The Voice of a [Millennial, Anxious] Generation: Claire Lombardo's 'Most Fun We've Ever Had'

            The week after I graduated college, I picked up a copy of Meg Wolitzer’s The Interestings and spent the better part of my first week in the free world devouring it by the pool [ah, to be young and unemployed]. Previously unfamiliar with Wolitzer’s work, I selected it based on its cover. Can you blame me? It’s stunning. I didn’t expect much more than a quick, beachy read that fit aesthetically into my social media grid, but, almost instantly, I was blown away by Wolitzer’s writing. The Interestings soared past Anthropology of an American Girl to the top spot on my ‘top ten’ books list.

Often times when I recommend books to my friends, they come back to me with one of two complaints: that the book was “too sad” or that “nothing happened.” I’m sorry, but is that not life? Existential ponderings aside, I’m always inclined towards an evocative, atmospheric novel over an action-packed literary experience. This is why I have trouble with movies and television shows; I’m not an obnoxious Luddite (I spend a significant chunk of my time watching ridiculous YouTube videos and stalking ‘Twitter comedians’), I just don’t derive any joy from a cut-and-dry introduction-climax-conclusion story. The Interestings, and Wolitzer’s writing in general, is one such example of this. I noted in my review of The Female Persuasion that Wolitzer has the uncanny ability to “mimic the cadence of life…vacillating between painful slowness and overwhelming speed, never fair of mild.” And it rings true. Life is languorous when you’re feeling impatient, breakneck when you’re already overwhelmed enough, thankyouverymuch, and Wolitzer’s talent at capturing this essence has long been unmatched. Until now.

            Pandora Sykes, my favorite journalist and general life role model, shares my propensity for both a realistically paced bildungsroman and a complicated family saga. So, when she recommended Claire Lombardo’s The Most Fun We’ve Ever Had and billed it as a work for those who loved The Interestings, I picked it up immediately (no small feat for a girl with scoliosis; it clocks in at just under five-hundred pages and is quite heavy).  As with The Interestings, I was riveted from the start. The Most Fun We’ve Ever Had takes place primarily in Chicago, where the Sorensen family lives. The story begins with David and Marilyn, matriarch and patriarch, still, much to the chagrin of their four daughters, openly and madly in love. From there, the story is split into four additional parts, each featuring one of the Sorensen daughters. Wendy, the eldest, is headstrong and occasionally cruel in a way that makes no sense until the story, chapter by chapter, peels back the layers of her traumatic past to almost entirely excuse her behavior. Violet, externally perfect but cold and insensitive, is not awarded the same reveal, until the book comes to a shocking conclusion that explains her hard shell. Liza and Gracie, the younger sisters, are softer and more open, pathetic in the traditional Greek sense of the word, both attempting to come to terms with their place in an ever-changing world, one in which their sisters and parents were old enough to establish themselves before social media shifted the parameters of romance, career, and self. Taking her cues from Wolitzer, Lombardo takes her time in revealing why each daughter is the way that she is; similar to the moments in life where you’ll be sitting silently and suddenly come to the realization that you did this because of that.

If you’re not one for spending hours immersed in someone else’s world without the reward of a major plot journey…then don’t purchase this book. But - if you’re interested in spending time in the psyches and lives of other (albeit fictional) families in order to perhaps learn a thing or two about yourself, this book might just be the most fun you’ve ever had.