The Most Fun We Ever Had by Clair Lombardo

A reviewer called this the love child of Jonathan Franzen and Anne Tyler and if you are a fan of those two and were to read this as well, I think you would agree that that is a great summation of the vibe here. It is the author's first novel, and you can tell she graduated from the Iowa Writers Workshop because the family in this story spend time in Iowa City, a place that most people do not have even a glancing knowledge of. This is an intricate multigenerational saga that covers a 40-year span for one family. It is about marriage, sibling rivalry, how the growing up experience shapes us, including our birth order and the stability of the ground we stand on — there are four sisters who are close, constantly sparring, and trying to figure out their place in the world as they measure themselves against their parents and each other. The book swings back and forth over the entire span of the couple's marriage, and there are plenty of secrets that seep out at various times, and the trick to tie them all together at the end, so that all the reader's questions are answered. I would say that this was mostly accomplished, and I would definitely recommend this to anyone who routinely puts down a 700+ page books and sighs with disappointment that there is not more of this story to read.