"In the most vivid chapter of Ann Patchett’s rich and engrossing new novel, “Commonwealth,” it is 1971 and six step siblings ranging in age from 6 to 12 years old have been left to their own devices. Their blended family is on a car trip, staying in a motel near a lake, and the parents — the beautiful, overwhelmed mother of two of the girls and the affably selfish father of two more girls and two boys — have left a note that reads We’re sleeping late. Do not knock. Thus the children eat breakfast at a diner, then gather supplies, including soda, candy bars, a gun and a fifth of gin, and hike to the lake, where they spend several hours swimming and leaping from a high rock.
Patchett wisely underplays the drama — the chapter is a masterly example of showing rather than telling — and the increasingly shocking details speak for themselves.Her observations about people and life are insightful; and her underlying tone is one of compassion and amusement. If “Commonwealth” lacks the foreign intrigue of “Bel Canto” or “State of Wonder,” both of which took place in South America and contained more suspense, this novel, much of which unfolds in American suburbs, recognizes that the passage of time is actually the ultimate plot. As anyone who has attended a high school reunion knows, people themselves don’t need to have been doing anything particularly interesting in order for their lives to generate interest, so long as you run into them at infrequent enough intervals. Patchett also skillfully illustrates the way that seemingly minor, even arbitrary decisions can have long-lasting consequences and the way that we often fear the wrong things."
NY times book review September 2016
Michele hosted the Dinner Party
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