This award-winning author’s latest book is dripping with wealth and privilege
The Homemade God is the story of four adult siblings’ lives during the death of their father and in the aftermath. Aged 33 to 40 the siblings are particularly close and perhaps overly reliant and attached to their ‘Daddy’. Their father has unexpectedly married a much younger woman, Bella-Mae, but then mysteriously passes away.
Among the seeking of answers there are complex sibling dynamics and backstories, the impact of losing their mother so young and having an eccentric artist for a father, centred around the wealth they have all grown accustomed to.
The setting and descriptions of Lake Orta and the family house in Piedmont, Italy are so vivid that it is a character in itself. Joyce’s writing is superb so that you are fully transported into the story alongside the siblings. I was with them when they met Bella-Mae. I was with Susan when she got the news of her father. I could perfectly picture Netta in her big hat. It’s all very addictive.
While I feel I would have preferred the story if the siblings were all 10 years younger as, at times, I had trouble believing they could act so immaturely, the storytelling definitely won me over in the end.
An engrossing fly on the wall look into how the other half live. I will be on the lookout for more books by Rachel Joyce.
Reviewed by Sarah Krause
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
0 Comments