The Difficulties of a Lifetime in ‘The Most Fun We Ever Had’

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PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Lionstar

Claire Lombardo

Few people understand the complications of kinship better than social workers, so it is no surprise that social worker-turned-writer Claire Lombardo’s much-anticipated debut novel tells a boundless tale based around a single family’s secrets, jealousies and entanglements.

Yet the title of Lombardo’s book, The Most Fun We Ever Had, belies the darkness and difficulties that can evolve over a lifetime. This sweeping story follows the Sorenson clan over four decades, capturing the tumultuous, often competitive, relationships between the family’s four adult daughters. The narrative moves back and forth in time but is rooted in 2016, a year that proves particularly onerous for all members of the Midwestern tribe. Eldest daughter Wendy is reeling from her husband’s unexpected death while her control-hungry “Irish twin” Vivian is forced to confront a 15-year-old decision; third-born Liza struggles over whether to leave her depressed partner while baby Grace, newly college graduated, harbors skeletons she is ashamed to share.

Each woman’s trials and tribulations are captured with witty observations and complex character-building, their heartbreaks and disappointments weighing again the messy bonds of sibling loyalty. At the helm of it all are the family’s patriarch and matriarch, the golden couple whose impressive love appears unbreakable.

Lombardo hails from the Chicago area and is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her gripping and expansive first novel is an ambitious tome about a quintessential American family.

Lombardo will speak at Boswell Book Co. on Tuesday, Aug. 6, at 7 p.m.; and Books & Company on Wednesday, Aug. 7, at 7 p.m. Both events will feature Penguin Random House representative Jason Gobble, who will offer book club recommendations.