What’s Worth Keeping

McLaren’s middling latest (after The Road to Enchantment) follows one family’s struggles and the unhappiness that threatens their relationships. Everyone in the Bergstrom family is miserable. Amy has recently undergone successful treatment for breast cancer, but has spent months living with the knowledge that her husband, Paul, had planned to divorce her, though he’s since agreed to try to work on the marriage. Paul, a police officer, has never dealt with the trauma of helping survivors from the rubble of the Oklahoma City bombing. Their teenage daughter, Carly, has just graduated from high school in the midst of a bout of depression, made worse by the fact that she inherited a gene from her mother that makes her more likely to develop cancer. They each eventually find a sort of peace while living apart over the summer by concentrating on things they once loved. Amy explores an old-growth forest; Paul refurbishes a house; and Carly cares for horses on a ranch. The characters’ ruminations on their unhappy family life come mainly through flashback, creating a plodding pace and making reconciliation feel inevitable. The characters, meanwhile, feel like types more than people. This is an easy one to miss. [em](Jan.) [/em]