Didn't feel the love that others did. In a few words--grim, no joy.

2.5 but cannot round up and say it was good. Still, the writing was fine--and in a few instances, some quite good descriptions and observations/social commentary. BUT. Not enough to sustain my interest. Nonetheless, I persevered and plowed through.

The setting:

"Spanning the twentieth century and three continents, The Peacock Feast ricochets from Manhattan to San Francisco, from the decadent mansions of the Tiffany family to the death row of a Texas prison, and from the London consultation room of Anna Freud to a Mendocino commune. With psychological acuity and aching eloquence, Lisa Gornick has written a sweeping family drama, an exploration of the meaning of art and the art of dying, and an illuminating portrait of how our decisions reverberate across time and space."

Two story lines--which I like--begins in June 1916--the past--which also weaves back and forth to the present--nearly 100 years later. It certainly sounds enticing. However.

Prudence is the daughter of Tiffany's gardener. Grace is her long-lost brother Randall's granddaughter. And, there's everything in between the generations' stories. Not until near the end is it revealed why Randall feared water and forbid Leo [his son, and Grace's father] to swim, etc.--a subplot that dominated much of the book.

A few examples of writing that stuck me:

Leo attended his grandfather's alma mater-- a prestigious school where "The boys, addressed by their teachers by their last names, ate in a dining room, served by elderly black men they called by their first names."

"The look she's learned to recognize of a grown child whose love for a parent has bewen spared the tannin of resentment spread over his broad boyish face." Wow.

"Seeing you has shaken the dandelion so bits of my youth are floating around us."

"My mind is so altered, but the cruel twist is, I still recall how it used to work."

and one bit of humor--edamame "look like green slugs"

Never really engaged. Didn't much care for anyone save Prudence and Grace--though admittedly--Prudence carried the bulk of the narrative.

One of my favorite books of the year! Beautifully written, complex structure (going back and forth between the present and past (which spans the years from 1914 to 2000 and beyond) but easy to follow. This wonderful epic saga about 101-year old Prudence and three generations of her family broke my heart and brought tears to my eyes. Wonderfully researched. The ending is just perfect, so satisfying!

The Peacock Feast is a remarkable story that spans three generations, the entire 20th century, and buried trauma. Two women, a first strangers, hold pieces of a puzzle that they didn't realize existed - the puzzle that is Prudence's childhood. Gornick weaves fact and fiction masterfully to illustrate how a family evolved over a century.

The Peacock Feast is one of those rare books that feels both big and intimate, bringing the reader deeply into a very vivid past and you love following along. A very well written , engrossing and impressive book.

This novel takes place with Louis Tiffany and his homes in the background. The protagonist is the daughter of Tiffany's gardner and she centers the various character stories swirling throughout this novel. There are some interesting moments, but, ultmately, I had two issues with this novel. First, some of the narrative leaps were too great for me to find credible. The social mobility of the main character as well as that of some of the more minor characters in the book were a little unrealistic, or, at the very least, downplayed the hard work and rarity of such leaps, in spite of the "American Dream". Alongside this, even with an increase in social status, it felt unrealistic that the main character would continue to have such close contact with the Tiffany family in her personal life. Second, there was just a bit too much going on in too many disparate places before the mystery of the book brought all of the pieces together. This worked well as a character study and the mystery and it's unraveling made things less cohesive, rather than more.

This is a wonderful book about three generations of a family. It's a work of fiction but it's based on Louis Tiffany of Tiffany Lamps. It isn't so much about Mr. Tiffany's family as it is about the family who worked for him. Each chapter tells about a different generation, but it doesn't put the reader off. It's an interesting story and I highly enjoyed it.
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley. Thank you, Netgalley!
All opinions are my own.

The Peacock Feast is a very enjoyable voyage through the last hundred years in the company of Prudence. It is quite sad in places. Prudence doesn't take all the chances at happiness she has, but maybe that is why she lives so long. It reminded me a bit of Amy Human Heart. There is a terrific description of the talented but cruel Mr Tiffany and his beautiful estate. Tiffany is key to a mystery that is only solved towards the end of the book. Four stars.

Grace visits her great aunt Prudence for the first time in the nursing homes where Prudence is living. Grace is bringing a box of mementos that belonged to her great grandfather Randall, Prudence’s brother whom she never saw again after he ran away to California nearly a century earlier. Linking their story with that of Louis Comfort Tiffany, Gornick creates a fascinating, if not particularly flattering portrait of Tiffany

This just didn't hold my attention--I gave up after reading about 10% of it. The characters just didn't work for me.

Some authors can create magic with a snippet of history and a few characters based on real life. That is exactly what Lisa Gornick has done with her entrancing novel, THE PEACOCK FEAST. The thread that she pulls from are incidents in the life of Louis Comfort Tiffany. She does not examine his life, but creates characters who are satellites in his orbit and how their lives touched.

The catalyst is the visit of a young woman who visits her aged aunt in NYC and delivers the incredible story of her long dead family and the brother she had not seen for decades. Each piece of this story is fascinating and the characters are very well developed, especially Prudence and her great-niece, Grace.

As a reader I loved the characters and their stories. I was totally engaged and enjoyed reading about the ancillary people who touched their lives. So, this is a fine work of historical fiction and I was delighted to have had the opportunity to read and review it for NETGALLEY.