Book Review of Family Album by Danielle Steel

Name of book: Family Album

Author Name: Danielle Steel

ISBN:  0-440-23686-X

Publisher:  Dell

Type of book: Adult, family saga, 1940s-1980s?

Year it was published: 1985

Summary:

Through forty years—from Hollywood's golden days in World War II to the present—Faye Price would create first a career as a legendary actress, then a family, and finally she would realize her dream of becoming one of Hollywood's first woman directors. But nothing was more precious to Faye than her five children. In a changing world, a milieu where family values are constantly challenged from without and within, the Thayers would face the greatest challenges and harshest test a family can endure, to emerge stronger, bound forever by loyalty and love. It is only when Faye is gone that they can each assess how far they have come, and how important their family album is.

Characters:

For the most part characters are not very consistent, and she only gives surface to them. Everything else about them is constant repetition. They are not consistent, the characters that is, and there is repetition and only surface is seen. (Yes it's like that.) When Faye finds out that Lionel is gay, Danielle Steel describes her being shocked and repulsed with gay community, but she accepts Lionel head on. Good for her, but it might have been more realistic if Faye took a few months to get over the shock and then accept her son. (Unless the parents are super-aware that their children might be possible homosexuals, I doubt they accept it in just a few hours or minutes.) To some extent sometimes characters change. (Ward hated that Lionel was gay and he even banned him from home, that changed though.) By page 300, I couldn't stand reading it and just skimmed through it. (Was not an easy task.)

Theme:

The only thing I learned from reading this book is how much I have grown up in the last eleven years. The things I liked before, I hated reading them this time around. What I did not pay attention to, I paid attention to it now. The book has taught me nothing about life and whatnot.

Plot:

It is written in third person omniscient, and there is constant, endless repetition of just a few details. (Honestly, who cares that Ward looks still twenty at fifty-five?) I'm not a fun of brand advertising in the book, and care very little that Bill gave Anne jewels and all that. Besides the repetition of facts, you'll also see the endless product names that have no meaning in the book.

Author Information:

From wikipedia: " Danielle Fernande Dominique Schuelein-Steel (born August 14, 1947, New York City) better known as Danielle Steel, is an American romantic novelist and author of mainstream dramas.

"Best known for drama novels, Steel has sold more than 800 million copies of her books (as of 2005) worldwide and is the eighth best selling writer of all time. Her novels have been on the New York Times bestseller list for over 390 consecutive weeks[1] and 22 have been adapted for television."

Opinion:

On October 20th, 2000, Danielle Steel's company was celebrating the 50th book celebration, and on the same day my mother picked up free three books by Danielle Steel; the Family album, Kaleidoscope, and Fine Things. Eleven years ago, I fell in love with Danielle Steel. Today, I feel disgust for the author I liked. Her writing has proved to be amateurish and she has chosen the wrong genre I believe; she should either write for young adults, but not for adults. This is a sick book in my opinion. If Faye and Ward aren't thirty years apart, we have Anne who falls in love with a man who's thirty-three years older than she is. If she was in her early or mid twenties or something of the kind, it would have been a little icky but still acceptable of sorts. But she is fifteen or so, and he is in his forties. That was way more sickening than anything else in the book, and there is plenty to make one sick. Also, the man is her best friend's father. One is where Anne runs away, gets to have group sex with men and is forced to give her up baby. (She is fourteen.) If it was in ancient times of cavemen and whatnot, perhaps there will be less disgust with this match. Also, I have nothing against homosexuality, but in case if somebody is not comfortable with it, this book will contain homosexual relationships. (They are depicted positively, although I'm not sure whether or not they are accurate.)

0 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)