This book felt incredibly honest and real - but wholly original, and I can say without doubt I've never ready anything like it or with characters such as these.

There is honesty in the romantic relationship between Monica and B, and the first-person narrative helps supplement the story and her own complex personality. Nothing in life is easy, but what if it were made easier? There are so many questions among these pages - discussion points about money, power, sex, family, relationships, etc. - that I want someone else to read it just so we can have those discussions.

The writing is beautiful; I must read more Mary Gordon. It may also be the first book in which a passage on sex doesn't elicit a wince from me (this leaves out the Erotica genre, like Anais Nin). To write so lovingly about two people in love, but not in a corny or offensive way, may be one of the hardest challenges for any writer - Gordon in this respect, and in her entire book, accomplishes so much.

I'm adding this to my favorites because I cannot wait to read it again, to revisit these characters, the beautiful writing and descriptions, and those issues that rise out of the fiction about our own world. Loved it!