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Every Last One (2010)

by Anna Quindlen(Favorite Author)

3.81 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1400065747 (ISBN13: 9781400065745)

languge

English

genre

Fiction

publisher

Random House

review 1: As a parent this was a difficult book to read or put down. Caring deeply for her family, the narrator, Mary Beth, must face the worst thing possible - the loss of her husband and two children, murdered by a neighborhood chum of her daughter. Quindlen did an amazing job of researching the topic and knows how to relate to her readers. It's a book every mother should read, when you do be ready - it's a very emotional experience.
review 2: Mary Beth Latham is a mother of three teenagers and wife of an ophthalmologist. In spite of a successful career as a landscape gardener, she considers parenting to be her first priority. Her little corner of the world is brightened by her family and those dear to them. She is the sort of parent who is clued in to what's happen... moreing in her children's life without having to seek information from them actively. Especially with her eldest, Ruby, a very talented and confident kid, in whom Mary Beth sees her own younger self. With the twins, Max and Alex, she and her husband Glenn are always at wits end. In every sense Lathams are a perfect modern family, living in an upper class suburban neighbourhood. First half is all about moody teenagers, anxious parents, summer camps, college applications, freak outs and a prom. For a while everything seems so right, so perfect and in many ways it is. Then, all of a sudden, it isn't any more. Mary Beth Latham's life is divided in to two halves. An act of violence that tears through the very fabric of her existence, gives the readers two stories. A story of family life, one that is so common place, regular, that reading it, is like reminiscing or going through some old journal entries. The second one, the one that defines this book is the hard part. Of trauma, grief and guilt, this half of Every Last One is what good literature is made of. Yet, it is so difficult to read and very hard to discuss. I always talk about the books I have read with friends and family but with this one, I didn't want to. I am sure other readers have felt this too. Could she have seen it coming? Could anyone? Could it have been avoided? Were there signs that she missed? As Mary Beth ponders over these questions, readers are given a chance to contemplate the effects of situations that seems harmless in the beginning but slowly gather speed and spiral out of control, like a tornado, destroying everything from that point ahead. The way inconsequential looking events change the course of one's life is what describes this book the best.I know that there are many, many books out there waiting to be read but if you get a chance, do read Every Last One. It is worth the time. less

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