The Ever After

The latest from Pekkanen (The Wife Between Us) is a by-the-numbers domestic drama in which a woman’s world shatters when an incriminating email alerts her to her husband’s affair. Chicago suburbanites Josie and Frank Moore have been married for 12 years and have two young girls, three-year-old Isabella and seven-year-old Zoe. After discovering the email on Frank’s phone, Josie finds out that he’s been seeing a married coworker. Josie confronts Frank, and he insists it was only a few times and never went beyond kissing. Josie isn’t so sure, and the pace subsequently alternates between frantic and introspective as she dissects her marriage, past and present, while obsessively working out the timeline of the affair. Frank vows to make things right and, after Josie asks him to move out, undertakes painfully earnest attempts at self-improvement, like attending church and volunteering at a soup kitchen. While working through her pain, Josie eventually glimpses the possibility of forgiveness, but the pat conclusion is disappointing. Although Pekkanen excels at capturing the intimate details of family life and the insidiousness of domestic ennui, this study of a marriage in crisis, while diverting, doesn’t distinguish itself in a crowded field. (June)