Loved the relationships that unfolded in CLOSE-UP. Jacob and Caroline cobbled together family as best they could, the best magic trick anyone could pull off. Teared up reading Jill reflect on teaching. Loved the scene where Caroline breaks big news to Jeanie and then their relationship begins to thaw. Really enjoyed the snippets of everyone's writing, even Jacob's magic show in the end, which really did have me on the edge of my seat, imagining the disappearance of an origami phoenix. Oh, and I'm not sure I'd ever seen a young child given so much dialogue before, and—sweet Harry!—it worked. CLOSE-UP reminds us that everything seems inevitable after the fact, like a bird that flew the coop (or didn't), like two old dogs that learned new tricks (or didn't), and I'm sad it's over. Also, half the book took place between parentheses or em dashes, and a fifth of the book was in italics, and—you know what?—I loved it.