Recommended by Matt, City Lights Books
Loosely based on his own life and his large family, The Tanners follows Simon Tanner as he wanders from job to job, in search of a calling. Along his journey of self-definition, we meet his other siblings: the painter brother whose romantic brooding personality attracts women; the serious professorial oldest brother whose sense of responsibility towards his younger siblings strains his nerves; the teacher sister who hates teaching but can't get herself to risk the stability of her job; and the institutionalized brother whose name is hardly mentioned and whose madness potentially runs through the rest of the family. Through it all, Simon explores the master-servant relationship — whether in employment or in romance — that is one of the defining factors of Modernity.
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