Strangers at the Feast, Jennifer Vanderbes
Strangers at the Feast, Jennifer Vanderbes
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Strangers at the Feast
A Novel

Author: Jennifer Vanderbes

Narrator: Renée Raudman

Unabridged: 10 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 08/09/2010

Categories: Fiction, Family Life


Synopsis

On Thanksgiving Day 2007, three generations of the Olson family gather. Eleanor and Gavin worry about their daughter, Ginny, an unmarried academic in her thirties with a newly adopted Indian daughter, and about their son, Douglas, who has recently been caught in the imploding real-estate bubble. But Ginny and Douglas, determined to have a perfect holiday, keep their troubles secret, a skill they have learned from their parents.

As old grudges, personality clashes, and a stove malfunction spiral the Olson's holiday into a tense and foodless afternoon, seventeen-year-old Kijo Jackson and his best friend, Spider, set out from the housing projects on a mysterious job. As these two families—one white, one black—head toward a violent and inevitable encounter, Jennifer Vanderbes masterfully lays bare the fraught lives of these fascinating characters and the lengths to which they will go to protect their families.

About Jennifer Vanderbes

Jennifer Vanderbes is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the recipient of numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a New York Public Library Cullman Fellowship. Her debut novel, Easter Island, was translated into sixteen languages, and her essays and reviews have appeared in the New York Times and the Washington Post. She lives in New York City.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Carol on October 13, 2015

What is it about Thanksgiving that makes it such a juicy setting for a dysfunctional family gathering? This was good and I plan to write a review later.........more

Goodreads review by switterbug (Betsey) on February 22, 2011

American mythologizing of Thanksgiving is still perpetuated--the idea of goodwill between Indigenous Americans and European "pilgrims" and the lie that America was founded on cooperation and integrity rather than eminent domain and genocide. The myth of the first Thanksgiving shapes and parallels th......more

Goodreads review by Trish on August 23, 2010

This book had many echoes for me, preceded as it is by a massive literature of family interactions. Perhaps it is this week's cover of Time magazine carrying the picture of Jonathan Franzen, but The Corrections comes to mind, as does Ian McEwan's Saturday. Strangers is an in-depth look at an ord......more

Goodreads review by Mar on June 16, 2011

This book pulled together so many themes and characters exemplifying contemporary American life that I admire the author. It's Thanksgiving Day in upscale Connecticut, and two generations of the family, divided by terrible secrets, come together to share the holiday. A second set of characters are u......more

Goodreads review by Jennipher on November 22, 2020

As I pulled the book off the shelf to read a couple weeks ago I was thrilled to open it up & discover that it’s a novel set on Thanksgiving day. How timely as I have been thinking of turkey and cranberries with the cool change of weather. We are introduced to the individual characters by their own c......more