Saturday, April 24, 2010

2010 book 104

Robin Antalek's The Summer We Fell Apart
The four adult children from a dysfunctional family deal with life after their father's death and flash back to a crucial summer in their younger lives. Each narrates a section of the text--sometimes filling holes in the others--which works well, and the characters are mostly all sympathetic. I especially liked youngest daughter Amy and next-youngest George--very well-done characters. My only beefs with this book: a couple of unanswered questions, a kind of wishy-washy ending, and it seemed like, for the most part, nothing super eventful happened that crucial summer they're all flashing back to (for some of them, anyway). I guess it's really more about the family dynamics than anything else. B+.

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