This month’s Book Report features two books about families in small town settings.
I was always a fan of Anna Quindlen’s monthly column in Newsweek magazine years ago. When she turned to fiction, I enjoyed her many books as well. Her latest book, After Annie is her best book yet.
After Annie begins when 37 year-old mom and nurse aide Annie Brown dies suddenly at home in front of her husband and four young children. Her husband Bill is completely bereft and has no idea how to carry on caring for his young children and running his plumbing business.
It falls to 13 year-old Ali to keep the house running, get her younger brothers off to school in the morning, and make sure there is food in the house. She puts one foot in front of the other and does the job all while trying to process her own grief and deal with being a teenager.
Annie’s best friend Annmarie is also grieving. Annie and Annmarie were best friends since elementary school, and they were a part of each other’s daily lives even though they led different lives.
Annie and Bill struggled to pay bills, and Annmarie owns a successful business and has married a man who has money. Annie and Bill have a big family, Annmarie has suffered miscarriages.
As we follow the story through the Bill, Ali, and Annmarie, we see Annie through their eyes. We discover that Annmarie had a serious addiction problem and Annie did her best to help her friend through her troubles. We see what a compassionate caregiver Annie was at her job at a nursing home, and what a giving mother she was to her children and a supportive and loving wife to Bill.
The sections of the novel that deal with Annie’s death and funeral ring so true to anyone who has experienced a sudden loss. Ali waiting up for her dad to come back from the hospital, shopping with her aunt for a dress to wear to the funeral, and the actual funeral itself- it’s all so vivid and visceral.
Quindlen has written about grief before, Every Last One being a powerful book, and After Annie is just as powerful but in a quieter way than that book. Annie- the wife, mother, friend, caregiver- may be gone by the first sentence of the novel, but she looms so large in these pages that we miss her even though we didn’t know her. I highly recommend After Annie.
Like After Annie, Amy Jo Burns novel Mercury has a small-town setting. The book begins in 1990 when 17 year-old Marley and the single mom who raised her move into the small town of Mercury, Pennsylvania.
The Joseph family own a roofing business in town, and the first thing Marley sees as they pull into town is the three Joseph men on a roof. She is instantly intrigued. As the new girl in town, football hero Baylor Joseph flashes his smile at Marley and she is smitten.
Baylor invites her to dinner where she meets his younger-by-one-year brother Waylon. While Baylor can be cool to Marley, Waylon is kind. If only she met Waylon first.
Marley spends every night at the Joseph’s family dinner table at the invitation of mom Elise ,and soon becomes a real member of the family when she marries one of the brothers.
Mick, the patriarch of the family, is a dreamer and seems to have a lot balls in the air, a short attention span, and no financial sense. He leaves much of the roofing business work to Baylor and Waylon. Waylon works hard to expand the business, and soon Marley gets involved in the business as well which annoys Mick.
Over the years, we see the Joseph family dynamic change. Elise, who ran a tight ship, seems to pull away for reasons that soon become clear, and Marley takes over the matriarch role. Marley becomes a mother figure to the youngest Joseph brother Shay who is often left to his own devices.
We get a mystery when a dead body is discovered in the tower of the church. The Joseph family had repaired the roof years ago, could one of them be involved?
Mercury is character-driven story. Watching Marley grow into a strong, confident woman is such a reward. Each character is interesting and well-drawn, from Waylon to Shay to Shay’s best friend the town cop. The small town feels like a real place, and it plays an important part in the story. I highly recommend Mercury as well.
After Annie by Anna Quindlen- A+
Published by Random House
Hardcover, $30, 285 pages
Mercury by Amy Jo Burns- A
Published by Celadon
Hardcover, $29, 336 pages
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