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Fiona Range
Abandoned by her young mother, unsure of her father's identity, and raised by her prominent aunt and uncle near Boston, thirty-year-old Fiona Range has developed a high threshold for emotional pain. Her recklessness, generosity, and poor judgment have landed her in more scrapes than her affluent family-or small-town community-can tolerate. Beautiful, volatile and smart-tongued (or trashy, erratic, and wild, depending on whom you ask), Fiona hits rock bottom after she ends a party with a strange man in her bed. Alienated from relatives and friends but determined to change, Fiona turns to the men in her life-among them, cruel and unstable Patrick Grady, who denies she is his daughter. The arrival home of her gentle cousin Elizabeth with fiance in tow sparks a storm where past mistakes and current passions collide.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published May 8, 2000
13 people are currently reading
329 people want to read
About the author
Mary McGarry Morris
19Ìýbooks180ÌýfollowersMary McGarry Morris is an American novelist, short story author and playwright from New England. She uses its towns as settings for her works. In 1991, Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times described Morris as "one of the most skillful new writers at work in America today"; The Washington Post has described her as a "superb storyteller"; and The Miami Herald has called her "one of our finest American writers".
She has been most often compared to John Steinbeck and Carson McCullers. Although her writing style is different, Morris also has been compared to William Faulkner for her character-driven storytelling. She was a finalist for the National Book Award and PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. As of 2011, Morris has published eight novels, some of which were best-sellers, and numerous short stories. She also has written a play about the insanity trial of Mary Todd Lincoln.
She has been most often compared to John Steinbeck and Carson McCullers. Although her writing style is different, Morris also has been compared to William Faulkner for her character-driven storytelling. She was a finalist for the National Book Award and PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. As of 2011, Morris has published eight novels, some of which were best-sellers, and numerous short stories. She also has written a play about the insanity trial of Mary Todd Lincoln.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 65 reviews
January 25, 2011
“Fiona Range� by Mary McGarry Morris � Fiona Range is the heroin of the novel of the same name. She is a fascinating character, who is somewhat out of control, the black sheep of her family, a bit of a slut, easy to upset, hard to embarrass, and often wishing she were not as she is. Fiona is beautiful, sexy, a waitress in a diner, and as the novel opens she was recently thrown out of her aunt and uncle’s home, where she was raised, for having finally gone too far. Her equally beautiful and rebellious mother simply disappeared when Fiona was a baby and has not been heard from since. Patrick, her father, came back from Vietnam just as Fiona was being born and refused to claim her as his own. He was a handsome athletic youth, but came back scarred physically and mentally, and presently is considered the town weirdo. Fiona was raised by her uncle and aunt, loving sister of Fiona’s mother, along with their children, one of whom, Elizabeth, was Fiona’s best friend growing up. Fiona and Elizabeth were opposites; the good girl and the bad girl. Everyone in her uncle’s household, except Fiona, lives according to the principle that one does not hang one’s dirty laundry in public. Fiona is everyone’s dirty laundry. Elizabeth returns from New York from a teaching job, newly engaged, but not quite sure that she wants to marry her fiancé. However, Elizabeth is allergic to anything that comes close to disappointing others, particularly her parents, so she cannot bring herself to tell her fiancé or her parents of her doubts. Fiona, who sees life in the opposite way, tries to interject herself into Elizabeth’s romantic life, only to cause havoc. No heroin with which I am familiar makes so many self destructive decisions, never thinking through the consequences of her actions. Yet, she is a sympathetic character and it is easy to forgive all her wrongheaded choices. The book is seemingly just a character study, but it turns into a mystery with a surprising twist. Ms. Morris has become one of my favorite authors and this is the best one of her books I have read so far.
May 25, 2018
I liked it. Until halfway thru. Part of me thought the main character was a little pathetic, ignorant and it made it maddening to read. First she seems smart, sassy, and no bs kind of gal then she became- annoying. Very repetitive, the book really could’ve been done in half the amount it was.
