Not as exciting as I expected

The book’s summary made it sound like there was going to be a lot more intrigue and many more characters. It talks about how one incident impacts generations of these two families but, really, it’s just the parents at their children. So from the get-go, this is not a “generational novel” (like Salt Houses which, yes, I am still going on about). It’s just a drama. It is set in Virginia but it starts in California so it’s completely okay if you’re confused on that at first.

It’s also not as good as Bel Canto which I read probably a decade ago but still remember being just absolutely excellent. Still, it’s a good book. A good library read. God bless the library. Also I read this book like a week and a half ago so a lot of the character names have slipped, forgive me. I’ve left the country, come back, and slept since then.

This book is essentially about the intertwining of two families and their stories. When the children are very young, the wife in one family (two kids, both girls) leaves her husband for the husband of the other (four kids, two boys two girls). The book is largely about the lives of the children as adults and how both this remarriage (and subsequent divorce) and An Incident have shaped their lives. One of the four girls develops a relationship with a well-known writer and her stories of her family become the basis of his return-to-form novel and no one is really happy about it.

It’s a character story, driven by people not plot. I do appreciate those, even if they’re not my bread and butter. I do recommend it, I did enjoy it, but I’ve also read better since.