Nicholas Montemarano

Tragedy strikes early in this story of the Christie family. Modeled somewhat after the family of American politician John Edwards, the Christies are full of foibles. The father, David, is a flawed politician. His wife and the mother of their two children, Danielle, is annoyingly shallow considering she's a college professor. Teenage son Nick is the perfect All-American kid. And bringing up the rear is young Betsy, whose voice tells much of the story.

Montemarano jumps around in chronology and perspective, and this didn't help me connect with the characters. His writing style is easy enough to read, and he carries the plot forward effectively. But the characters have what psychologists would call a "flat affect." They go through plenty of drama, and seem to show no complex emotions.

This was a pick from my IRL book group, and it wasn't a strong choice for me.

Full review at TheBibliophage.com.… (mere)

3.5. I have never been a regular television watcher, well except for sports, but one show I watched the first few years of was The Good Wife. Just as that show put a human face and family to a political family, this novel does the same in book form. What seems a good, solid family, supporting, loving, falls apart under various tragedies, and eventually political scandal. Could be taken from many of the headlines in the last several years, but here the difference is that this family is so incredibly normal, likable.

Very realistically portrayed, the novel flows along gently, the reader hears from each of the characters. Their stories and where the end up, devastating in the telling, but not over emotionally portrayed. Just an honest story of a family who had the best of intentions, but that life and fate placed themselves in their way. I liked these characters, hard not to, coming at them from different angles, can see how they got caught up in events, mistakes that cost them dearly. The novel does end with a ray of hope, but not all will be left standing.… (mere)

Well, I think that this book may be the proof positive that Americans may never be able to go back to thinking about politics as they may have been before the recent election cycle and current state of affairs. This book may have been a winner for me a year ago, in fact, I have often enjoyed books about campaigning or political power as a crucial aspect. However, this novel fell very flat for me. The incidents that arose and the plot points that flowed felt very vanilla and uneventful for me.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks.… (mere)