In this luminous story of family life, the seven Vincent children follow their Catholic mother to Mass and spend Thanksgiving with their father's aging parents who come from a world of New England privilege. As they grow older, they meet with the perplexing lives of adults. Susan Minot writes with delicacy and a tremendous gift for the details that decorate domestic life, and when tragedy strikes she beautifully mines the children's tenderness for each other, and their aching guardianship of what they have.
“Not since J. D. Salinger has an American writer so feelingly evoked the special affections and loyalties that may develop among children in a large family.”
“Striking and original...Minot chronicles the mundane and miraculous moments that characterize family life, in prose that is exactingly realistic, yet delicately lyrical...Few novels have so powerfully displayed the collective unity—and joy—of family life.”
Reviews
“The Chewed-Over Pain of Childhood” (Los Angeles Times)
“Men, Women and Children First” (The New York Times)