“‘Just, that we read fiction because it suggests that life has a shape, and we feel . . . consoled, I think he said, by that notion. Consoled to think that life isn’t just one damned thing after another. That it has sequence and consequence.’ She smiled at Edith. ‘I think it was more or less the idea that fictional narrative made life seem to matter, that it pushed away the meaninglessness of death.’”

I had low expectations going into this book and I’m happy to say it really took me by surprise. I couldn’t give it anything less than five stars considering how I sat there sobbing after I read the last sentence and closed the back cover.

This will not be a book everyone loves, but it was definitely one that I loved. A favorite of the year for me.

TLDR- Read if you like: family saga, grief exploration, stories rooted in reality, slow paced character driven novels, books about book(store owners)

Sue Miller has a plethora of books, and yet this was my first exposure to her. She is brilliant at capturing the complexities of family, and depicting interactions in such a real way. I tend to love a literary fiction family saga. A slice of life story where as a reader you zone in on an event or series of events rooted in reality and you feel so deeply connected to the characters that you feel like you’re in the room with them.

This novel is one of the best explorations of grief I have ever read. It is not a spoiler, but rather central to the plot, that the main character Annie’s husband dies. The chapter where this occurs could stand alone as a vignette on grief, death, dying and loss. It so eloquently captures the reality of this and its immediate aftermath.

There is ample reflection in this novel about the pliable nature of memories and how as you look back on your life it can be hard to distinguish between memory and truth.

Some may be initially put off by explicit sexual language in this book. I heard this ahead of time so I had braced myself for it, and then it really didn’t bother me. Arguably, it may have been superfluous, but for me it did not detract from the story.

The book shifts in time and place as different characters’ recollections are written into the narrative. We get to know Graham through their eyes, even after his death. He was a bookstore owner, so that lays a fun bookish thread throughout the story.

The first 3/4 of the novel is a slow paced character study. The final section shifts in tone and pace as Miller threw in some last minute plot devices to close out the story. While I was wary of too many nicely tied bows at the end, she ultimately did not go down that path, leaving the final pages as reflective and real as the rest of the story.