Every Last One: A Novel

Another great Novel by Anna. She is so good at relationships and real life struggles. She can make you really feel what her characters might feel.

I read synopsis but the story took a turn I wasn't expecting. I think it was a beautiful that needs to be told. I very much enjoyed the story,very well written.

Thank you, Anna. So well written as expected from your work. Such character studies, happiness and pain. Will always read you works.

Book started slow but then it took off. Very surprising story line. Would have liked a stronger ending but this one fits.

I read Anna Quindlen's book because a friend asked for feedback from someone who had read it. I did not read the description or book jacket before reading the book so had no preconcieved ideas about it. I found myself totally engrossed in the book and ended up reading it in one day! Some reviewers have complained about the first part being boring. Maybe so; but it was necessary to set up Mary Beth's life and her views. Look at your own life, isn't it a little boring too? Yes, Mary Beth is a "helicopter parent" and yet she like many parents tend to overlook the "distasteful details" of their children's lives. They would rather not really know what is going on. Mary Beth and her husband, like many parents, are not equipped to handle "problems" their kids may have as they didn't have problems like these when they were growing up. Thus, like some parents, Mary Beth glosses over some things she shouldn't have, she wanted to be liked by her children (who doesn't) and most importantly, she doesn't want to make "waves". She is basically a "problem fixer" Then, she is forced to look at things differently. She does not have the skills to really face the tragedy and "fix it" ; but no one really does. Did I figure out what was going to happen before it did? Not entirely Someone said it was unrealistic for her not to want to "kill someone" or get really angry. Sorry, that is a realistic reaction for some when faced with something so horrific. I have been there, I know it is true. I have had to put aside the desire for punishment and hatred for the driver who hit my parents' car head on and killed them and my uncle instantly. Had I dwelt on hatred, I would have not been able to cope at all. Sometimes you have to put aside hatred and the thirst for revenge simply to cope with your own feelings of grief.Why only four stars? I did think that some of what Mary Beth did throughout the book was a little too naive, even for a character like hers. Max and Glen's characters were not quite developed enough to be believable except as "shadow family members". A couple of characters and events were mentioned but not followed through with. Why the sleeping medication?, Why the affair? (Deborah could easily have gone off for any number of other reasons), Why the police officer showing up at the end?Other than a few minor details that I didn't like, I did appreciate the book. I can't say I liked it because it was way too close to home for me; but I didn't dislike it either. As far as the details of the "incident", there were enough details to get the idea across without having us drown in them.It isn't a "fluffy, summer read" that is for sure. If you want one of those, try another author! I am anxious to read more of Anna's books.

I knew almost nothing about this book when I started to read it. I read a brief summary of it, but not enough to spoil it like some other reviewers have said. I started to read and I liked it from the very beginning.Every Last One: A Novel by Anna Quindlen is the story of Mary Beth Latham, a mother of three teenage children. Max and Alex are fraternal twins, and Ruby, the oldest, is an aspiring writer in her senior year of high school. Alex seems to be doing all right, but Max is in the shadow of his athletic twin, playing the drums, but not popular at school and seems depressed to the point of needing professional help. In the past, Ruby has suffered through an eating disorder. Glen, the father, is an opthalmologist, and is a very traditional father along with his landscaper-wife who is at the center of the family as the mother who surrounds her children and their friends with love, attention and good food. Anna Quindlen wrote this novel in the first person, so we see this family through Mary Beth's eyes.Mary Beth is a very good mother and wife, but most of her attention is on her children. Watching her rush about with sports events to attend, kids to drop off at different places, hot meals on the table at dinnertime, and the concern and love that kept her always vigilant to what was going on in her children's lives was like watching a home movie rather than reading a book. As much as mothers try to know everything about their children's lives, it's impossible to know it all. The father in this family is a little less concerned about the things that worry Mary Beth, but he is a loving father and husband and relates well to his children. He becomes concerned when Ruby breaks up with her boyfriend and the boyfriend doesn't take the breakup too well. Mary Beth continues to try to help the boy, because she knows that things are difficult for him at home, despite some disturbing things that he does. That's the kind of person she is.I was totally shocked when tragedy hit this family. I never saw it coming, and I cried through most of the second half of the book. I felt that I got to know this family very well through Quindlen's excellent writing and character development, and I felt like it was happening to me, as well. In the aftermath of this event, I understood Mary Beth's actions and her feelings and what she had to do for herself until she could do what she really needed to do. Mary Beth is a woman of strength and resilience, which is what I most liked about the book. There were a few things that I thought were out of character for her that just didn't fit, especially at the time they were revealed in the book, but they weren't enough to make me give it anything but 5 stars. This family will stay with me for a long time.

