Emily, alone : a novel

 by Stewart O'Nan. Upon completion of his psychologically rigorous, emotionally raw, yet deceptively buoyant giant of a domestic drama, Wish You Were Here (2002), O'Nan obviously had sufficient material and heart left over to once again visit the Maxwell family of Pittsburgh a few years on in time. In the previous novel, the matriarch, Emily, has just lost her husband, and she, her sister-in-law, her two grown children, and their children gather for the last time at the family summer home in Chautauqua, New York. Now, in this sequel, we follow Emily through her domestic pleasures, concerns, and crises as the calendar year moves from holiday to holiday, with Emily experiencing increased infirmity while also seeing the physical decline of her sister-in-law and even her beloved spaniel. Connection to her children remains tricky as they approach middle age, and establishing communication with her grandchildren seems beyond her ability, for they live in a young society whose tenets are unfamiliar to her. Emily's parental disappointment arises from her abiding sentiment that what one does for one's children is endless and thankless. O'Nan again proves himself to be the king of detail. What people eat, how they eat it, what they think and say in the midst of eating it this novel represents the almost minute mapping of the lay of the domestic land as O'Nan the sociological cartographer views it. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: An author tour and radio-publicity campaign will follow O'Nan's recent appearance as a panelist at the ALA/ERT Booklist Author Forum at ALA's Midwinter Meeting. --Booklist (Check Catalog)