This story swells with intensity—the setting, the characters, the plot—it is both hauntingly familiar and foreign. Reading it was like looking through a family’s Polaroids—different snapshots, different moments—and then rewinding the VCR tape to discover how each particular tableau came to be.

The NY-Irish-1970s atmosphere set the stage, but it’s the relationships that really birth all the epic emotions you experience while reading this book that spans 4-5 decades of life. Oh, the relationships in this book—they broke my heart, they mended my heart, again and again. Francis and Lena, Francis and Katie, Kate and Peter, George and Peter, Peter and Anne, Francis and Brian. I just love them all. In this sweeping drama, so much happens: Childhood innocence gives way to harsh life trajectory changes. Unforgivable actions give way to merciful forgiveness. Abandonment happens. Addiction is suffered. Atonement is sought. But in the end, this is a story about family and love and forgiveness; it’s an answer to the question:“What gets more weight? The good or the bad?” (311) ( )

I quite enjoyed this family drama but I thought it lost some steam towards the end. I think I felt like I was held an arms lenght away from all of the characters instead of fully immersed in them and I wanted to be more wrapped up in their feelings. There were times when I was but more often I felt a bit of a disconnect.

Still good. ( )

Multigenerational relationships between family and neighbors, and a crime then love that ties them together. An intersesting long time span story. ( )

a simple story about two neighbors that ran so deep and made me feel so much ( )

This book took me so long to read. Its good, but slow going. Its not a page turner. More of a family drama which is not my thing right now I guess. I need drama & murder & twists. ( )