Throughout the book we get glimpses of what happened to the adult versions of the children. T he book reflects on the lives of the adults and the kids and how they changed throughout the years. They actually rallied against Bert Cousins because they all blamed him for destroying their families.

Although it would be common for the kids to dislike each other it was just the opposite. The storyline was interesting, two families are rocked by infidelity and now the kids are the ones who suffer the consequences of neglect, loneliness and wreckless behavior. While Fitz Keating, a detective, is married to the beautiful Beverly who have a daughter Caroline and have just welcomed their second daughter Franny. Albert 'Bert' Cousins is a deputy district attorney who is in a bored marriage to Theresa Cousins and together they have four children: Cal-12, Holly-10, Jeannette-8 and Albert Jr. It is a brilliant and tender tale of the far-reaching ties of love and responsibility that bind us together.Īll it took was one kiss for two marriages and the lives of their six children to be destroyed. Told with equal measures of humor and heartbreak, Commonwealth is a meditation on inspiration, interpretation, and the ownership of stories. Their childhood becomes the basis for his wildly successful book, ultimately forcing them to come to terms with their losses, their guilt, and the deeply loyal connection they feel for one another.

When, in her twenties, Franny begins an affair with the legendary author Leon Posen and tells him about her family, the story of her siblings is no longer hers to control. Spending summers together in Virginia, the Keating and Cousins children forge a lasting bond based on a shared disillusionment with their parents and the strange and genuine affection that grows among them. Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny's mother, Beverly-thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families. One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating's christening party uninvited.

Summary of commonwealth by ann patchett