The House We Grew Up In

Lisa Jewell wrote a very interesting  book called The House We Grew Up In. The story revolves around the Bird family. Lorelei is the matriarch of the family and she is beautiful and creative and always living in the moment.  Colin is the gangly father who teaches at a local college. Meg is the eldest child and she is pragmatic and organized. Next is Beth who is a little dreamy and quiet. Last come the twin boys, Rhys and Rory. Rhys is the youngest and the smallest. He doesn't have many friends. Rory is handsome and athletic and he has tons of friends. They live in the country, in the Cotswalds in England. They love to celebrate Easter. Lorelei will hide chocolate eggs wrapped in shiny foil in the yard and the kids go and find them. "Save the foil!" says Lorelei which is my first clue that she is a hoarder. One Easter a tragedy strikes the family and every one of them think it's their fault. As the kids grow up and move away the family grows distant. They don't speak to each other anymore. In the end the surviving members of the family do come back to the house that they grew up in. Now they are speaking to each other and loving each other. I thought the author did a nice job detailing the effect the hoarding has on the other members of the family. Meg, for example, keeps a super clean house and will take a tea cup to be washed before the person drinking the tea was finished. She wants to be the opposite of her mother. I enjoy a family drama and this was a great book.