Reviews

Among Family by Marie NDiaye

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bougainvillea's review against another edition

4.0

I really enjoyed this book, even though it left me feeling confused. I've never been so intrgued by a book that revealed so little.

abbie_'s review

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dark emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Among Family is a strange and twisted novel about conformity and belonging, and the lengths people will go to get those things - and deny them to others.

Although never explicitly stated, there are undercurrents of racism running through this book, what I took to be the reason behind Fanny’s family pushing her away. At the very start of the novel, her extended family rename her, unwilling or unable to remember or properly pronounce her real name. There are constant references to it being ‘strange’ and multisyllabic, but is never uttered during the book, reinforcing Fanny’s desperate desire to accept what her family throws her and try to fit in. She is looked down upon, called offensive insults (again, never actually written down, the author will literally just state ‘they hurled that vile name at her again), and is frequently referred to as looking similar to her fiancée George who has what NDiaye calls ‘a distinctive feature’ which sets him apart from the other presumably white inhabitants of the village. All of this dancing around the topic sounds strange but is actually very effective the more you read, forcing you to read between the lines and infer what is going on.

Fanny’s family is so afraid of being seen as even slightly different or as anything less than the perfect family, no matter what is going on underneath the surface. One aunt even professes to wanting to orchestrate her husband’s affair, given that his lack of subtlety risks the neighbours finding out and that would be ten times worse than the affair itself. It comes out that they also disapproved of Fanny’s mother’s marriage, going so far as to cut off one of their sisters for trying to help the mother out. Image and reputation are everything in the tiny villages they inhabit, and anything or anyone that threatens to tarnish those things must be banished.

Among Family is filled with surreal, dream-like episodes and unexpectedly grisly bouts of violence, all told in NDiaye’s circuitous, repetitive (in a good way), hypnotising style. This one is one of her earlier works and I think you can tell. It doesn’t feel as polished as Ladivine, and it took me a good 100 pages to get invested.

I’m really looking forward to continuing my journey through NDiaye’s work as she has such a unique style, unlike anything I’ve come across before!

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