Family trees are a wealth of secrets, lies and legacies, ripe with potential for a captivating novel. Sometimes, one generation is not enough to paint a full picture, and so the author may have to travel back in time or expand into the future. These types of tales are referred to as multigenerational novels, and they often incorporate a deep sense of culture, politics and history into the intimate vessel of complicated family dynamics. Offering the virtue of many different perspectives and a widening of context, multigenerational stories contain a wide breadth of wisdom and insight. Here are three novels by authors from three different countries that offer vibrant reflections on life through vastly different narratives.
“East of Eden” by John Steinbeck
A sprawling epic set in California's Salinas Valley during the great westward migration of early America, “East of Eden” follows the intertwined lives of two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, throughout three generations. Steinbeck vividly details man’s battle against fate through a cast of uniquely compelling characters, where beauty and tragedy are one and the same. As the complex relationships between characters begin to slowly untangle themselves, Steinbeck’s descriptive prose draws the reader deeper and deeper into life in the Salinas Valley.
Examining the way the characters grapple with their individual destinies, “East of Eden” depicts the struggle between good and evil in a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis. The biblical story of Cain and Abel — in which a jealous man murders his brother — is retold through two generations of brothers, starting with Charles and Adam Trask, and ending with Adam’s sons, Cal and Aron. However, in contrast with Cain’s biblical destiny to slay his brother, “East of Eden” makes a powerful observation about free will. The Trask’s housekeeper, Lee, teaches them the meaning of the Hebrew word “timshel” which means “thou mayest.” This simple word signifies the choice to be made between good and evil, rejecting the idea of fate and hereditary sin. Steinbeck crafts a powerful tale of destruction, love and redemption against a glistening landscape of a barren farm, one that still feels universal over 70 years later.
“One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Márquez
Praised by the Nobel Committee for Literature for creating a "cosmos in which the human heart and the combined forces of history, time and again, burst the bounds of chaos," Márquez’s ability to blend magic, history and sincerity is epitomized in “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” The great Columbian novel follows the Buendía family across seven generations and the span of a century. Márquez meanders along the vast landscape of characters and time with ease, carefully blending their stories to create a cyclical narrative about family, love and solitude.
Márquez’s signature use of magical realism, where mystical elements are treated as mundane, pulls the reader into a dream-like state. In the small, isolated town of Macondo, even the absurd — such as a woman floating away while folding laundry or a mysterious blizzard of yellow flowers covering an entire village — is completely normal. Despite the magical elements, the novel portrays real historical events with care by integrating political narratives of United States military intervention and revolution in Latin America into the characters’ lives in a way that makes the vast scale of history understandable at an intimate level. “One Hundred Years of Solitude” is a magnetic novel with multiple generations of fiery souls uniting to form a vibrant ancestral tapestry.
“The House of the Spirits” by Isabel Allende
Allende’s debut novel, “The House of the Spirits” blends semi-autobiographical truths with a touch of the supernatural. The story follows the Trueba family in an unnamed country whose history parallels Chile at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. It follows three generations of women stemming from the patriarch of the family, Esteban Trueba, and his clairvoyant wife Clara, who guides her family with her deep love and prophetic gift. The mysticism spurs the story on towards its central dramas, merging the personal and the political in a profound account of adoration, passion and devotion.
Revolution plays a critical role in the book — mirroring the 1973 Chilean coup — as does class warfare. The backdrop of politics naturally lends itself to a story that explores the cycle of violence within the familial structure and what it takes to break that cycle. Tragic events ripple throughout the storyline as the characters combat systematic and personal injustices, invoking a bittersweet feeling. Despite the oppression of the patriarchy and chauvinism of Esteban, it is the fierce independence of the leading women from three different generations that drives the tale forward.
As summer break rapidly approaches and pesky class readings are no longer taking up the majority of one’s brainpower, the time to pick up a classic epic has never been better. All three of these multigenerational sagas are perfect reads for a summer of getting lost in a dreamy, far-reaching narrative.
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