Those Faraday Girls

Written by Monica McInerney, and an instant classic in my opinion, Those Faraday Girls is a wonderful tale of romance, tragedy, and what it means to be family. 

As a child, Maggie Faraday grew up in a lively and unconventional household, being raised by her young mother, her four very different aunts, and her eccentric grandfather. With her mother often away, her aunts took turns looking after her… that is until a shocking event took place a few weeks before Maggie’s sixth birthday. Twenty years on, Maggie is making it on her own in New York, but her world is turned upside down when her grandfather startles her with a surprise visit and a plan to reunite the family. As the Faraday family gathers in Ireland for a July Christmas, Maggie begins to realise that the aunts she thought she knew so intimately all have something to hide. 

The story of the Faraday girls is a very interestingly written book, as the actual story starts a fair way into the book. The first eighteen chapters are really just a means of introducing us to the characters of the girls, educating us in their personalities, later introducing us to Maggie and watching her grow up, and then revealing the shocking event that is mentioned in the blurb. 

Part two of the book is where the real story starts and, although it’s written in the third person, perception of the observer, the main character whose eyes we see everything through, is Maggie. It’s really interesting because McInerney does not write from Maggie’s direct point of view, but somehow we see much of the following events and their effects on the characters through her eyes. It is very clever and engaging writing. 

The one downside to the book is the amount of characters that inhabit it. The story is divided up into the personal lives and perspectives of all the Faraday girls, Maggie, and Leo the grandfather. It does tend to jump around a fair bit, but it immediately lets you know where you are in the world and which character you’re following so, in the end, it’s not that hard to get used to and embrace. 

I think what I particularly loved about this book was the fact that the story itself was really very simple, but it harboured some very strong themes about family and what it really means to be part of one. On the surface, the story sounds rather boring and mundane, but underneath, it’s wonderfully forceful with comedic, romantic, and dramatic themes at its disposal. It’s just wonderful! 

Filled with an abundance of eccentric characters, romance, comedy, family, and plenty of drama, Those Faraday Girls was a remarkable book that was very easy to read. I simply breezed through it. It was that wonderful.