Welcome to Litsy!

#ancientkindle
What a lovely book! People being decent to one other and taking the trouble not only to talk but really communicate and sweeten each other's lives thereby.
How does he do it? I haven't read such simple, pared back prose since his Plainsong, probably, but it never comes across as meagre. Something like a really good, homemade bread: wholly satisfying without the need for five kinds of frosting and sprinkles.

#ancientkindle
Not so much a nuclear family as a core meltdown.
Who was it said that the greatest danger to a child is their parents' unlived lives? With the best of intentions Marilyn and James unwittingly place elder daughter Lydia in a double bind (while their son and younger daughter barely register).
CN is great at families who don't/can't communicate, and especially in the context of a fraught mother/daughter relationship.