Anne Mahroum, the protagonist of Goodman’s latest (after You Made Me Love You
), has a luxurious home in northern Toronto, an art business and a good husband in Elie, a Lebanese man with a penchant for numismatics. Her six-month-old son, Evan, was born with “severe bilateral club feet.” Anne loves her Evan, but yearns for him to be normal and decides on corrective surgery. As Anne copes with complicated feelings about her child, she wonders why her mother, Jean, uprooted them from Harmony, B.C., when she was five years old, severing ties with the rest of the family. Anne vows to locate her father and introduce him to Evan after the operation, when she can present her perfect son and their normal life. Goodman’s solid writing is permeated with commentary on the societal pressures to have it all, yet the book remains mired in Anne’s thoughts as the reader waits for some form of transformation to happen. (Aug.)
