Ronnie's husband has recently died and she's living alone in her house on Cape Cod. The showcase house where she spent summers with her children when they were kids and where she imagined spending time with her kids and their kids, when they came. That hasn't happened. Sarah, her daughter, is busy with marriage, a career, a stepdaughter (the future bride) and two young sons. Sarah's twin, Sam, has moved to California and just hasn't found himself. At age 38. The house sure hasn't enjoyed the family time it had anticipated.
And yes, the house is a character in the book. Kind of like, if walls could talk. I'm still not sure how I felt about that little bit of narrative.
Sarah's stepdaughter, Ruby, is preparing to marry her quarantine boyfriend. They started dating about six weeks before the first Covid lockdown. Sarah invited Ruby to move back home and quarantine with the family. Ruby brought new boyfriend, Gabe, along.
A houseful of people living together during a pandemic. Sarah's husband checks out. There's way too much together time. And Ruby and Gabe just sort of fall into being engaged.
I liked the way Weiner worked Covid into the story. She fully captured the reality of living thru the early days of the pandemic. Working from home while juggling family obligations. How difficult it can be to spend so much time together all the time.
The reviews on this one are very mixed. I fully understand why. Maybe I didn't really love this novel because it was overly ambitious? It had so many themes. Too many themes.Women's choices, motherhood, step-parenting, identity, sexual identity, divorce, parenting, marriage, infidelity, paternity, abandonment. I'm trying to think about some of the other story lines. The characters were well-developed, but I didn't particularly like any of them except maybe Connor, Sam's young stepson.
BUT... I would love to stay in the house on the Cape. It sounds like a palace! (The Brooklyn Brownstone doesn't sound too shabby either!)
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