[BOOK REVIEW] The Children’s Crusade by Ann Packer #TheChildrensCrusade

Compared to my previous read Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler this book had more depth and more meat. I also don’t get the low ratings and reviews but some reviews make a good point – still, in my opinion, I feel like this is a solid family saga novel.

The book follows the Blair family, four siblings: Robert, Rebecca, Ryan and James but also the parents: Bill and Penny (it’s mostly focused on the children but it has many interactions with the parents because we follow the children from a very young age). Now, you know there’s going to be drama because the last kid isn’t named with a letter R!! I’m kidding but not really. The novel deals with issues which are real such as sibling rivalry, attachment, detachment, jealousy, distant parents… The synopsis on Goodreads does a good job of giving you the skinny of the novel. The novel is an interesting exploration of a family with many layers in it from the above mentioned sibling rivalry, to the jealousy, distancing from the parents, damaged relationships etc. Every time I sat down to read I read around 80-100 pages in one sitting because of how invested I became in the story. Let’s discuss what I found the book was lacking: explanations, certain scenes which would help give the reader even more depth in regards to the ways certain characters felt towards one another. Having set the story where there’s a psychiatrist and two doctors in the family I expected more complexity when it comes to the intra and interpersonal relationships. I wish the author gave us more context rather than leaving us wondering about what might’ve caused this reaction and this scene. Maybe that’s me being lazy because I know some people love to wonder and analyse but I’d rather have more complexity inside the novel so I could analyse the characters better.

Issues aside I felt like this novel did a nice job in following the family saga rule: provide the reader with many years/decades and many situations where we can see the family interact and see the family grow in many ways (those are my rules at least). I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the story and in the genre.

My rating:

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Ann Packer was born in Stanford, California, in 1959, and grew up near Stanford University, where her parents were professors. She attended Yale University and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has received fellowships from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, the Michener-Copernicus Society, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

She is the acclaimed author of two collections of short fiction, Swim Back to Me and Mendocino and Other Stories, and three bestselling novels, The Children’s Crusade, Songs Without Words, and The Dive from Clausen’s Pier, which received the Kate Chopin Literary Award, among many other prizes and honors. Her short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and in the O. Henry Prize Stories anthologies, and her novels have been published around the world.

Beginning in 2016, Ann expanded her writing into film and TV, collaborating on these projects with her husband, the novelist and screenwriter Rafael Yglesias. They divide their time between New York, the Bay Area, and Maine.

Find her on: Website, Goodreads and Twitter.

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