The Lotterys Plus One by Emma Donoghue (review)

The Lotterys are an intentional family of four parents (one male couple and one female) and seven kids, some adopted and some biological, who chose their family name when they won the lottery. Their winnings allowed them to buy the rambling old Victorian in Toronto where they all live in happiness and chaotic equilibrium, but the balance is destroyed when PopCorn’s elderly father, whose increasing dementia means he can no longer live on his own, moves in. Conservative Grumps disapproves of the multiracial, non-heteronormative, progressive-focused family, and the Lotterys, especially nine-year-old Sumac, who has to give up her bedroom, find him a disruption to cherished household ways. The book spends so much time on world building, with the quirky details of every aspect of Lottery life and every eccentric term for elements of the house and routine carefully explained, that it interferes with the impact of the story, and Grumps’ change of heart is such a complete and abrupt about-face that it’s too implausible to be satisfying. However, internationally esteemed author Donoghue has a sharp eye for the dynamics of a huge family and the markings of contemporary hipsterdom (indeed, the perfection there suggests some fond satire), and the pell-mell charm of the Lotterys will strike a chord with readers who enjoy Hilary McKay’s Casson family chronicles. This title may end up succeeding more as setup for the planned series than as a standalone, but the Lotterys are an entertaining crowd to meet. Final illustrations not seen.