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Hello From The Gillespies (2014)

by Monica McInerney(Favorite Author)

4.01 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

0451466721 (ISBN13: 9780451466723)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

NAL Trade

review 1: I was provided an advance e-copy of this book from NetGalley and Penguin Group Berkley for an honest review.Angela Richardson and Nick Gillespie have a whirlwind romance, marry and take up residence on a large Australian sheep ranch. The story begins 33 years later. The Gillespies have four children; 30+ year-old closely bonded twin girls, a 20+ year-old high-strung drama queen and a 10 year-old whoops child named Ignatius.The story includes the usual cranky eccentric wealthy relative who visits bringing disharmony and emotional distress. Old boyfriends are tossed into the mix to bring romance, sex and drama.Nick, a 4th generation Gillespie sheep rancher, does a poor job of running the ranch during several years of drought. His financial mess has him severely depresse... mored and he withdraws from his wife thinking he is shielding her from stress. He secretly finds a solution to his financial woes by leasing half the farm to a mining company.Angela is the antithesis of a helicopter mom trying to micromanage her family and senses that all is not what it seems and worries about her children's future. She sinks into her own depression. A older neighbor, Joan, seems to be the only adult in the story and provides a much needed shoulder to the family through its copious crises.Thus the story begins with Angela struggling to compose her usual cheery Christmas letter and finds herself unable to do it. Each of her children are mired in some self-induced career crisis. Her husband has become a recluse and seemly obsessed with documenting his Irish genealogy. The old Aunt, the nosy bossy busybody, will dampen the holiday spirit when she arrives. Angela decides to just "tell it like it is" and vents in an email draft. Ignatius (Ig) misbehaves and accidentally cuts off his finger. While Angela is off seeking transporting Ig to a medical facility, Nick wanders into the office finds the annual Christmas letter ready to be sent out, doesn't read it and does Angela a favor transmitting the letter.The most unusual Christmas letter ignites a firestorm that eventually spreads to every corner of their lives. Neighbors are distressed to learn that the natural environment will be disturbed by mining, the embarrassing personal lives of each of her children are publicly aired, Angela's true feelings for the 80 year-old Aunt are revealed. Angela accuses her husband of an affair with the online genealogy researcher. She further reveals her thoughts that she might have been better off marrying an old boyfriend and living in London rather than moving to Australia.Angela experiences mysterious headaches throughout all this family drama. She travels alone to Adelaide to see a specialist and lies to her family about extensive medical tests in order to have some free time to reflect on her families problems. She has an car accident that leaves her with amnesia. Her fantasy life with her old childhood boyfriend becomes her new reality.The 600 page story now ricochets from one drama to another. My feelings are this. I was captivated for the first 100 or so pages. I loved the concept of the openly honest Christmas letter. After a while, however, I was just overwhelmed with the family drama; there was just too much going on. I believe there were too many elements woven into the story to cover any of them adequately. The inevitable perfect ending just didn't seem real but contrived.
review 2: The Gillespies are a family living on a sheep station in south Australia. It's a family of 2 parents and 4 children ranging from a 10 year-old boy to 32 year-old twins. The family is gathering together for Christmas when the story starts. Angela Gillespie has written an annual Christmas letter to friends and family which always starts "Hello from the Gillespies." These letters come to play a crucial role in the story. The book is a fun reading experience, and the story is well-crafted and moves along quite nicely. The character portraits are, without exception, well-drawn. I was immediately drawn into the story, and I always wanted to see what comes next. The stark beauty and sometimes extreme climate of Australia is always present as a background to the story. The sky, light, and climate are beautifully evoked, and I found myself using my phone to call up pictures of things like a galah (a beautiful bird with some shocking pink in its feathers), saltbush (a desert bush), and goanna (lizard). I love books in which I can flesh out the narrative like this, and I've recently been drawn to a lot of Australian fiction. The book is a lively and fun reading experience with frequent flashes of humor. I enjoyed it very much. less

Download links for: Hello From the Gillespies

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