This book begins with a Sunday afternoon christening party for baby Franny. Bert Cousins shows up uninvited and by the end of the party, has kissed Franny's mother, Beverly, setting events in motion that will impact two marriages and two families.
This book covers five decades, where you get the stories of multiple characters. Mostly, you get the viewpoints from the children of the two families, but it's a total of four parents and six children. Spending summers together, the two groups of children form a lasting bond that is based on their shared disillusionment with their parents.
In her twenties, Franny (the same child from the infamous christening party) begins an affair with a legendary author. Telling him about her family, she doesn't expect that he's doing anything except listening . . . until he turns her family's story into a bestselling book. Now, she and the rest of the family have to come to terms with each other, their shared losses, and the connection they have to each other.
I enjoyed this book, although I sometimes found that it took me a minute to re-orient myself when it moved between time periods. It isn't a strictly linear book, so there is movement back in forth in time. I also had to pay attention so I could remember who was who, and what their individual storyline was. This is mostly Franny's story, and some of the characters don't have as much of their own individual part in the story (which was fine with me). The characters are realistically written, as is a lot of the storyline. This means there isn't necessarily a happy ending for everyone, but would you expect that? If you've read other books by this author, no. It's a deep study in family dynamics, but with a smooth pace that pulls you in and just makes the reading fly by.
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