Truly, Madly, Guilty

Truly, Madly, Guilty by Liane Moriarty.  432 pages.  Due out July, 2016 (is on order for the library)

"Six responsible adults. Three cute kids. One small dog. It’s just a normal weekend. What could possibly go wrong?"   Or, as you're asking yourself through most of this book, "Just what happened at the barbecue?"

True to her usual writing style, Liane Moriarty's newest story mercilessly explores three seemingly happy families and shows us how guilt can expose the fault lines in even the strongest-seeming relationships.    We have three couples:  Sam and Clementine, who seem to have a busy, yet lovely, life; Erika and Oliver, who seem to be a bit odd, but completely tuned in to each other; and Tiffany and Vid, who have larger than life personalities, but who also seem happy.  However, two months after a barbecue hosted by one of the couples, something is still quite wrong.  Clementine and Sam keep asking themselves, "What if we hadn't gone?"   And you're wondering, almost the entire way through this story, what awful thing (or things) happened at the barbecue.

I have enjoyed many of Moriarty's stories, especially Big Little Lies, so I had eagerly started on this book as soon I picked up a copy at BEA last week.   I wasn't disappointed; this had all of the great writing and razor-sharp insights, and humor, that I had enjoyed in Big Little Lies.

I did feel like the end spun out a bit slowly, where it felt like: "there's an ending. . . but no, this is the ending . . . no, more story, but now it's the ending."  However, this is a very readable story, with interesting characters, and a nice, steady pace.  I did find myself laughing a few times, most memorably, on the train, where Tiffany is making comments on the size of Oliver's head.  "There was nothing to be done about his pea-head, but Tiffany should tell Erika to buy Oliver some of those vintage, black-rimmed glasses..."  Yes, I let out a snort at that one. 

Moriarty does a nice job of reeling you in, making you care about the characters (or at a minimum, be curious enough them to keep reading).  And, by keeping you in the dark about what awful thing has transpired between these people, you get to see the effects of whatever it was played out over a span of time.   This is no "bad thing happens, people react, and go on with their lives" kind of story; this is a "something happened, people are trying to figure out how to react, and how to keep going like they used to, but somehow, things are stuck."  It's realistic that way, and compelling.