While I was at the St. George library hunting down Dutch House, I grabbed this one as well. It was similar to Dutch House in that it had great, unpredictable characters and great dialogue. It was also a shade depressing because of the difficult and selfish parents who divorced to marry each other. The fallout from that impacted everyone involved, and not for the better.
This story also had a somewhat of a mystery involved. One of the siblings died, and we only learn in pieces along the way how exactly it happened. There was lots of jumping between time frames as we follow the siblings to maturity, but I was able to follow it just fine. I really enjoyed and admired the tenacity of the main character, Franny, especially her relationship with the famous author. And the story of how that went bad was almost funny; no, it was funny. Pathetic, really, but she ended up with a much better prize. I enjoy stories where people are real and when their goodness is eventually rewarded.
I also liked Franny;s father, Fix, who was loyal and kept his sense of humor. It was satisfying to see him enjoy his daughters at the end of his life, despite his cancer and pain. The selfish parents, who caused the breakup didn't fare so well... And that seems fitting!
Patchett's dialogue is fun to read, although this book's dialogues didn't have as much clever repartee as the Dutch House did.. On the other hand, this story was a little less dark. I'll take a break from Patchett now, and return to others of hers later, I think!
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