Good story of a young girl growing up in a family that does not completely accept her mother.
I am always amazed at the intensity some people feel about anyone who is considered an outsider.

Enjoyed this other book by Quindlen about a family in trouble. ( )

A fine debut novel by a writer whose columns in Newsweek have always impressed me. This is the story of 13-year old Maggie Scanlan and her family, and a summer in the mid-1960's in which everything changes. Her father has long been the black sheep of the family for defying his rich, powerful and domineering father by marrying Maggie's Italian-American mother, and her mother's unchanging permanence is threatened by a construction foreman and the driving lessons he offers. Their home is suddenly surrounded by a housing development, and the grandfather, suddenly reduced to a shadow of his former self by a stroke, makes a final all-out effort to bring his headstrong son back into the safety and security of the family fold. A moving and well-told tale of the summer in which a young girl comes of age, and perhaps the rest of her family as well. Of particular poignance are the final couple of sentences, as nicely done a closing as I can recall. ( )

the only words for this book are simply not good -- to expound more is a waste of time, as was reading this book ( )

A good story about a 12 year old girl and her large and extended family. ( )