You can follow Jan on Twitter by clicking on the “Follow” button in the sidebar on this page. In 'Every Last One,' the story is narrated by Mary Beth Latham, mother of three. The narrator can be acutely self-aware without seeming whining or disdainful. Published: 2010 (Random House hardcover edition), 2011 (Random House trade paperback).Ībout the author: Anna Quindlen won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. Anna Quindlen captures the pulse of family interactions in a way that is realistic. The sentence is also confusing: It says one robe lies on the bed but describes two. Worst line: “My robe lies at the foot of the bed, printed cotton in the summer, tufted chenille for the cold.” Chenille is tufted.

1: “She makes our youth seem like something Glen might have seen on the History Channel.” P. This is a novel in which the heroine observes, with no apparent irony: “We don’t have a life. And if the children of Every Last One tend to have more enlightened views than their parents, the adult female characters often sound like throwbacks to the 1950s. Let the record show that the parents of Barack Obama divorced when he was two, and that one of the Columbine shooters, Dylan Klebold, came from an intact family. The novel implies that his savagery resulted, in part, from his parents’ hostile divorce. Kiernan has a different fate, but his motives make no more sense.

“He’s been like a part of our family.” Mary Beth has no apparent religion to comfort her after Kiernan goes on his murderous rampage, but she survives the help from a generous inheritance from her slain husband and a referral to a grief counselor, although recent studies have shown that such therapy can make things worse. Every last one by Anna Quindlen, Anne Quindlen, 2010, Random House edition, in English - 1st ed. Mary Beth Latham dithers when her husband urges her talk to the troubled Kiernan, who is stalking 17-year-old Ruby. Random House, 299 pp., $26.Īn obtuse Vermont mother fails to see that her daughter’s creepy prom date is a potential sociopath who will slaughter several members of her family in this small-town soap opera by a Pulitzer Prize winner. Stop here if you don’t want to know them.Įvery Last One: A Novel. Spoiler warning: This review includes plot details.

Every Last One by Anna Quindlen