I had read enough reviews on various book blogs (I really need to start keeping track of sources) of The Only True Genius in the Family by Jennie Nash to be intrigued enough to read it.  It seemed to be more meatier than a lot of the “chick lit” titles out there.

Like “chick lit”, this book is an easy read (and I like reading these type of books once in a while), but it has a more memorable story than most.

There are three main characters in this book. 

1.  The first-person narrator: Claire, a food photographer whose clients include magazines such as Bon Appetit and Martha Stewart.

2. Bailey, Claire’s daughter, who is graduating from art school, but already being recognized for her talent.  She is a very talented painter.  Part of this is due to:

3.  Claire’s father, a very famous landscape photographer.  He dies at the very beginning of the book.  You know right away he is going to have a big presence in the book in spite of his death because of  the book’s first line:

 ”My dad died at an incredibly inconvenient time, and I have no doubt that he planned it that way on purpose”.

The book’s first line also tells you right away that Claire and her father did not have an easy relationship.  When Claire was young, she was interested in photography also, but her dad did nothing to encourage it.  So, instead of becoming a famous artistic-type photographer like her dad, she settles into a career in food photography.

When Claire’s dad dies, she does some soul-searching.   She sees how successful her daughter is already becoming and wonders if it’s true that talent , or “Genius” skips a generation–which is something that her dad once told her. 

I would not say this is a deeply complex book, but it does carry more of a message than most “chick lit” does.  It’s never too late to pursue a dream, even if parents or others (inadvertently or not) have previously thrown roadblocks in the way.

The ending was wrapped up very neatly–maybe a little too much for my liking.  I would have liked Claire to have pursued a different artistic venue,  instead of trying to follow into her father’s photographic footsteps.  The book does bring up the question of how children of famous people try to be like a famous parent; Julian Lennon and his dad John Lennon are offered as an analogy.

A good book for a few hours of your time.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 at 10:01 PM and is filed under book review, books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.