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Genealogy
Meet the Samantha Hennart, a poet with writer's block; her husband, Bernard, obsessed with the life of a nineteenth-century Belgian mystic with stigmata; their son, Ryan, a mediocre rock musician; and their eighteen-year-old daughter, Marguerite, who is quietly losing her mind. A meditation on family, faith, and mental illness, Genealogy is an operatic story of one family's unraveling and ultimate redemption.
- GenresFiction
257 pages, Paperback
First published April 25, 2006
3 people are currently reading
129 people want to read
About the author
Maud Casey
10Ìýbooks61ÌýfollowersMaud Casey lives in Washington, D.C. She is an Associate Professor of English and teaches in the MFA Creative Writing Program at the University of Maryland. She also teaches in the low-residency MFA Program at Warren Wilson and was a faculty member at the Breadloaf Writers Conference in 2009.
She has received the Italo Calvino Prize (2008), the St. Francis College Literary Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a 2008-2009 DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Fellowship, and international fellowships from the Fundacion Valparaiso and the Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers.
Her essays and book reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Washington Post Book World, Salon, Poets and Writers, A Public Space and Literary Imagination.
She has received the Italo Calvino Prize (2008), the St. Francis College Literary Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a 2008-2009 DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Fellowship, and international fellowships from the Fundacion Valparaiso and the Hawthornden International Retreat for Writers.
Her essays and book reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Washington Post Book World, Salon, Poets and Writers, A Public Space and Literary Imagination.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
May 1, 2016
This is one of those rare treasures: a random purchase in a bookstore. I'd never read anything bu Maud Casey before, but was intrigued by the premise: mental illness, stigmata, and a family falling apart.
The novel moves fluidly between the four Hennarts, Samantha, Bernard, Ryan, and Marguerite. Each character faces their own struggles, but they all interconnect, and trace back--in some way--to Marguerite's almost-drowning at five.
This is a complex and dense narrative, but Casey's voice and use of language made it a pleasure to read. I'll be looking for more of her work.
The novel moves fluidly between the four Hennarts, Samantha, Bernard, Ryan, and Marguerite. Each character faces their own struggles, but they all interconnect, and trace back--in some way--to Marguerite's almost-drowning at five.
This is a complex and dense narrative, but Casey's voice and use of language made it a pleasure to read. I'll be looking for more of her work.
September 13, 2007
I loved this book dearly because the author has a clear love for words and nuanced phrases; like Arundhati Roy in The God of Small Things, she recognizes the power of word and phrase in shaping thought and action. She also possesses a useful understanding of mental illness; like the curmudgeonly Jonathan Franzen in the Corrections, she does a brilliant job of translating the thought processes of mental disease into a strange poetry accessible to sane minds.
Jamie
Jamie
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December 28, 2013Beautifully written, but too depressing. Miserable people for complicated reasons.
January 3, 2020
As others have written, this is very intense dense , difficult for me to read as a standard novel until I thought of it as prose and poetic writing, demanding slow reading, going back ro reread sections. It could become an opera with each character and major idea having its own musical theme.
April 20, 2019
Intense.
July 16, 2020
I found this book tough slogging . . . the content was not difficult, but the author's use of psychological imagery became intrusive and obfuscating.
July 6, 2021
Poetic writing.
June 9, 2022
2.5 rounded up
November 12, 2015
This book took me longer than most to get through. It's beautifully written, but more lyrical and abstract than prosaic. The abstract style blends well with Marguerite's mental decline and confusing atmosphere of the story, but it made certain parts difficult to get through.
The story was interesting and I enjoyed the parallels between Marguerite's mental decline and the psyche of Louise Lateau (a 19th century mystic with stigmata), but all in all it was a bit too verbose for my liking.
The story was interesting and I enjoyed the parallels between Marguerite's mental decline and the psyche of Louise Lateau (a 19th century mystic with stigmata), but all in all it was a bit too verbose for my liking.
July 16, 2011
A book about a family that falls apart and a daughter going mad. The madness was so convincing I felt like I was losing it reading the book, which ultimately did take something away from my enjoyment.
April 17, 2008
This was my favorite book this year.
July 7, 2008
Eh, kind of a boring book. Blah.
Want to read
February 22, 2010part road novel, part meditation on family, faith, ...redemption
July 30, 2010
Too intellectual for my liking, too verbose. However I liked the storyline beneath all the arty fartyness so pushed on through....
April 13, 2012
I'm updating my Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ with books of the past. I read this in 2007 and scrawled a note about it saying "took me awhile, but it was worth it"
October 27, 2008
A view like this can save a life.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
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