Family Drama
Rebecca Fallon
A vibrant debut and powerful meditation on family, motherhood, and the cost of holding on to your dreams, reminiscent of Ann Napolitano.
Itâs 1997, and snow is blanketing a New England beach. Two befuddled seven-year-olds watch as their motherâs body is tipped overboard a crumbling boat. A Viking funeral, followed by a raucous wake. A send-off fit for soap opera star Susan Bliss.
Fifteen years earlier, Susan is a blazing, beautiful young woman, passionate about her art. Itâs impossible not to fall in love with her, and so Alcott, a practical professor, doesâhopelessly. And so begins the love story of Susanâs two-paneled life, an unconventional, jetlag-filled arrangement that takes her back and forth between her home in New England as a wife and mother to young twins, and the bright lights of soapy Los Angeles.
In the present, Susanâs twins grow up in the shadow of her all-consuming absence. Sebastian, a sensitive artist, cleaves to her memory, fascinated with the artifacts of her starry past. Viola, resentful of her motherâs torn allegiances, distances herself from the memories of her. But when Viola runs into her motherâs old costar Orson Greyânow a renowned Hollywood starâshe finds herself falling deeply in love with him and begins to put together the pieces of a mother she never really knew.
Sharp, assured, and beautifully written, Family Drama is a story told in double-helix, with intertwined timelines that explore the different versions of ourselves we share with the world and with each other.
A vibrant debut and powerful meditation on family, motherhood, and the cost of holding on to your dreams, reminiscent of Ann Napolitano.
Itâs 1997, and snow is blanketing a New England beach. Two befuddled seven-year-olds watch as their motherâs body is tipped overboard a crumbling boat. A Viking funeral, followed by a raucous wake. A send-off fit for soap opera star Susan Bliss.
Fifteen years earlier, Susan is a blazing, beautiful young woman, passionate about her art. Itâs impossible not to fall in love with her, and so Alcott, a practical professor, doesâhopelessly. And so begins the love story of Susanâs two-paneled life, an unconventional, jetlag-filled arrangement that takes her back and forth between her home in New England as a wife and mother to young twins, and the bright lights of soapy Los Angeles.
In the present, Susanâs twins grow up in the shadow of her all-consuming absence. Sebastian, a sensitive artist, cleaves to her memory, fascinated with the artifacts of her starry past. Viola, resentful of her motherâs torn allegiances, distances herself from the memories of her. But when Viola runs into her motherâs old costar Orson Greyânow a renowned Hollywood starâshe finds herself falling deeply in love with him and begins to put together the pieces of a mother she never really knew.
Sharp, assured, and beautifully written, Family Drama is a story told in double-helix, with intertwined timelines that explore the different versions of ourselves we share with the world and with each other.