Blood Family by Anne Fine (review)

Renowned author Fine explores the fate of Edward, confined along with his mother in an apartment by his mother’s boyfriend, who batters his mother to the point of permanent incapacity. Once the authorities intervene, Eddie’s recovery is supported by an attentive social worker, a temporary stay with a loving foster couple and, eventually, fine adoptive parents, but when he grows into a teenager he gets derailed by the knowledge that the man who destroyed his mother and held them captive is very likely his biological father. He begins drinking and taking drugs and eventually runs away, living on the streets until he begins to challenge the repressed demon that haunts him. The story is broken up into vignettes narrated by the various people working with Eddie as well as Eddie himself. While at times Eddie’s denials of his growing dependence on alcohol become attenuated, the shifts in narration keep the story moving forward and ably highlight the frustrations, care, and mistakes of the many people who try to help trauma victims. Perhaps most interesting is the steadiness and support Eddie finds by thinking of his fictional TV dad, a figure based on Fred Rogers that Eddie and his mother discovered through VHS tapes in a closet and who offered Eddie his only glimpses into the outside world during the three years he was unable to leave the apartment. Originally published in the UK in 2013, this import will appeal to readers interested in thinking through intervention and the lingering effects of childhood trauma, and it may lead readers back to Fine’s incomparable other study of abuse and behavior, The Tulip Touch (BCCB 9/97).