*** Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan

Ordinary Human Failings starts with the chilling death of a toddler, and it seems that it’s an open-and-shut case, with a dysfunctional family readily available to blame. Over the course of the book, the author (and a deliciously slimy journalist) unspool their story and the case becomes much more complicated. A quiet story told very skillfully.

* The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

The Bee Sting is a family saga where each character has a difficult back story that unfolds slowly as secrets are revealed, sadly only to us readers and not to the other family members, who would likely benefit from knowing the truth.

Much like Skippy Dies by the same author, this is a very long book which, in my opinion, does not deserve its length, and long text exchanges between teenagers that are quite tedious. And please do use periods in every chapter, even stream-of-consciouness ones.

* Mercury by Amy Jo Burns

There’s a big, messy family in Mercury, and a twisted plot. But the details of the plots are not quite right, the big, messy family has too many archetypes, and the writing it full of soap-opera worthy feelings. No my thing.

* Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

Hello Beautiful stars a woman who thinks she can execute a perfect life, complete with a professor-husband, but we can’t control other people so she just leaves the scene, letting her sisters pick up the pieces. Much later, bridges can be rebuilt. If you like a big messy family saga you will like this book. It felt too neatly arranged for my taste.

** Magpie by Elizabeth Day

Magpie has a twisted plot involving a surrogate pregnancy, which I will not give away, but it never felt completely believable to me. Plus, as we now in the age of horror stories about surrogacy, much like we had an age of nanny horror stories?

** The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright

The Wren, The Wren follows three generations in a dysfunctional Irish family, telling the story in chapters that alternate between them. The grandfather, a philandering poet, sows hurt and betrayal, which the two following generations have to contend with. I liked the book more as I went along, but the self-preoccupied grandaughter’s horrendous choices of sexual partners, which occupies the first half of he book, are tediously told.

** The Exhibitionist by Charlotte Mendelson

The Exhibitionist stars a self-entered, has-been artist who manages to bully his long-suffering wife, also an artist, but one who is not meeting with success, and his children, one of whom caters to his every desire, one fears him, and the other (wisely, in my mind) avoids him.

I was equally fascinated by the family’s dysfunction and annoyed that anyone would actually submit to this man’s insane domination. The story is well written and rich in details if you’re patient enough to attend to the whole drama.

** Hope by Andrew Ridker

Hope stars a Jewish, upper middle-class, liberal family from Brookline, MA, which seems destined to send their daughter and son into the world to pursue lucrative careers and cushy lives. But things unravel as each member deviates from their script. There are lots of well-observed and funny moments, including the desperate search for worthy charity causes, but I found it hard to care about the adventures of privileged folks coping with their medium-sized problems.

** So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell

So Long, See You Tomorrow tells the slowly-unfolding story of a pretty standard jealousy-motivated murder surrounded in layers of small-town secrets, broken friendships, and old memories. The story moves between the murder, which occurred decades ago, and the present and the big reveal is quite disappointing. But along the way the author describes well-observed details of family life and what it’s like to live in a small community.

*** Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet

In Dinosaurs, there are no dinosaurs, only birds that our hero observes and reminds us multiple times are the descendants of dinosaurs–and the story has very little to do with birds, too.

It stars a jilted man who lives comfortably from his trust fund and finds himself enmeshed with the family next door, unmasking the young son’s bully, peeking into the mother’s activities, and maintaining a bro relationship with the husband. Not much happens but it’s all well-observed. I did not think I would find much empathy for that man, but I did.