Other People's Houses

What a great story! This could be the story of any neighborhood—as long as all the people who live there are as hysterical as Frances Bloom, the main character. She's the anchor mom of the story and the one with the most kids (3).

What starts as life on a carpool-sharing, typical American block that turns to into a off-balance neighborhood when one wife has an affair. It goes from an “it takes a village” way of raising kids to a secret-spilling calamity of drunk husbands, unfulfilling sex lives, and no one being who they seem.

Is it more important to be the thinnest, the most successful, or just the most tuned in? In the end, this is the story of a group of parents who foremost want to do the best by their kids, but unfortunately, they are only human. So what happens in Other People's Houses really does have an effect on the rest of the block in the most unexpected way.

I'm giving this four stars only because I'm upset that the author was able to write such a coherent book from so many points of view, often in the same paragraph or page. She breaks all the rules so successfully, it gives me hope that authors CAN write in ways are unique and still get picked up by a great publisher. Well done, but frustrating too. Wish I'd thought of it. Probably should be six stars, but there you have it.