This was one of those books that I would not have picked up if it wasn't included in the Tournament of Books summer tournament. I was game, however, since I've seen some of the author's clever turns of phrase on Twitter over the years. And that cleverness was immediately evident in the writing: it sparkled, it felt effervescent, as the story began with one Bertha Truitt.

The reader comes upon Bertha in a Massachusetts graveyard in 1900ish, where she has little memory of her life before that moment. She is a driving force—to all the people she encounters, and to the story. When her character becomes secondary to a whole cast of others (she's connected to all of them), the narrative suffers in terms of my interest. The writing remained wonderful and witty, but I really didn't care about some of characters that populated the second half of the book when there were rich characters we only saw wisps of, namely LuEtta Mood and Minna Sprague. McCracken also manages to interweave real and weird history throughout the book; I would pause my reading to research certain things to see if they were fiction, but in most cases, they were based on actual events.

It didn't win its perplexing match-up against DAISY JONES AND THE SIX in #campTOB, and I understand why: it was difficult to want to return to this once Bertha's larger-than-life character is relinquished to make room for others. McCracken does great work in allowing Bertha to loom over the events the follow, and I admired the ending. I also admired how McCracken wove a serious tale with humor and freak accidents and truths about families and history. I look forward to whatever McCracken writes next!