She Treads Softly: All Good Things

Friday, August 25, 2023

All Good Things

All Good Things by Amanda Prowse
8/15/23; 320 pages
Lake Union Publishing

All Good Things by Amanda Prowse is a recommended family drama.

Daisy Harrop envies the Kelleway family next door. Compared to her family, with her mother depressed and sleeping all the time, her father working hard, her brother up in his room, the Kelleway family seem perfect from a distance. She looks out her window watching them and wishing she could be a part of their life, especially if it meant dating their grandson, Cass.

Winnie Kelleway is a clueless vain woman who is proud of her beautiful family. Now Winnie and Bernie are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary at an Italian restaurant with all their family present and on display for everyone to envy them. The restaurant they celebrate at is the one where Daisy works, so she gets to see the event first hand.

The narrative is told through the point-of-view of the characters and it becomes clear after a very slow start that everything is not as Daisy believes it is and her family is not even close to how Winnie views them. As more points-of-view are brought into the story, it does become more complex and interesting. Clearly Daisy and Winnie are seeing what they want to believe and don't really know what is going on.

This is a "the grass is always greener on the other side" plot. However, beginning the novel with Daisy's musings made this feel like a YA book and then visiting Winnie's internal dialogue made this almost a DNF. It was simply an okay book for me but fans of Prowse will likely enjoy it much more.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Lake Union Publishing via NetGalley.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.