Synopses & Reviews
A mordantly funny and propulsive novel about a woman coming to terms with her family—adoptive, biological, and future.
In 1962, a pregnant girl staggers into a health clinic, gives birth, and flees. A foster family takes the baby in, and an unlikely couple, their lives unspooling from the recent death of their infant, adopts her.
Forty years and many secrets and lies later, Cheri Matzner is all grown up and falling apart. Ironic and fierce, she's a former cop-turned-disgruntled academic, a frustrated wife trying to get pregnant, an iconoclastic daughter bearing war-wounds from her dysfunctional family. Thrust unto an odyssey of acceptance, she discovers that sometimes it take's half a lifetime to come of age.
Weaving together the stories of the deeply flawed but well-intentioned people who've shaped Cheri's life, HAPPY FAMILY is an intimate exploration of the gap between our expectations and beliefs about our families, and the truth.
Review
"Tracy Barone is a storyteller with a deft, effortless style that grabs you, holds you, and at turns, leaves you breathless. Her characters are so distinctive, so deeply humane and complex, their humor, intelligence and place in the world is immediately apparent. The novel folds out like one of those hand-painted screens that separates one room from another, but in this case, there was nothing hidden behind, all secrets were revealed, as the author took you by the hand through the life of Cheri Matzner. Even her name is exactly right: red hot, ripe and in her perfection, unreachable." Adriani Trigiani, bestselling author All the Stars in the Heavens
Review
"Smart, witty and immensely readable, Happy Family brilliantly examines the power of family and the secrets we keep, and leaves us cheering for its heroine, Cheri-funny, fierce, aching for connection but independent to a fault-whose mid-life coming-of-age is wise, heartfelt, and a pure page-turning pleasure to read." Maria Semple, author of national bestseller Where'd You Go, Bernadette
Review
"Tracy Barone's Happy Family introduces a storyteller whose narrative confidence and style both dares and invites us into a deep exploration of the gap between our expectations and beliefs about our families and the truth. Filled with intimate poignancy, deft humor and pitch-perfect dialogue this books fulfills its ambitious scope and leaves an indelible mark." A.M. Homes, author of May We Be Forgiven
Review
"In her debut novel, screenwriter, playwright, and film producer Barone uses a wide lens to capture Cheri Matzner's life, from a precarious beginning to a confident, peaceful middle age....Cinematic in its scope, this novel takes readers on a broad, deep, and poignant journey alongside a tough, admirable woman and the varied characters who populate her life." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
One of these things is not like the other. That's how Cheri Matzner felt growing up in her adoptive family, and it's what continues to define her as she tries to start a family of her own. Funny and fierce, desperate for connection yet pushing it away with both hands, she needs to jump-start a marriage in danger of flatlining and save her career from scandal. But Cheri is still contending with a complicated relationship with her parents-her aging Italian bombshell of a mother and a distant father who looms large, even in death-unaware of the sacrifices they made to be together or of the difficult truths and lies in their marriage. When tragedy unravels Cheri's well-designed defenses, she is thrust into an odyssey of acceptance that brings her full circle back to her dramatic origins.
Sometimes it takes half a lifetime to come of age. To be able to glimpse our parents beyond their roles as our parents. To uncover the many versions of truth within our family stories and within our own. And to laugh at it all just a little bit sooner.
About the Author
Tracy Barone earned her MFA in dramatic writing at NYU and has worked as a screenwriter and playwright. She has worked in Hollywood, where she was the Executive Producer on Wild, Wild, West, Rosewood, My Fellow Americans, and Money Train and was instrumental in the acquisition and development of Men in Black and Ali. In addition to an MFA, Barone holds a B.A. from NYU.