January 24, 2011
Ugh. Not a single likable character, uninspired writing, tired storyline. I liked "Songs in Ordinary Time", but this one couldn't end quickly enough for me. Thumbs down.
August 17, 2018
Hmmmmmmm, still not sure how I feel about this book, I think I loved it and hated it at the same time! Main character Fiona was abandoned as a baby and was raised by her Aunt and Uncle and overshadowed all her life by her perfect cousin Elizabeth. Fiona is now 30, looking for a relationship with the man she thinks is her father, sleeps around with most men in town and can’t seem to get out of her rut! Fiona really just wants to feel like she fits in and that she is truly part of a family! This book was predictable, but yet kept me wondering and wanting to keep turning the pages to see if I was right!
A story full of family secrets, bad decisions, and drama......amazing how one lie turns into a snowball and shapes the lives of so many. If I knew Fiona in real life, I would probably steer clear of her, but I was looking for something different to read, and this book fit the bill!
A story full of family secrets, bad decisions, and drama......amazing how one lie turns into a snowball and shapes the lives of so many. If I knew Fiona in real life, I would probably steer clear of her, but I was looking for something different to read, and this book fit the bill!
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October 9, 2012I read Fiona Range years ago, and it was well worth the second reading. Fiona Range is a trainwreck waiting to happen, and she derails herself time and time again. But as often as she derails herself, she is also sent off track by what seems to be everyone around her. Her impulsive nature is frightening, as her actions make her seem like she has no moral compass. But it's exactly the opposite as she tries to continually get her life on back on track and keep it there. Well worth a read...and a reread.
March 31, 2021
I am surprised to see how many readers found the characters unlikable. I think all of them are struggling not to drown, swimming more or less close from the surface. That mere fact make them interesting to me, and likable. From the moment you realise that you share some inner mechanisms with someone else, the distance between you get a little shorter. If that mechanism is one that you regret, then your burden gets lighter. Aren't we all struggling against our fears, against other people's fears, against the labels people put on us, against a medical condition, against material conditions, against irrepressible love, against our guilt, against our past.....? Fiona, Elizabeth, George, Patrick, Rudy, Chester, all of them, they are trying to lead their life, once step after an other.Ìý
Fiona makes big mistakes indeed, but the author's talent is precisely to make us feel what led her to those moments. This travel along with fiona is a call to each one of us for more benevolence in our daily lives. Let us forget our outrage for 1 minute and ask ourselves what shaped the people around us. Are we sure we would deal with their cards better than they do?
Fiona makes big mistakes indeed, but the author's talent is precisely to make us feel what led her to those moments. This travel along with fiona is a call to each one of us for more benevolence in our daily lives. Let us forget our outrage for 1 minute and ask ourselves what shaped the people around us. Are we sure we would deal with their cards better than they do?
August 2, 2021
Well it started out promising enough: Fiona Range is abandoned by her mother as a baby and raised by her aunt and uncle. She is told her father is a mentally unstable and violent local man who refuses to acknowledge her as his daughter. Fiona decides to push the envelope and force a relationship with him. You can guess how well that goes.
Or can you? McGarry Morris dangles The Big Reveal over the reader's head for far too long, taking the secret to ridiculous lengths and asking us to believe that at no time in her 30 years on Earth did Fiona ever demand answers from her family about her origin. A strange and maddening choice of red herring is thrown in the mix. Add a preposterous climax and really, I was so done with this book well before the last page. The fact that McGarry Morris still tries to tie a happy ending on this mess is just an insult.
I still give it three stars because I really did enjoy about two-thirds of the book. As frustrating a character as Fiona Range is, I still sympathized with her and how she made do with the hand she'd been dealt.
