Honestly may knock down to two stars once I think over it more. 

I think this could have easily been knocked down two 200-250 pages. Of course O’Farrell is a beautiful writer, but this seemed too descriptive with not enough plot.  Additionally, a lot of page space was spent describing things that didn’t need to be described. Does the reader really need to know about the husband’s chest hair pattern? Doubtful. 

I di like that O’Farrell chose to stray away and leave it opened ended with a bit of hope. That may be the redeeming quality here. 

Also of note, an author does not need to spend so much page space describing a rape of a 15 year old girl even if girls marrying that young was the common thing at the time. 

Huge trigger warning for rape.