Perfectly Imperfect: Modern Families in Novels

“You can write a thriller about the Jones family passing Cinnamon Toast Crunch on a school day,” said author Erika Raskin at the Virginia Festival of the Book. Raskin, Martha Woodriff and Sonja Yoerg, were the keynote speakers at the lecture entitled “Perfectly Imperfect: Novelists on the Modern Family.” Sixty men and women hunkered close together within the rows of books at Charlottesville’s Barnes & Noble to listen.

The first author to speak was Erika Raskin, who talked about her passion of watching modern families on reality TV. “Families are the mother load of fiction,” she said.

The listeners laughed along with Raskin as she read the beginning of her novel Close, a story about parenting, reality TV, and family. Close was a USA Best Book Award Finalist.

The next speaker, Martha Woodriff, began her talk on a poignant note. “I’m interested in how our notion of family changes as we change. How do I figure out life?” she said, “I experience one damn thing after another.” This comment drew a hearty laugh from the crowd.

A native of Virginia, Woodriff once worked on Charlottesville’s downtown mall at Martha’s Café. She went on to work in a coffee shop at Sweet Briar College’s bookstore. It inspired  Small Blessings, a story of a small-town college professor, the woman he meets, and the family he never knew he had.

Sonja Yoerg was the final author to share her debut novel, House Broken, a story about a veterinarian who struggles to care for her aging alcoholic mother, as well as her two teenaged children. Yoerg talked about the challenges modern families face in today’s world.

After the talk, the crowd swarmed the authors, asking questions and getting books signed.