Or can you? McGarry Morris dangles The Big Reveal over the reader's head for far too long, taking the secret to ridiculous lengths and asking us to believe that at no time in her 30 years on Earth did Fiona ever demand answers from her family about her origin. A strange and maddening choice of red herring is thrown in the mix. Add a preposterous climax and really, I was so done with this book well before the last page. The fact that McGarry Morris still tries to tie a happy ending on this mess is just an insult.
I still give it three stars because I really did enjoy about two-thirds of the book. As frustrating a character as Fiona Range is, I still sympathized with her and how she made do with the hand she'd been dealt.
September 9, 2023
The main character of Fiona was relatable and accessible. The author did a good job of creating empathy with the character without it turning sympathetic. It is a layered story about family and the distinct roles and impacts history has on our behaviour and sensitivities within generations. The tension that exists is well paced and builds to a revelation that was surprising and in the end made sense.
It was a great read in the depiction of the flawed main character and how her tendencies were dictating her path and was helpless to make drastic changes to who she is because of the gaps in her knowledge about the past.
I would read more from this author based on what I read and enjoyed in the book.
It was a great read in the depiction of the flawed main character and how her tendencies were dictating her path and was helpless to make drastic changes to who she is because of the gaps in her knowledge about the past.
I would read more from this author based on what I read and enjoyed in the book.
February 23, 2021
I got tired of it. Seems like it could’ve been 200 pages shorter and it would’ve been better. There weren’t really any believable characters, or particularly likeable ones, either, so I just wanted to find out how it all ended much sooner.
It was a disappointment after having read Songs in Ordinary Time.
It was a disappointment after having read Songs in Ordinary Time.
January 22, 2022
After reading about a quarter of this book, it dawned on me that the characters and the plot weren't going anywhere. Everything was repeating, with minor variations. The literary equivalent of an "endless loop" in programming language. So I returned it to the library. Life's too short to read bad fiction.
July 17, 2018
It was a little on the slow side but I will say that the author does a good job diverting your mind off of what you think is going to the be ending and making you doubt/forget that as a possibility. It is a decent book but it does seem to drag on at times.
May 23, 2020
A satisfying book. Lots of twists and plot development. The main character is conflicted, at times hateful but you still wind up rooting for her.
A well thought out book.
A well thought out book.
July 11, 2020
I really tried liking this. It was like an accident that I couldn't look away from, but I finished it.
August 19, 2021
Was this book good? No. Was it entertaining and a good distraction from my hunger? Yes and that’s all that matters!
August 27, 2022
Formulaic and predictable but a good mindless read.
June 18, 2023
Frustrating in that the characters just kept repeating their bad behavior. Middle part of book dragged due to repetitive action with only slight variation. I liked the ending.
February 10, 2024
I fucking love this book, Fiona is a train wreck and I get her
September 16, 2024
Awesome book
February 28, 2012
As this novel opens, Fiona Range wakes up with a strange man in her bed. She had been very drunk the night before and can't remember what happened. As she sees this man leave her apartment, she realizes it is the husband of one of her friends - a friend who just had a baby yesterday. Fiona just can't seem to get her life straight. She is desperately lonely and doesn't know how to fit in.
She was raised by an aunt and uncle. Her mother deserted her when she was an infant and Fiona has always felt like an outsider in her adopted family. They avoid discord at all costs and Fiona is direct, often to the point of her own embarrassment. She is impulsive and doesn't always think before she speaks. She is especially close to her cousin Lizzie who is now engaged to marry a doctor after returning to her family home in Dearborn, Massachusetts. Fiona works as a waitress while all her cousins have careers after attending college. College just wasn't in the books for Fiona. She tried community college but it just didn't work out. Fiona goes through men fast and is considered 'easy'. She tries to make something of her life but as she says, "I'm at the wrong place at the right time' or "I'm in the right place at the wrong time".
Fiona is obsessed with knowing more about her mother and finding out who her biological father is. She thinks her biological father is a man names Patrick, a Vietnam War vet who is very unstable and dangerous. She is warned to stay away from him by her employer and her family but she can't. This results in disaster and tragedy for Fiona. Patrick is labile, mercurial and dangerous. Fiona thinks he deserves a chance because she believes he is her father - Patrick and her mother dated throughout high school and were together after he returned from the war.
