She Treads Softly: More Than Enough

Saturday, January 24, 2026

More Than Enough

More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen
2/24/26; 256 pages
Random House

More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen is a very highly recommended literary character-driven domestic drama of self-exploration which follows a woman dealing with infertility, a dying friend, and complicated family relationships.

Polly Goodman, 42, is a high school English teacher happily married to Mark, a veterinarian at the Bronx Zoo. While Polly is struggling with infertility issues, she has an enviable, comfortable relationship with her brother, friends, in-laws, and her father who is in a nursing home with a failing mind. Her relationship with her mother is more complicated. When her best friends/book club buddies, Sarah, Helen, and Jamie, give Polly an ancestry test kit as a joke, she takes the test and is surprised by the results. She ends up meeting with her match, a teenager, and while their connected ancestry is still not clear, the two form a connection.

This is a exceptionally well-written, touching literary examination of a slice of an individual's life. From her friends, which she can share everything with, to her interactions with her brother, parents, and in-laws, the keen observations can be touching, humorous, mundane, heart-breaking, and ultimately hopeful. While the pacing is slow through much of the book, it touches deeply on topics many women have experienced and how much interpersonal relationships with family and friendships can mean. It also demonstrates how secrets can affect other's lives.

Polly is a fully realized, well-developed character with both strengths and weaknesses. Readers should quickly finds areas in her life they can either relate to or have observed. Admittedly, while reading there were several times Polly's observations and difficulties resonated with me and hit too close to personal experiences. All of the supporting cast serve to add depth and insight into Polly's character, helping to reveal how our relationships can define us. Additionally, as a bonus it delightfully includes alpacas, humming and pronking.

More Than Enough is a perfect choice for anyone who enjoys gentle, literary character driven dramas. Thanks to Random House for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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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.