I found the first chapters heavy on exposition. That’s not unusual in a piece that is idea driven and needs to lay groundwork so we can enter into a world ostensibly different from our own. Or is it? That’s the question for readers, and the notebook entries of the mother of the family (who has a shameful secret about her pregnancy) seem so genuine that it makes us wonder. “I need to give full credit to my older sister for planting the seed for my great preoccupation with the question of whether I am good enough or worthy enough. I decided at this point in my life that I was not worthy… I just wanted God to think I was good enough. But now, I don’t even know if that matters anymore. Does it matter anymore if I am good enough if there will be no one left to see or hear me?”

I loved the ending of the book. It is perfect and will stay with the reader a long time. But for whatever reason I felt a little distanced from the characters, as if they were up on a stage, the philosophic questions raised did not pull me in as much as they should have and the storyline turns surreal very fast. The fault, I believe, is that we as readers want more interaction between people in scenes (and though actions and reactions, not just dialogue—this is a very talky book). We want backstory, but first have to care enough about the characters so that it is meaningful. In other words we need to experience the story as if it were happening to us, not just understand the problems it raises and wonder how they apply to our lives outside of the book.