Summary

Ann Patchett’s Commonwealth opens with the christening of Franny Keating, the second daughter of Francis “Fix” and Beverly Keating. Told from the point of view of an omnipresent narrator, this seemingly routine and unremarkable event has a profound impact on the lives of two families, the Keatings and the Cousins.

Surrounded by family, friends, and coworkers Fix does not expect Albert “Bert” Cousins, a district attorney to show up, but Bert is seeking an excuse to be away from his family on the weekend and so he shows up to the christening uninvited, a bottle of gin in hand. Bert is so desperate to get away from his family that he went to a christening party for the child of a man he did not even really know. When his wife asks him whose party he is going to, “he hoped she...