Dazzling prose, and beautiful from page one to the end. But reading it was an odd experience for me.
Here's why:
My grandmother is schizophrenic (she shows up in much of my work) and the dynamic between the mentally ill and the effects of this illness on family is incredibly interesting to me. I was also intrigued by the fact that they came from Ohio, where my family is from and moved to Georgia, where my grandfather went when he left my grandmother (granted it was Athens rather than Savannah, but coincidence nonetheless) and I always wanted to live with him, to move away, but he kind-of had to leave our part of the family to start his new one.
There is a real fear of those who watch a family member suffer, even those who completely lose said member, that the illness will reach them one day. This element made for a powerful and subtly haunting back story.
So all that unnecessary and personal background out of the way, what I'm trying to say is that I could easily identify with these characters on a guttural level, and the beauty of Hoffman's prose kept me laughing and wondering what will happen next throughout. I recommend this book to most anyone.