Fiona begins to date Lizzie's ex-boyfriend from high school, George, but this doesn't work out. She finds herself becoming more and more attracted to Lizzie's fiance, Rudy. Lizzie herself can't decide what or who she wants - George or Rudy. Lizzie goes into a deep depression and is very fragile.
Fiona's family bails her out of one mistake after another. They say to her, "Be like us. Don't keep wasting your life on messes". Fiona doesn't want to be like them. They don't talk about things and pretend everything is alright even when things are horrific. There are secrets and lies going on and Fiona is usually the only one of them to address these. Because she addresses what they want to be left unsaid, she is singled out as being the 'wrong' one, the one who just won'd fit into their idea of how a person should act.
The story is beautifully written and the prose is superb. My one disappointment with the book is LIzzie's continued relationship with Patrick despite her knowing his true nature. It just doesn't ring true. Even as self-defeating as Fiona is, no one should be able to put up with all that she does with this frightening man. His relationship to her is sick and portends of worse things to come.
I am a huge fan of Mary McGarry Morris and I loved this book. I have only one of her books left to read, A Hole in the Universe. I am saving this novel to savor. She is the author of Songs in Ordinary Time (Oprah's Book Club) and A Dangerous Woman. Most of her books, Fiona Range included, have protagonists that are hard to like. Many are repulsive and outcasts. Yet she brings them into your heart and makes them real and broken so that you can empathize even with their frightening and often despicable natures. She is a remarkable author.
She was raised by an aunt and uncle. Her mother deserted her when she was an infant and Fiona has always felt like an outsider in her adopted family. They avoid discord at all costs and Fiona is direct, often to the point of her own embarrassment. She is impulsive and doesn't always think before she speaks. She is especially close to her cousin Lizzie who is now engaged to marry a doctor after returning to her family home in Dearborn, Massachusetts. Fiona works as a waitress while all her cousins have careers after attending college. College just wasn't in the books for Fiona. She tried community college but it just didn't work out. Fiona goes through men fast and is considered 'easy'. She tries to make something of her life but as she says, "I'm at the wrong place at the right time' or "I'm in the right place at the wrong time".
Fiona is obsessed with knowing more about her mother and finding out who her biological father is. She thinks her biological father is a man names Patrick, a Vietnam War vet who is very unstable and dangerous. She is warned to stay away from him by her employer and her family but she can't. This results in disaster and tragedy for Fiona. Patrick is labile, mercurial and dangerous. Fiona thinks he deserves a chance because she believes he is her father - Patrick and her mother dated throughout high school and were together after he returned from the war.
Fiona begins to date Lizzie's ex-boyfriend from high school, George, but this doesn't work out. She finds herself becoming more and more attracted to Lizzie's fiance, Rudy. Lizzie herself can't decide what or who she wants - George or Rudy. Lizzie goes into a deep depression and is very fragile.
Fiona's family bails her out of one mistake after another. They say to her, "Be like us. Don't keep wasting your life on messes". Fiona doesn't want to be like them. They don't talk about things and pretend everything is alright even when things are horrific. There are secrets and lies going on and Fiona is usually the only one of them to address these. Because she addresses what they want to be left unsaid, she is singled out as being the 'wrong' one, the one who just won'd fit into their idea of how a person should act.
The story is beautifully written and the prose is superb. My one disappointment with the book is LIzzie's continued relationship with Patrick despite her knowing his true nature. It just doesn't ring true. Even as self-defeating as Fiona is, no one should be able to put up with all that she does with this frightening man. His relationship to her is sick and portends of worse things to come.
