The story’s drama, sweeping across generations, is mesmerizing, but page by page is where Thompson truly showcases her great skill: her ability to capture the nuance of individual moments, thoughts, and reactions. No one writing today is better at this ... utterly convincing and satisfying ... a rich experience that rewards the heart with every turn of the page. Thompson, a previous National Book Award finalist, is, as the expression goes, working at the height of her powers ... And what it says about living is the greatest gift Jean Thompson has given to this extraordinary novel.
With low-key yet piercing humor, caustic observations balanced with compassion, and entrancing storytelling mojo, Thompson masterfully uncovers the contrary emotions surging beneath the flat, orderly landscapes and tidy homes of the Midwest ... As storms, gardens, and trees punctuate and embody the richly reverberating family drama Thompson so astutely orchestrates, she unflinchingly examines desire and resignation, death and inheritance, while tracing women’s generational struggles for genuine independence ... invites reflection and discussion.
Who doesn’t know that frustration?—the need to flee—that highlights the remarkable achievement of the novel. While the conflicts this family endures may not have any similarities with the conflicts in your own family, the conflicts feel familiar. They may even offer insights into, say, why your father was frequently paranoid or why your sister would never listen to you. Or you’ll find yourself thinking, I used to say that to my mother, to my daughter ... There are many [passages] that will give you pause. And there’s a beauty in the sentiment, along with subtle warning.
It’s a melancholic novel at times but exceptionally well-written, showing the ties and love binding three generations of women together and the need for all of us to avoid repeating the past by studying the history of those we love as well as our own, and making decisions about what to leave behind and what we need to go forward to achieve what we desire.
Incisive, intricate ... As Thompson examines the present and past of each of the three generations of women, she adroitly reveals how their life experiences shaped them into being so different from one another. Intense, compassionate, and satisfying, Thompson’s novel is filled with real, complex characters whose destinies are inextricably tied to the women in their lives.
Thompson, who wrote movingly about another Midwestern family in The Year We left Home (2011), here creates a plot and characters that feel more diagrammed than lived.
