Has Next of Kin ever been on Oprah's book list? If not, it should have been. Almost a perfect choice for Oprah, although perhaps not quite grim enough.Until about 2/3rds of the way through I thought - I don't dislike this book but I don't quite like it either. I began to like it better as I read to the end but probably not enough to read another book by this author.It's the story of a just barely middle-class English family who love their farm and their way of doing things more than anything else, more than they love one another. Certainly more than they love "strangers" who have married into their family. Not that their farm is prosperous or that the land gives much back to them, but it's what they know and, for them, it's life. They are proud and unyielding and unwilling/unable to change and are emotionally shut-down. Carry on!Then, as must happen in order to have a story, change comes unbidden: two deaths and a 20-something, totally open, totally-in-the-moment young girl comes into their lives. Is this a story of redemption? Not quite, I don't think, but the younger generation may learn to shake the shackles of the past and help the older generation a bit.
A book about a farming community, that opens with the funeral of Robin's wife Caro. It's the start of a difficult time for the rest of the family, particularly his daughter Judy. Her friend Zoe - an uncomplicated, spontaneous kind of girl - wants to visit the farm, and then finds herself drawn back to the people and situations. She's the catalyst for a lot of changes.There are complex relationships, and financial problems as well as some farming discussion which I mostly skimmed through. Pleasant light reading with believable people.