I am a huge fan of Mary McGarry Morris and I loved this book. I have only one of her books left to read, A Hole in the Universe. I am saving this novel to savor. She is the author of Songs in Ordinary Time (Oprah's Book Club) and A Dangerous Woman. Most of her books, Fiona Range included, have protagonists that are hard to like. Many are repulsive and outcasts. Yet she brings them into your heart and makes them real and broken so that you can empathize even with their frightening and often despicable natures. She is a remarkable author.
October 26, 2007
Fabulous! Like her book "Songs in Ordinary Time," Morris does a superb job of getting into the heads of her characters. The suspense builds & you can't put this book down...What will Fiona do next?
Here's what ReadingGroupGuides.com has to say about Fiona Range:
Abandoned by her young mother, unsure of her father's identity, and raised by her prominent aunt and uncle near Boston, thirty-year-old Fiona Range has developed a high threshold for emotional pain. Her recklessness, generosity, and poor judgment have landed her in more scrapes than her affluent family-or small-town community-can tolerate. Beautiful, volatile and smart-tongued (or trashy, erratic, and wild, depending on whom you ask), Fiona hits rock bottom after she ends a party with a strange man in her bed. Alienated from relatives and friends but determined to change, Fiona turns to the men in her life-among them, cruel and unstable Patrick Grady, who denies she is his daughter. The arrival home of her gentle cousin Elizabeth with fiance in tow sparks a storm where past mistakes and current passions collide.
Morris "can bring the ordinary to life with the sheer clarity of vision. She knows how a house with children in it sounds at night, what the heat and bustle in a kitchen feel like before a family dinner and how indiscretions arise in a dining room when everyone is flushed with wine."
—New York Times Book Review
Here's what ReadingGroupGuides.com has to say about Fiona Range:
Abandoned by her young mother, unsure of her father's identity, and raised by her prominent aunt and uncle near Boston, thirty-year-old Fiona Range has developed a high threshold for emotional pain. Her recklessness, generosity, and poor judgment have landed her in more scrapes than her affluent family-or small-town community-can tolerate. Beautiful, volatile and smart-tongued (or trashy, erratic, and wild, depending on whom you ask), Fiona hits rock bottom after she ends a party with a strange man in her bed. Alienated from relatives and friends but determined to change, Fiona turns to the men in her life-among them, cruel and unstable Patrick Grady, who denies she is his daughter. The arrival home of her gentle cousin Elizabeth with fiance in tow sparks a storm where past mistakes and current passions collide.
Morris "can bring the ordinary to life with the sheer clarity of vision. She knows how a house with children in it sounds at night, what the heat and bustle in a kitchen feel like before a family dinner and how indiscretions arise in a dining room when everyone is flushed with wine."
—New York Times Book Review
November 13, 2011
I just finished this book last night at about 2 in the morning. I don't really know what to say about this book, it didn't really leave me with any feelings good or bad. I think that the story was fairly ineresting and I enjoyed watching the main character, Fiona Range, as she struggles with her life. Nothing ever seems to go right for her be it with men, her job, her "father", or her family. She is living in a small town where everybody seems to know everything about everybody but nobody wants to talk about it unless its through gossip. Overall I enjoyed the story but I thought the stroy began to drag a little in the middle and I found myself thinking, "Get on with it already!"
The ending though was not a disappointment and I am glad that I continued through some of the more tedious parts of the book.
The ending though was not a disappointment and I am glad that I continued through some of the more tedious parts of the book.
May 12, 2020
This is one of my favorite books of all time. I've reread it countless of times.
I am always on the lookout for strong female characters, and Fiona has proven herself to be one. A survivor. Her story is one of sadness and trying to fit in, and finding herself.
The book was amazing and nearly impossible to put down. Fiona is compelling. She is definitely a flawed woman, but I found myself rooting for her way too much.
The characters are phenomenal� I have loved certain characters and have been disgusted by them at times; like despising an evil character but feeling sympathy for them as well.
