Rating: 4 out of 5

Written in the form of letters from Eva to her husband Franklin the full story unfolds over the course of around 6 months. It is well written and through the letters the characters deepen and the backstory gets richer. It isn’t an easy book to read - both in subject matter but also I found it a bit hard to lose myself in and found it quite put-downable.

Highlighted passages:

What possessed us? We were so happy! Why, then, did we take the stake of all we had and place it all on this outrageous gamble of having a child?

After all, now that children don’t till your fields or take you in when you’re incontinent, there is no sensible reason to have them, and it’s amazing that with the advent of effective contraception anyone chooses to reproduce at all.

Sheer obstinacy is far more durable than courage, though it’s not as pretty.

“I realize it’s commonplace for parents to say to their child sternly, ‘I love you, but I don’t always like you.’ But what kind of love is that? It seems to me that comes down to, ‘I’m not oblivious to you-that is, you can still hurt my feelings-but I can’t stand having you around.’ Who wants to be loved like that?)

What is cool changes; that there is such a thing as cool is immutable.

Originally posted to my Goodreads account