In the words of Poehler, “Good for her, not for me.” Another laborious tale that I slogged through.

Siiiiiigh. I know you aren’t supposed to judge a book by its cover, but I mean, it’s there, just asking for an appraisal. And when this came through as I checked it out in audio format, with the picture of what looks like a christening gown, I was like, “Eesh. Here we go.” This is one of the picks for the Schaumburg library book club, not a thing I would gravitate toward and I did my best to give it a fair shake but this is not for me.

Its the 1960s and Doctor whatever his name and his wife, whatever her name, are excited to welcome their new baby into this world. They got engaged in like, 5 minutes, and he is a lot older than her so already, great match, what could go wrong? When they are surprised with twins, and he identifies that his daughter has down syndrome he makes the choice to ask the nurse to take her away. Yup. Yuuuuuuuup. Because his sister was sick and died and he never got over it or whatever but C’MON MAN. Come. The Heck. On. And hilarity ensues. And by “hilarity” I mean “years and years of silence and betrayal and awkwardness and geez just get divorced already.”

For me, this is yet another book that tugs on the heartstrings of the reader by having the characters be in self-created agony, largely because they choose to keep secrets rather than communicate. Maybe it is because I tend to be an open person, but nothing drives me battier in literature than characters who have created their own problems by refusing to be honest with each other.

I don’t know if I can say this is a bad book, but I did not like it. If you liked, “Everything I Never Told You” by Celeste Ng than you may like this book. If, like me, that book made you want to choke everyone in it, stay away.