I recently read 'Miller's Valley' and rejoiced - as I imagined I had stumbled upon the new AnneTyler. I enjoyed this well-written and satisfying novel very much. So, with great optimism, I ordered two more Anna Quindlen novels for my Kindle, the first being 'Every Last One'. This one, sadly, has not lived up to the bar set by 'Miller's Valley'. This novel seems to be a case of 'over-egging the pudding' in the first half. The novels ambles along with much description of the Latham family's ordinary American life. We learn about the slightly arty and bohemian daughter Ruby with a boyfriend she is outgrowing, the twins Alex and Max with their dramatically different personalities - and the issues surrounding the rather surly and introverted Max. We meet Glen, the amiable and reliable eye doctor husband and finally Mary Beth, the protagonist and narrator of this tragic tale. Mary Beth is a typical middle class suburban housewife with a flourishing home business as a landscape gardener. It is through her voice that the story is told. So far, so good. But there is an excess of detail and layering of scene after scene building up this picture of happy families in the suburbs. Quindlen seems to underestimate the reader - and makes one wish to shout, "Okay, I get it! I get it! The daughter is arty and destined for better things than her hometown boyfriend. There are simmering jealousies between the twins. The husband is worthy but dull." WE GET IT! So can we just get on with the story?" But maybe that is just me. It is a hard book to write about without giving away the central drama, which, after trawling through the first half of the book, does come as rather an abrupt shock. The second half of the book describes the aftermath of this event and untangles a couple of mysteries including why Mary Beth had such a major falling out with her former friend Deborah (a side drama I found completely implausible). I do not know when this novel was written, but I imagine 'Miller's Way' came later - as it shows a greater command of character portrayal and plot development. This isn't a terrible book, but it is no way in the same league as Anne Tyler or Elizabeth Strout.

I found this offering by the author disappointing compared to the previous 2 books I read. The idea seems a good one on paper but it doesn't deliver. This is due to a large extent to the characters which are mere cardboard cutouts so conventional snug and wellthinking. This is particularly true of the heroine a soccer mum devoid of self criticism and riddled with psychological blind spots. Ultimately they fail to engage our sumpathy except perhaps for the viilain of the story and the misfit twin of the family...The story is so literal that it becomes annoying. I did wonder whether it was a clever ploy by the author to subvert our jugment but I think there is not enough to go on and a face value reading is expected here. It is so well thinking and self righteous that it becomes a caricature making it an involuntary endictment of American middle class society.

I like the writing style of this book by Anna Quindlen. It is narrated by Mary Beth, wife of Glenn and mother to Ruby, Max and Alex, much of it doing the mundane things that all of us do. I found this drew me into their lives.This is not a fast paced thriller, although there is a shocking event. The fact that this occurs to such a typical family w is highlighted by the slow pace of the surrounding narrative. The event happens in the middle of the book and the last half, written in the same style, is about finding a new and different way for the family to live.There is a large cast of secondary characters which does get a little confusing when trying to work out which parent belongs to which child, but the main characters are well defined. This is a story about families their trivialities and the complex relationships that are at play within them.

This book deserves five stars for the beautiful writing style and the author's uncanny ability to tap into the mind of a modern mother. Mary Beth, the protagonist, is indeed flawed, as another reviewer pointed out, but that just makes her so believeable. At times I felt I was sitting in listening to a typical family, with all the little details of the interaction of teenagers and parents brilliantly protrayed. For me, Max, was by far the most interesting character, full of teenage angst and forever in the shadow of his more obviously successful brother.I really feel different people will take different things from this book. For me the event, though dramatic, was not the most important feature. I was drawn to the writer's brilliance at building emotional tension, her wonderful use of language; for example the line somewhere in the middle of the book about the sadness/loneliness associated with Max having no names or drawings on his plaster cast was so simple and so original.I will definitely read more by this author. Enjoy her.

A disaster waiting to happen. The events of the novel make it a difficult read as the tragedy unfolds. Perhaps it's the essential 'American-ness' of Quindlen' s style, which I'd never particularly noticed in previous novels, which began to grate as the story went on. The narrator, Mary Beth, is so determined to be 'the perfect mom' that when her life unravels she spends almost half the novel agonising about her feelings. A