If you're into psychological/suspense like I am, I totes recommend this book. There is a psychological drama being played out that peels back the layers of the novel. It’s tension-filled, gritty, poetic, visceral and ultimately overpowering.
I am always on the lookout for strong female characters, and Fiona has proven herself to be one. A survivor. Her story is one of sadness and trying to fit in, and finding herself.
The book was amazing and nearly impossible to put down. Fiona is compelling. She is definitely a flawed woman, but I found myself rooting for her way too much.
The characters are phenomenal� I have loved certain characters and have been disgusted by them at times; like despising an evil character but feeling sympathy for them as well.
If you're into psychological/suspense like I am, I totes recommend this book. There is a psychological drama being played out that peels back the layers of the novel. It’s tension-filled, gritty, poetic, visceral and ultimately overpowering.
August 30, 2010
I finished this a while ago but I do remember that I liked it. I loved Fiona's just put it out there attitude. She is one of the most mixed up, self destructive and fly off the handle characters I have read about and yet still felt sympathy for. Fiona focused so much on the all the wrong things in her life instead of embracing the good. She was always ready to step into a bad sitiation but usually she was trying to make things right, even if it sledom turned out that way. Her family upset me very much at times but she antagonized them. I saw the plot ending coming from miles away but it was still a good read.
April 19, 2010
Fiona Range lives in a small town where everyone knows (or thinks they do) what everyone else is doing. She was raised by her well-respected aunt and uncle after her unwed mother leaves town without her. Fiona, in her thirties, has not yet come to terms with this abandonment or given up on her quest to find and forge a relationship with her father. Her behavior is so self-destructive at times that you want to slap her but she is still a likeable character. One plows through this book, cringing, to find out how things are resolved for Fiona.
December 15, 2010
if i could i would of given the book 3.5 stars...the story definitely kept my attention and interest, most of her books do. Fiona is a 30 year old woman with lots of issues, and rightly so, she's the niece of one of the powerful families in the small town, and all of her cousins are doing their best at being responsible adults, she is working at a coffee shop and seems to always be in trouble. Fiona wakes up with a naked man in her bed the morning the book starts, what's not to like? the character Patrick I had a difficult time with...other than that, good story!
July 17, 2016
I did not like this book but I stuck with it. The main character is screwed up-drinks too much and sleeps around. She was raised by her maternal aunt and uncle. The uncle is a judge and the family is quite well-to-do. The told her that her father was a crazy Vietnam vet and that her mother ran away. In the end you find out that her uncle is her father-he abused his wife's little sister. (effing rich, white bastards) Fiona's mother was killed by the Vietnam Vet, yet somehow in the end everything turns out happy! ugh! Sappy-overwritten trash!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 11, 2010
A compelling, fast read. I always like books with a large cast of quirky characters. Some of these characters irritated me at times, but they were certainly interesting. Also, Morris often gives too much "captain obvious" explanations. I'm like "I get it! I get why she feels that way! You don't have to tell me!" Overall, though, it's pretty fun if you are looking for some no brainer escapism (as I often am).
April 10, 2010
At first I thought it will be one of those books that start with a main character hitting the bottom and then rising through the book... Well, this main character just kept digging herself in the dirt. But it was a good book to read, just realizing how not every life can be predictibly set and lived upon the expectations of the people in the small towns. It did leave me a bit depressed and feeling morbid from day to day. I'm happy I finished it and am looking for a more sunny read now.
July 13, 2008
This book tells the story of Fiona Range, a rebellious, self-destructive young woman in search of herself. She decides cruel and unstable Patrick Grady is her father, which he repeatedly denies. He ends up leading her to the truth about her family. This book is funny and very dark at the same time. Still, I enjoyed it.
December 7, 2010
Engrossing plot in a well-written book that shows that making people think you're good can have as serious or even more serious consequences than acting out. Who were the real villans--Fiona, who in her quest to feel loved and accepted, made bad choices, or her prominent aunt and uncle who kept the truth of her birth parents from her for 30 years?
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