This is definitely a winner! It is so telling of what is happening in families today. It is frustrating, heartbreaking and completely believable.

My thanks to netgalley and St Martins Press for this advanced readers copy. ( )

The Exact Nature of Our Wrongs by Janet Peery sets the stage to be the story of a dysfunctional family set in fictional small town of Amicus, Kansas. Stories of dysfunction and struggles against oneself have the potential to be powerful ones. Neither the character nor the topics have be likable to create a powerful message in a book. Unfortunately, this book has the unlikable character, but the power of the message does not quite reach me.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2017/12/the-exact-nature-of-our-wrongs.html.

Reviewed for NetGalley ( )

This is a novel about a very dysfunctional family with all manner of substance abuse , alcohol and psychological issues. It deals with an elderly couple and their five children generally in their fifties. There is enough jealousy here that the novel's cover should be green (envy). Although the novel would make a good movie with many juicy roles this is a hard family to like and a movie rendition will be very draining. This novel is well written but gird your loins if you tackle this one.

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher.*

This novel provides a poignant, and sometimes humorous, portrait of a family and its dysfunction. The aging patriarch and matriarch, Abel and Hattie, struggle to manage their own health and decline as their children squabble and their youngest son Billy descends into addition. While a novel, sometimes this book is a little too close to the truth of how we live our lives and can make for uncomfortable reading. ( )

Janet Peery’s The Exact Nature of Our Wrongs tells the story of the sunset years of the marriage of nonagenarians Hattie and Abel and their children who even as they reach their own retirement continue to follow patterns established in childhood. Abel is a retired lawyer and judge. Hattie stayed home and raised their six children, the last one Billy a change-of-life baby who was doted on by his siblings and Hattie, though not so much by Abel.

The children have had struggles that mystify their parents, with drugs, alcohol, and prescription medications. They love and resent each other, all striving to be first in their parents’ affections. Billy is something of a holy fool. A gay man weakened by AIDS and drug addiction, he manages to hang onto life, constantly disappointing his family, but always happy to be alive, loving and approving of his family. He has none of the bitterness and resentment of the others and loves them for their faults as much as their finer qualities.

The story is bracketed by parties celebrating Abel’s eighty-ninth and ninety-first birthday. Billy falls asleep in the cake at the first one, setting his siblings off yet another intervention. Through the next two years, as both Abel and Billy draw on Hattie’s love, strength, and support, she feels conflicted, as though love for one robs the other.

Sibling rivalry is an ancient theme, probably because it is so real. Siblings often love without liking each other. They compete for the finite expressions of their parents’ infinite love. Peery seems to really understand how people can love and hurt each other. However, The Exact Nature of Our Wrongs is a compassionate, warm, and loving story. It is full of humanity and humor. These are people who are good on the fundamentals, no matter how bad they are at living.

I loved this story. There is so much beauty in the story. While I have never loved the vast, open prairies with wheat fields a golden blanket as far as the eye can see, Peery can make that stark landscape into something beautiful. Quietude has never been so beautiful. I fell in love with this family and maybe not in spite of, but because of, their pettiness and squabbling. The authenticity of their competition with each other gives them a humanity that is far more moving that more perfect people.

This is a story that will grasp your heart and squeeze it, but not through manipulation. There is no ennoblement by suffering. The nobility was always there, tattered, worn-down, and maybe there’s a foil-wrapped tuna can propping it up, but none of that takes away one scintilla of grace.

The Exact Nature of Our Wrongs was released this week. I received an advance copy from the publisher through Shelf Awareness.

The Exact Nature of Our Wrongs at St. Martin’s Press, a Macmillan imprint
Janet Peery interview at PEN America
Janet Peery profile at Whiting Awards
Great Men and Famous Deeds – a short story by Janet Peery at Kenyon Review

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2017/09/22/9781250125088/ ( )