The Most Fun We Ever Had

The family saga is a fictional genre that centers around a particular family or group of families. Often, it spans multiple generations, showing how the experiences of one person can affect other people in the family. The genre is frequently used to examine how traumas and values can be transmitted within families and how choices can affect a family for years or even generations to come.

A family saga can be told in one novel or across many. One example of a family saga told over many novels is the Port William series by Wendell Berry. This series follows numerous generations of key families in the fictional community of Port William. Because the family saga is told over several books, Berry is able to demonstrate how family members influence their descendants and ancestors, and how different families influence one other over time. Another example of a family saga is the fictional Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset. This saga spans three books and follows multiple generations of a wealthy family in 14th-century Norway. As these examples illustrate, the genre contains many permutations.

The Most Fun We Ever Had centers around two generations of the upper-middle-class Sorenson family in 20th- and 21st-century America. It shows how each generation affects the next, both materially—in the form of inheritances and financial support—and psychologically. It also shows how children affect their parents and grandparents.