Is it true that families are assembled from broken parts? Is friendship sometimes more powerful than family ties?

The author has said, "In my novels I assemble families from broken parts." Is that true in this novel? Is friendship sometimes more powerful than family ties?

What family doesn't have broken parts? We tend to overlook things in family that we wouldn't in friends. Although sometimes, we're less likely to forgive family than friends. A friend can be there for you without all the other family strings attached. Famly is complicated!

Family is so complicated. I don't know any extended family that isn't made up of broken parts. Family disloyalty is harder for me to handle than friend disloyalty...it seems to be a bit harder to forgive. Yet I know in our family that people outside of the family unit can't criticize family members to anyone outside of the family. Again, family is so complicated yet Monica Woods is gifted in delving right into those complications and giving us a great look at reality.

Family is extremely complicated. You love family members but often do not like them. You do not choose your family you choose your friends. You choose friends because you love and like them, they are there for you. I am not saying that family members are not but it is complicated!

Every family had their issues. I think we expect more from family than we do friends. Our family is supposed to love us unconditionally, but that isn't always the case. Some families are so dysfunctional that friends can often become more of a supportive "family" than the actual family. Several years ago I became friends with an elderly women who had never married. Most of her family had passed. We basically adopted her into our family. She spend all the major holidays with our family. Even my sister & mother would drive her to the store, or take her to appointments when I had to work. We loved her like as if she were an actual family member.

Often, friendships are more powerful than family ties. I think that sometimes family members put unrealistic expectations and obligations upon one another resulting in disappointment and resentfulness. There's much to be said for the importance of unconditional love.

As Frederick Buchner said, "You can kiss your family and friends goodbye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world, but a world lives in you". We are made up of many parts, both whole and broken, but its what you do with those parts that counts.

Well said renem! If anyone believes families do not have broken parts they are living in a fantasy world.