This story is a protracted family drama set in a small town in the Northeast where everyone knows everyone's business... And if you make it to the end of the book, so will you. Though I liked the characters and the theme (we're all just trying the best we can), the author's approach of driving plot points from characters' sexuality was kind of a snore.

There are different methods to story telling, my favorite being the Southpark creators' famed distillation: this happened, and because of that this happened, and because of that... There is also the lazier: this happened and then this happened and then... But this book's structure is more like: character's misunderstood sexuality motivated this, and a different character's misunderstood sexuality motivated this other thing, and a different character's.... Etc. There are like 20 characters and all of their tenuously-connected plot points overlap only because they happen to be in the same town. That's it. There's no action-consequence dynamic. No match-strike, barn-burn. Methinks the author was trying to write realism and did it so well that she forgot to tell us an interesting story.


Food Pairing: A full chicken salad with honey mustard dressing.