Name: Cheri McElroy's review of Chorus by Rebecca Kauffman
Item: Chorus
Rating: 4
Author: Cheri McElroy

Rebecca Kauffman

For readers of Alice Munro, Elizabeth Strout, and Claire Lombardo, Chorus shepherds seven siblings through two life-altering events—their mother's untimely death, and a shocking teenage pregnancy—that ultimately follow them through their lives as individuals and as a family. The seven Shaw siblings have long been haunted by two early and profoundly consequential events. Told in turns from the early twentieth century through the 1950s, each sibling relays their own version of the memories that surround both their mother’s mysterious death and the circumstances of one sister’s scandalous teenage pregnancy. As they move into adulthood, the siblings assume new roles: caretaker to their aging father, addict, enabler, academic, decorated veteran, widow, and mothers and fathers to the next generation. Entangled in a family knot, the Shaw siblings face divorce, drama, and death while haunted by a mother who was never truly there. Through this lens, they all seek not only to understand how her death shaped their family, but also to illuminate the insoluble nature of the many familial experiences we all encounter—the concept of home, the tenacity that is a family’s love, and the unexpected ways through which healing can occur. Chorus is a hopeful story of family, of loss and recovery, of complicated relationships forged between brothers and sisters as they move through life together, and of the unlikely forces that first drive them away and then ultimately back home.

A Novel

Chorus

Essence

Cheri McElroy

“You must somehow find a way in life to forgive your own heart for the ways it failed you…”

 This is a story of a family from the 1930s through the 1950s who experience profound loss when their mother does when they are children. It was moving, sad, hopeful. This story will stick with me.

Essence &
Chorus by Rebecca Kauffman

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Essence &Chorus by Rebecca Kauffman

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Essence &
Chorus by Rebecca Kauffman