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What obligations to each other do people have or think they have? That question comes up in relation to
family and marriage relationships, to law, and to moral reasoning. This novel and highly readable book
takes it up in relation to inheritances: to what people think they should leave or be left, who should receive
what, when, how, and why.
Making the book novel is its range. Here are views about more than money. Covered are also houses, land
and, an often neglected but emotion-laden area, the personal and often indivisible things that mean one is
remembered as an individual. Making it novel also is its emphasis throughout on meanings and on what
people see as matters of choice or flexibility. Even in countries where the legal codes specify who should
receive what after death (many European and most Islamic codes allow far less choice than British-based
law does), people still have room for decisions about what they give away to various heirs or spend before
death.
What makes the book highly readable? One reason is its timeliness. Currently lively, for example, are debates over parents balancing their own needs
and wishes against those of their children ("spending the kids' inheritance", in one description). Another is the book's style. The writing is
straightforward. Theory is not neglected but there is an absence of jargon. The material is also mostly based on narratives: on people's own
descriptions of arrangements that "worked well" or "did not work well" and on why they thought so. That base makes the book far from dry and far
from being an account only of negative feelings, objections, challenges, and family rifts. It also makes it more relevant at times of indecision or
misunderstanding. In short, a book for many readers, both within the social sciences and beyond it.
About the author
Jacqueline J. Goodnow, Emeritus Professor and Adjunct Research Professor at Macquarie University, Australia
Jeanette A. Lawrence, The University of Melbourne, Australia
