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    The Way the Family Got Away
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    The Way the Family Got Away
    Unavailable
    The Way the Family Got Away
    Ebook121 pages1 hour

    The Way the Family Got Away

    By Michael Kimball

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    In Michael Kimball's chilling first novel, The Way the Family Got Away, two siblings, a girl aged three and boy aged seven, try to comprehend the death of their infant brother. The story takes place on the road, as their family runs from their grief on a long and painful journey to their grandfather's house, slowly selling off all of their worldly possessions as they go. The children develop careful coping mechanisms to escape the grief and instability of their lives. The girl finds a new family in her dolls and plays out her own pain in the lives she creates for them; the boy makes a meticulous inventory of their trip, cataloging the names of the towns they drive through, the things they leave behind in each of them. Writing through the eyes and language of the children, Kimball tries to make sense of loss, love, and death in this poetic and profound work.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury USA
    Release dateNov 6, 2012
    ISBN9781620402184
    Unavailable
    The Way the Family Got Away
    Author

    Michael Kimball

    Michael Kimball is the author of The Way the Family Got Away, How Much of Us There Was and Dear Everybody, and his novels have been translated into a dozen languages. His work has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered and in the Guardian, Vice, Bomb and New York Tyrant. He is also a documentary filmmaker. http://michael-kimball.com/index.html

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    Reviews for The Way the Family Got Away

    3.5/5

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    • 3/5
      This book is about a family who are making their way from Mineola, Texas to Bompa's house in Gaylord in their car, trading their clothes and other possessions for petrol as they go. The family are a mother, father, brother and sister. We learn early on that the family have recently suffered the death of the youngest baby son from yellow fever, and have decided to move away for a fresh start at Bompa's house, shedding all reminders of their past life as they go. In their profound grief, they take the body of the youngest son with them when they leave Mineola, digging it out of the grave and keeping it in the boot of the car during their journey.The bereavement has a severe effect on the family, and the children seem to feel that they themselves are being stripped away as they lose more and more of their toys and clothes to other children. The mother trades away her wedding dress and wedding rings, while the father gives away his wallet and the contents of the glove box. They are empty, and seem to be trying to get rid of their grief by getting rid of every physical possession that made them what they were before. They hope for a new baby to make the family complete again.The unusual thing about this book is the narration. Each chapter is told in turns by the little boy and the little girl, both of whom have distinctive ways of understanding what is happening to them, and they relate events in ways that make you think carefully about what is actually happening, and are quite heartbreaking at times. The little girl for instance, uses her 'doll-family' to act out how she'd like her 'people-family' to be - her voice in particular gives the book an individuality and a warmth, but at the end of the day, this is a story about tragedy and loss that is worth reading for the children's perspectives on their journey.