On Turpentine Lane

If you, like me, are in the market to buy a house, DON'T READ THIS BOOK.

Sure, you can get taken in by that cute, cottage-y look, but the next thing you know, your workmate moves in and the police are digging up your basement.

I love how Elinor Lipman tells her stories. They usually feature (like this one) the messes folks get themselves into. Normal everyday people with believable quirks end up in the weirdest situations. Take the main character, Faith Frankel's dad. A typical father telling typical dad jokes until one day he moves out of the family home, starts painting Chagall knock-offs, and moves in with Tracy and her two teenage daughters. Happens all the time.

That's just a lovely side story in this well-paced, dialog-driven tale about a 32-year-old Jewish woman who initially puts up with her vagabond boyfriend until he starts posting pics of himself and other women he encounters on his journey across country to find himself.

I like the role (undertow?) that family plays in this book. Faith's family does their best to help one another even when it's sporadic and not all that beneficial. The point is, they try.

Great read for anyone who wants to know that weird stuff happens to everyone.

Charming but almost too fluffy light. There never seem to be any real stakes for any of the characters, even a possible homicide subplot is just tossed aside. There's a very sweet romance but again, no real barriers other than the characters' reluctance to tell each other how they feel.