"Still waters run very deep in thie very intriguing read," says Jackie

"Family quarrels are bitter things. They don't go by any rules. They're not like aches or wounds; they're more like splits in the skin that won't heal because there's not enough material." - F. Scott Fitzgerald

This is a simply complicated story, as all stories are when it involves estranged family trying work as "one big happy" unit.  It involves Richard, a wealthy doctor who finds himself in some hot water, and his family (second wife, step daughter) and Angela, Richard's sister and her family: underemployed husband, jock son, her very religious (or maybe not) teenage daughter and her very young, happy-go lucky, baby of the family (in more ways than one) energetic son.  As a way to buttress up the family after the death of Richard and Angela's mother, they all agree to spend a holiday week in a rural Wales house.  Tensions, secrets, and fantasies all play out to full awkward and/or poignant drama as this family in name only tries to become a family in reality.  This is a very British sort of book, with their typical emotional repression, but still waters run very deep in this very intriguing read.

--Jackie










Other books by Mark Haddon: