Truly Madly Guilty is the story of relationships among three neighboring families: Clementine and Sam with two toddler age daughters Ruby and Holly; Tiffany and Vid with interesting livelihoods and school age daughter Dakota; Erika and Oliver, childless but with challenging parents. As usual Liane Moriarty molds multi-faceted characters that draw you in. Initially undisclosed events occurring during a seemingly innocuous neighborhood barbecue provides an ever-present air of mystery hovering over the interactions among these characters.
The book has a flashback style of timeline. Ordinary numbered chronological chapters are interspersed with chapters simply subtitled "The Day of the Barbecue" in which hour by hour, bits of that pivotal day are revealed. The day of the barbecue dominates the evolving inter-relationships of these three couples with each other and with his/her own respective spouse. The novel is a page turner as the reader wonders what on earth could have happened that day that had such a profound impact. A quote from the front flap of this book hints at its tantalizing contents far better than I can:
- In Truly Madly Guilty, Liane Moriarty takes on the foundations of our lives: marriage, sex, parenthood, and friendship. She shows how guilt can expose the fault lines in the most seemingly strong relationships, how what we don't say can be more powerful than what we do, and how often we don't appreciate how extraordinary our ordinary lives are until it's too late.
This is the fifth book I've read by Liane Moriarty. I read Three Wishes (2005) this year, and The Hypnotist's Love Story (2013) last year, both of which were disappointing and I gave them one and two stars respectively. I loved What Alice Forgot (2012) and The Husband's Secret (2015) when I read them last year, giving them four and five stars respectively. I whole heartedly give Truly Madly Guilty (2016) five stars and would recommend it as a suspenseful, thought-provoking, engaging read. Although I either love 'em or hate 'em, I will continue to read works by author Liane Moriarty.
Glad you so thoroughly enjoyed this book. I also just read a book that I liked (Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper). I know, I know - I read a book! An entire book! With words! It was for Book Club and I finished it BEFORE the Book Club meeting! Okay...so my comment here is mostly to tell you that I read a book. It's such a rare occurrence these days, that I had to share it. Someday, I'll get to read much more often, like you. For now, though, I'll take my victories when I can!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on completing a book! Etta and Otto sounds interesting and its Canadian setting sounds time appropriate for me to read it, too, since I have just returned from Montreal. Did you like it? If so, will add it to my to-read list.
DeleteYes, I did like it. It's a very quick read, so even if you don't like it, you won't spend much time not liking it. But I think you'll like it. 🙂
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