After This by Alice McDermott - #2

John and Mary Keane are a young couple who are blessed with four children. The book follows the story of this family as they move from the time of WWII through to the Vietnam war era. The book tells the story through the eyes of all of the main characters - John and Mary, their children Jacob, Michael, Annie and Clare, as well as Mary's oldest friend Pauline. It starts with Mary and Pauline working as secretaries in a office in Manhattan. One day at lunch she meets John Keane and they are soon married. They move to Long Island where they raise their children. Jacob is the introvert, Michael is the trouble maker, Annie is the wild girl who hides it well and Claire is the little saint. Soon their family is turned upside down by the series of events that befall their children.

This book has garnered a lot of praise but I did not enjoy it all that much. The characters were not very well developed and there were many parts of the book that were drawn out and did not seem integral to the plot all that much. The book is not even 300 pages and it took me almost two months to read it. I really do not recommend it at all.