the two were together talking about books and art…nobody could get in their way.

Such a conflicting intro. Ask Again, Yes was an absolute slog to get through, but I loved The Nest, so I was a bit guarded going in to this one. Now everyone has questions for Sunny but she's not the only Brennan family member with something to hide. This family is brimming with secrets!

The Bennans are a close-knit Irish family, three boys, one girl, and a larger-than-life father. The family is a noted family of their sleepy New York commuter town; the family was financially well-off. The boys were athletes, handsome and hard working. The daughter, Sunday, was devoted to caring for her family when her mother became frail. In other words, the Brennans were the envy of their town. I had the pleasure of listening to the audiobook narrated by Barrie Kreinik, who once again delivers a stellar performance. I have listened to this narrator on three previous occasions, each one resulting in a unique experience from her range of voicing and accents.I love a complicated family story and the more melodramatic the better. It's an emotional journey for this Irish Catholic family and once their secrets begin to spill, they just keep coming! In the 5 years that she has been gone Kale has married Viv and they have a son, Luke. On seeing Sunday, all of Kale’s feelings for her begin to resurface, jeopardizing the family life that he has created. He never knew the reason why Sunny left, no one did!! When twenty-nine-year-old Sunday Brennan wakes up in a Los Angeles hospital, bruised and battered after a drunk driving accident she caused, she swallows her pride and goes home to her family in New York. But it’s not easy. She deserted them all―and her high school sweetheart―five years before with little explanation, and they've got questions. Told from multiple perspectives, I was curious about each one of the family members, along with Denny’s business partner, Sunday’s ex-fiancé. They all just seemed decent human beings making bad decisions.