Families are curious entities. They are, by simple definition, households of individuals bound by common lineage. But they are also complex organisms, as these three novels show. Families nurture the individual and offer a refuge from the problems of the larger world, yet they can also impede the growth of their youngest members, who seek their own place in the world and attempt to shape their own responses to it.
The Lace Maker's Daughter by Gary Crew
Macmillan, $16.95 pb, 249 pp
The Never Boys by Scott Monk
Random House, $16.95 pb, 321 pp
The King of Whatever by Kirsten Murphy
Penguin, $18.95 pb, 287 pp
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Literary Lives
Interview
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