text: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters are sometimes heartbreakingly, and frustratingly, believable. Psychologically speaking, the motivations of Sam, the main character, and Lydia, his mother were, in my opinion very true. I was not as clear about what motivated Maurey, Sam's teenage love interest, however, and am hoping to get a better understanding of her in the next book in the trilogy, Sorrow Floats, which I'm off to read presently. This is a story that will haunt you for days and weeks after reading it. There are as many truths about human nature and the ties that bind (whether healthy or nay) between these pages as there are in any of John Irving's or Anne Tyler's best.