Review: There’s too much here . . .
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 27, 2014
. . . for just a few sentences to suggest.  Let’s just say that Ms. Friedmann conducts the symphony through a sonata of great fiction in this unforgettable historical novel.  Wonderful characters jump off the pages, grab you by your imagination and won’t let go.  Bernie, Letty, and Darby take turns shedding light on the complex relationships in one of the most dysfunctional families, no, societies, to be found anywhere.  It’s not a family breaking apart, it’s a family held together in competitive, cruel games where each member is trying to ‘win,’ and there’s no win-win involved in this particular dynamic.  The musical tones of endlessly entertaining dialogue lead into minor chords and failed harmonies that refuse to resolve into what a reader might be ready to settle for, I think because Friedmann is going for something bigger.  Bernie ties himself to the New Orleans Adlers because he loves Letty, and Letty stays in New Orleans to try to make her parents respect her, and daughter Darby tries to understand them both, succeeding mostly.  Letty’s mother and father only stop needling each other when they join forces to try to undermine Letty’s marriage or Bernie’s business.  And then the rich young girls from the exclusive school that Darby has to attend step forward playing the kettle drums as the smoke and fireworks explode over the stage and leave us all silently shuddering.