Even if the title page had been ripped off, darlings, as I began reading, I would have recognized this as an Emma Straub novel. She delivers another beautiful, suburban character study of people, parents, children and grandchildren, all caught in the scheme of things we call Life.
The book has an arresting opening--Astrid Strickland is crossing a local street, and witnesses a neighbor, Barbara, getting hit by a bus. Before you start thinking this is going to be a downer, girls, it is not. While this tragedy reverberates through the entire book, Straub takes on the Generation Gap, which did not stop with the Sixties, as well as transgender and other sexual orientation issues. If the story seems like more Emma, that is true, but not necessarily a bad thing.
No one writes more cogently on the adult suburban scene than Emma Straub. I LOVED "All Adults
Here," which marked my official return to contemporary fiction--the first book I bought when the bookstores opened.
You've done it again, 'Em!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wasn’t going to read it; now I kind of want to!!
ReplyDeleteVictoria,
ReplyDeleteIt is worth it. As are
her others!