7/8/25; 336 pages
Random House/Dial Press
The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce is a very highly
recommended, insightful domestic drama following a dysfunctional family
and a potential murder.
Artist Vic Kemp, 76, invites
his four children out to lunch to inform them that he is in love with Bella-Mae, 27,
and plans to marry her. He is also going to plan to start painting his
final masterpiece. He has given up drinking, drinks the special tea
Bella-Mae makes, and has lost a lot of weight. He wants them to all meet
at the family's summer retreat, an Italian
villa on Lake Orta. Vic is a man who was a erratic parent who also has
had an unhealthy hold on his children who all want his attention.
His children range from 40 to 33 years old and they are unusually close after their mother die at a young age. Basically the oldest, Netta raised them. Netta is now a lawyer who drinks too much. Susan married an older man with twin sons. she had wanted to be a chef. Goose (Gusta) is a failed artist who had a breakdown. He is his father's studio assistant. The youngest, Iris, is the most fragile. She gets entry level jobs and wears thrift store clothes.
When their father marries Bella-Mae in Italy and later dies, the family rushes to the villa. Netta is looking for the will and evidence that Vic was murdered. The others are all grieving, confronting their childhood roles and emotional scars, as well as years of things left unsaid.
This is a beautifully written, atmospheric, character driven novel
that closely examines a family on the verge of collapsing when their
father dies. Admittedly, it feels like a slow start, but much of that is
establishing the status quo between the family members and the
significance Vic plays in all of their lives as well as their individual
roles in the family dynamics. Once the plot and the mystery take off,
the tension and drama increase dramatically. This novel gets better with
each turn of the page.
The characters are all portrayed as fully realized, complex
individuals with both strengths and weaknesses. Bella-Mae is the
exception as her character development doesn't receive the same
attention until the very end of the novel. The four siblings have spent
years donning their expected role while never honestly sharing their
real thoughts or the damage done to them by Vic. During their time on
the island after their father's death they are all finally heading
toward facing the truth.
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