Hello From the Gillespies by Monica McInerney
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hello From the Gillespies

Wow. You think you're reading one book, a book you've read before, in many lovely iterations, the women's fiction, family saga, comfort novel. Then it looks like maybe there's a book within a book? Then there's a completely different twist altogether! I loved it!

All is not sweetness and light in the Australian outback, and for once in her thirty-three year marriage, Angela hangs it all out there in the annual Christmas letter, airing the family laundry. Her husband's become obsessed with his Irish roots, but he's not talking about anything else--like how much financial trouble are they in? Her twin daughters need to do a lot more growing up--they're in their thirties. Their youngest daughter bounces from job to job, further in debt all the time, and their ten-year-old son, the surprise, is talking to his imaginary friend again. No wonder she needs a fantasy life to relieve her worry and stress! Of course she didn't really plan to email her inmost worries to those hundred close and far-flung friends, but circumstances intervened, and the letter went out. And friends are taking it much better than family…

What will all this fresh air blowing through the cracks in the family bring? Healing and bridging the gaps, or huffing and puffing and blowing the Gillespie house down? With the charm and humor that have caused comparisons to Maeve Binchy, Monica McInerny has penned a winning soap opera of a story that reads quickly despite its length. If, as one reviewer said, this isn't her best, I'll be even happier to read her other books! Highly recommended!
(I received an EARC for review from NAL and Netgalley)


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