Baby of the Family

Baby of the Family

by Maura Roosevelt
Baby of the Family

Baby of the Family

by Maura Roosevelt

Hardcover

$28.00 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    Qualifies for Free Shipping
    Choose Expedited Shipping at checkout for delivery by Thursday, March 21
  • PICK UP IN STORE
    Check Availability at Nearby Stores

Related collections and offers


Overview

A wry and addictive debut about a modern-day American dynasty and its unexpected upheaval when the patriarch wills his dwindling fortune to his youngest, adopted son—setting off a chain of events that unearths secrets and tests long-held definitions of love and family.
 
The money is old, the problems are new.
 
Meet the Whitbys: an American dynasty once inundated with ungodly real estate wealth and now facing a new millennium of unfamiliar obstacles.
 
There was a time when the death of a Whitby would have made national news, but when the family patriarch, Roger, dies, he is alone. Word of his death travels from the long-suffering family lawyer to Roger’s clan of children (from four different marriages), and the outlook isn’t good. Roger has left everything to his twenty-one-year-old son Nick, a Whitby only in name—and Nick is nowhere to be found.
 
Brooke, an older daughter who is both overwhelmingly nostalgic and unexpectedly pregnant, leads the search for Nick, hoping to convince him to let her keep her Boston home. Shelley, the only child from the third marriage, hasn’t told anyone that she’s dropped out of college just months before graduation and is currently working as an amanuensis for a blind architect, with whom she crosses complicated boundaries. And when Nick, on the run from the law after a misguided act of political activism, finally appears at Shelley’s New York home, worlds collide and explode in spectacular fashion. Soon, the three siblings are faced with the question they have been running from their whole lives: What do they want their future to look like, if they can finally escape their past?
 
Weaving together multiple perspectives to create a portrait of the American dream gone awry, Baby of the Family is a vivid, absorbing debut about family secrets and how they define us, bind us together, and threaten to blow us apart.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781524743178
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date: 03/05/2019
Pages: 464
Sales rank: 841,965
Product dimensions: 6.30(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Maura Roosevelt has taught critical and creative writing at NYU and the University of Southern California. She holds an MFA from NYU and a BA from Harvard College, and is currently completing a PhD at Teachers College, where she studies how to enhance students’ equity and access to writing education. Her work has been published in places like The Nation and Vol. 1 BrooklynBaby of the Family was developed from a short story with the same title, which was published in Joyland magazine and given an award for “Most Read Story of 2014.” Maura is also the great-granddaughter of Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Reading Group Guide

1. Wealth—whether it’s the loss or the preservation of it—is at the center of Baby of the Family. Which characters are motivated by monetary need? Why do you think that is? How does it change your opinion of them?

2. Baby of the Family is set in 2003, but the nods to the time period are subtle; there are cell phones, but not everywhere. Shelley’s relationship with Mr. Kamal exists pre-#MeToo. Even the style of political activism feels slightly different. Do you think the book would have been different had it been set in 2019?

3. Both Shelley and Nick are only children, yet Brooke is surrounded by and feels a connection to her other siblings as well. How does this factor into their approaches and reactions to the will, and one another?

4. There is a troubling imbalance of power in the relationship between Shelley and Mr. Kamal. How do you view Baby of the Family through the lens of the #MeToo era?

5. After so much time spent looking through the eyes of the Whitby family, Grace’s chapters are from the perspective of an outsider. Did her narrative give you a different way of interpreting the interconnectedness and dynamics of the Whitbys? Are the families similar in any way?

6. Did the meaning of the title change for you over the course of the book?

7. Did your definition of family or familial bonds change over the course of the novel? How do you think Nick, Shelley, and Brooke’s own definitions changed—or didn’t?

8. The Kamals’ and, to a lesser extent the Wainwrights’, are the only active marriages we see for most of the book. How do these relationships compare or contrast with Roger’s four failed marriages?

9. The Whitby legacy is based on real estate, and in Baby of the Family, there is an underlying theme of searching for home. By the novel’s end, do you believe any of the characters have found a lasting home or sense of belonging? Why or why not?

10. Brooke’s decisions regarding her pregnancy shine a sudden light on the mothers in the novel. What do you think their roles are in the story? How did they affect the way you saw the other characters?

11. Did the epilogue surprise you? In what ways?

12. The novel begins with Roger’s death, which creates shockwaves for the entire family. Do you think the children are able to grieve for him? How is their experience of losing Roger complicated by his actions in life? Do you believe they find resolution and closure by the end of the novel?

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews