This is a lovely book about families and what they mean to each other. Sure, there are times when they make you drink and want to run screaming for the exit. But this book exemplifies the good things about keeping family together: laughter, history, self-knowledge, love.Who, when reaching middle age, doesn't realize all the things their parents have done for them? And, well, to them as well. Mike Leonard decided to give his parents one last vacation, one last big trip to talk about, with the topper at the end: the birth of their first great-grandchild. In the process of telling the stories of the trip, he winds in the history of his parents' families, and his own childhood and young adulthood.
The book made me cry, laugh, smile and even come to some "aha" moments about my own wacky family. There is a DVD included which contains the four-part series shown on the "Today" show (where Leonard is an occasional reporter) as well as some other material showing details about the trip that can't be conveyed in print form. It's a wonderful package.
Not that I'm rushing out to suggest this to my mom--she wouldn't, couldn't, do a trip like this--but it is a wonderful, lovely idea: enforced togetherness of three generations (three (I think?) of Leonard's children are with them on this road trip) with cameras rolling. It's just a reminder that as much as we like to think we're more evolved and don't need our parents, we did come from them, and there are some things that can't be left behind forever.
Nice job.
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