This is a disturbing novel of suburbia-disfunction that somehow redeems itself in the end. The main character, Jackie, is the mother of four boys and is jealous of her next door neighbor Theresa, with only one child, daughter Cece, and who's a younger-looking mom without a weight problem and with an attentive husband. So Jackie gains the upper hand by enrolling them both in a weight-loss program and by having an affair with Adam, Theresa's husband. Jackie's son Douglas, who is way too attached to Jackie and is showing signs of mental illness, loses control and destroys everyone's lives in a most violent outburst. His younger brother, Jayson, and Cece had a brief romance in high school before all their lives went awry, and neither has been able to move on from the tragedy. Told from multiple viewpoints, it is still Jackie who maintains control of the story. You won't really like any of these people too much, but the writing has great depth and the remarkable recounting of each one’s insights into their lost lives may keep you reading.

Quotes: "Some people just lived their lives as best they could, safe in the knowledge that they didn't have a dark side to shun, they never had to confront emotions or situations in which they came dangerously close to a side of themselves they'd locked in a dungeon."

"Often, quite often, he found himself confronting the idea that being a man only required pretending to be a man. He had no idea how to accomplish it otherwise." ( )