Caroline's Daughters: A Novel

By Alice Adams

“Alice Adams writes with beautiful economy, an infallible sense of the telling detail—she can reveal more in a few sentences than most writers do in a bulgingly over-fed chapter.”  --San Francisco Chronicle
 
Once again, Alice Adams demonstrates her mastery of the family maze, her astonishing perception of the delicate and complex threads that bind us to one another.
 
Caroline Carter, “almost rich and almost old,” has five daughters from three marriages. As she assesses exactly what it means to be a mother to adult daughters, we follow them over the course of a year, in relation to their husbands and lovers. We see their deceptions, pleasures, triumphs, and setbacks. And we watch Caroline, as her own life changes irrevocably.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jun 8, 2011
• ISBN: 9780307798206

Alice Adams

Alice Adams has a BA in Philosophy from the University of Bristol and an MA from the University of Manchester, and since a stint as an analyst in the City has had fiction published in various places including The Times and Dark Mountain. This is her first novel. She lives in north London but escapes into the wilderness as often as possible.

Reviews for Caroline's Daughters

[seriousgrace · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have to preface this by saying this was a quick read. The characters keep you glued to the page. One of the major themes of Adams's Caroline's Daughters is dissatisfaction. To start with, Caroline has five daughters from three different marriages and each one couldn't be more different from the another. The only thing they really have in common, besides their biological mother, is the need for something more in their lives. Eldest daughter Sage is a failing ceramics artist with a philandering husband. What disturbed me about her story is that everyone around her knows her husband is a cheat but no one has that conversation with her. Overweight Liza is mother to three but wants to be a writer. She is the only one who is truly satisfied, relationship-wise...at least she thinks she is (stay tuned). Fiona is a restauranteur who really doesn't like food and can't keep a boyfriend. Jill, as a stockbroker lawyer, is fixated on wealth so much so she has prostituted herself for the excitement and extra cash. Portia, the youngest, simply doesn't know what she wants. Her sexuality as well as her entire life is ambiguous. True to all sibling rivalries, there is competition and jealousy among all five of them. In the midst of all this chaos is Caroline, powerless to help her daughters find their way. She has her own drama to deal with when her third husband suffers a debilitating stroke.

[annmariestover · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Though I found myself pulled into the story for the greater part of the book, the end left me feeling like I had wasted my time.

[briannad84 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I started to read this cause Nancy Pearl recommended it in Book Lust, but I just couldn't get into it! The author is good, very detailed and I'll still try the rest of the books she recomends, but I just didn't care for this one!