Buckeye - 5 stars > Likes and Comments

There’s nothing like good character development to elevate a novel– whether the characters are lovable, just tolerable, or frankly people you’d avoid in real life. Ryan’s got a number of well-fleshed out characters living their lives in the rural Midwest beginning in the 1920s and growing older into the 70s. They’re rather ordinary people, but described so well I could imagine knowing them as neighbors. Margaret, abandoned at birth, grows up in an orphanage and struggles her whole life with an inability to love. Felix, a gay man, is just born at the wrong time; he’s forced to pretend to be someone other than who he is for decades. Becky has genuine psychic powers that she’s determined to use to help people -- and which her husband Cal doesn’t believe in. The lives of these four, their parents and children intersect in entirely believable ways, but Ryan manages to demonstrate much about the human condition through them and to include many of life’s important issues in this book about everyday people. Indeed, what is the human condition except the ordinary trials of ordinary people? One character describes a good marriage as “...building a bridge together ... so the water can run under... and not wash the two of you away.” With memorable images, he takes the reader through infidelity and forgiveness, lasting love, and some of the traumas of war. This author knows something about life and I’ll definitely look for more of his books.

I plan to listen to this audiobook soon, I'm glad to see your glowing review.