Sweeney brings significant psychological acuity to everything from midlife sexuality to adolescent cafeteria drama to postpartum depression ... Richly engaging ... But in this narrative juggling act, balls get dropped ... Characters we’ve invested in disappear from the text ... Whatever strange part of the American psyche so yearns for a four-sibling détente might not be nourished, but it will be satisfied.
While it doesn’t open with the weather, it relentlessly hits readers over the head with a snow shovel to make the point that Rochester is often cold and grey ... Can the sun shine once more after so many years of anger and estrangement? Maybe. Maybe not. This book explores all manner of bad weather.
D’Aprix Sweeney writes the story of a suburban family with clarity, compassion and a bit of humor ... Sweeney writes with clarity, compassion, a bit of humor and an emphasis on food.
Dazzling ... Funny ... Set about 15 years after TV’s 'Mad Men' but it feels similarly revelatory in its depiction of how much has changed, particularly for women ... Lake Effect primarily is interested in the behavior of its vivid characters, who mostly refrain from telling each other about their feelings and motivations ... Everyone in Sweeney’s big-hearted book is given choices and those tiny, blink-or-you’ll-miss-it opportunities add up to extraordinary lives.
