Readers under the impression that a dessert couldn't possibly start a feud will see their error when they read Allegra Goodman's expansive, openhearted novel This Is Not About Us, a family saga that, like the apple cake that starts it all, is deceptively light and fluffy but more substantial than may at first appear. The tragedy that sets the plot in motion is anything but cheery. Jeanne, at 74 the youngest of three Rubinstein sisters, is dying of lung cancer at her Brookline, Mass., Tudor home. Over several days, family members visit, including Helen and Sylvia, Jeanne's older sisters. When Sylvia brings over a homemade apple cake, Helen is furious, as it's her recipe. Helen is also deeply religious, unlike atheist Jeanne, on whose behalf Sylvia fumes when Helen recites the Kaddish, a Jewish prayer. One can see where this is headed: Jeanne dies in the first chapter, but resentments linger for the next 300 pages.
What makes this work so entertaining is Goodman's breezy prose and the colorful family members she has invented. There's Sylvia's lawyer son, Richard, father of two young daughters, divorced from Debra, and dating a woman half his age. Jeanne's adult son Dan and his wife are parents to Phoebe, an eco-warrior student who notices during a visit home that "all composting had ceased the minute she had gone to college" but now wants to ditch university and rededicate herself to the violin. More follows, including a daughter dreading her bat mitzvah and painful memories from childhood seders. This is another toothsome creation from a reliably entertaining writer. --Michael Magras, freelance book reviewer