Claire Lombardo

Last updated
Claire Lombardo
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater University of Illinois-Chicago, University of Iowa
GenreFiction
Notable worksThe Most Fun We Ever Had
Website
www.clairelombardo.com

Claire Lombardo is an American writer. Her novel The Most Fun We Ever Had was a New York Times bestseller [1] and was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction. [2]

Contents

Career

Claire Lombardo has said that she started The Most Fun We Ever Had as a short story. [3] She studied at the University of Illinois-Chicago and later attended the Iowa Writers' Workshop. [4]

The Most Fun We Ever Had was published by Doubleday in 2019.

The Observer wrote in a review: "If ever there were to be a literary love child of Jonathan Franzen and Anne Tyler, then Claire Lombardo's outstanding debut, which ranges from ebullience to despair by way of caustic but intense familial bonds, would be a worthy offspring." [5] Booklist wrote: "Though it resembles other sprawling midwestern family dramas, like Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections , Lombardo's book steers clear of social critique and burrows into the drama of familial relationships." [6]

The Wall Street Journal called it "an assured first novel", writing: "The strength of the book is in its unsentimental limning of the past, of dinner-table conversations, pillow talk, sisterly intrigues and alliances, of creaking floors and sheltering trees, of petty resentments and small rapprochements. The plot lines and complications are many—perhaps a bit too many. The cast is large. But Ms. Lombardo manages to keep all the balls in the air." [7] For The Washington Post , it is "an ambitious and brilliantly written first novel, sometimes amusing and sometimes shocking, but its unrelenting nature and lack of context is ultimately off-putting." [8]

The New York Times Book Review wrote: "Of course it's not the responsibility of every novel to wrestle with cultural shifts, with politics and war, but the near total absence of even a whiff of non-Sorenson-related events over 40 years and 500-plus pages must be a conscious choice. It reads, eventually, as a deliberate and fascinating commentary on how a particular kind of moneyed white family can choose the degree to which they engage with such. . . unpleasantries." [9]

NPR described it as "a wonderfully immersive read that packs more heart and heft than most first novels. . . notably apolitical, all-white, all-straight", adding that it "is operatic in both good ways and bad." [10]

In 2019, the novel was reported to be in development at HBO, with actors Amy Adams and Laura Dern as executive producers. [11] [12]

Bibliography

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References

  1. ↑ @nytimesbooks. "Debut novelist Claire Lombardo joins seasoned best-selling authors Brad Thor and Danielle Steel with new books on the latest hardcover fiction best-seller list". Twitter. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  2. ↑ Sheehan, Dan. "Here is the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction longlist". Literary Hub. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  3. ↑ Khatib, Joumana (21 June 2019). "'I Just Had to Do My Emotional Homework': How a 30-Year-Old Wrote a Family Saga". The New York Times. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  4. ↑ Morgan, Adam. "How Claire Lombardo Wrote the Midwestern Big Little Lies". Chicago Mag. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  5. ↑ Beckerman, Hannah (23 June 2019). "The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo review – family friction". The Observer. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  6. ↑ Taft, Maggie. "The Most Fun We Ever Had". Booklist. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  7. ↑ Kaufman, Joanne. "'The Most Fun We Ever Had' Review: An Assured Debut". WSJ. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  8. ↑ Smiley, Jane. "Jane Smiley reviews a novel so intimate and familiar it's almost as though you're eavesdropping". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  9. ↑ Chang, Jade (25 June 2019). "A Rich, Engrossing Family Saga, Spiked With Sisterly Malice". The New York Times. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  10. ↑ McAlpin, Heller. "Marriage Is Passionate, Not Perfect, In 'The Most Fun We Ever Had'". NPR. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  11. ↑ Otterson, Joe (15 October 2019). "Amy Adams, Laura Dern to Produce 'The Most Fun We Ever Had' Adaptation at HBO". Variety. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  12. ↑ Dybal, Michelle (15 April 2020). "'The Most Fun We Ever Had' in development at HBO". Wednesday Journal of Oak Park and River Forest. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
  13. ↑ "W&N snaps up Lombardo's 'immersive' second novel". The Bookseller. January 24, 2024. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  14. ↑ "Same As It Ever Was". Kirkus Reviews. April 5, 2024. Retrieved September 4, 2024.
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