With a war at the beginning (Vietnam) and one at the end (Iraq), Thompson frames an American family's path through 30 years of life in America, from 1973 to 2003. This portrait of the Erickson family in Grenada, Iowa, alternates viewpoints among family members and their cousin, Chip, a damaged vet of the Vietnam War.
The story opens with Anita's wedding to Jeff. She is the eldest of four children; the others are Ryan, Blake and Victoria. In vignettes that capture important as well as ordinary moments in each of their lives, a picture begins to build about who they are, what they want and what they will eventually settle for. The constant thread throughout all the stories is that these are basically good-hearted individuals, often saddled with more than they are equipped to handle. When Ryan buys the farmhouse that once belonged to Uncle Norm and Aunt Martha, prototypical examples of the classic American farm couple--thrifty, hardworking, honest, church-going and long-suffering--Blake says of them: "They didn't think in terms of happy."
Each of the Erickson children has thought in those terms, however, and mostly have come up short in the happiness department. Each of them has endured a difficult situation in the hope that it would change.
If this all sounds too, too grim, it isn't. In Thompson's (author of the story collection Do Not Deny Me) engaging style, each of these characters has a life filled with much humor, insight, reconciliation and understanding. At story's end, the next generation is starting to leave Iowa. Who knows what's ahead for them? Thompson keeps us hoping for the best for her characters, as she gracefully chronicles events and shows us interior lives.--Valerie Ryan