We Only Know So Much

April 30, 2012
At the heart of the dysfunctional Copland family, in Crane’s debut novel (after You Must Be This Happy to Enter, her third short story collection), is bookish wife and mother Jean, embroiled in an affair with a suicidal lover. Her husband, Gordon, remains oblivious, too busy worrying that he’s lost his mind after a run-in with an ex-girlfriend he doesn’t even remember. Their daughter, Priscilla, is a fashionista desperate to become a reality TV star, while their nine-year-old son, Otis, has fallen in love for the very first time. Gordon’s father is struggling with a Parkinson’s diagnosis, and family matriarch, Vivian, is determined to overcome long-held fears. Crane’s novel is filled with deliciously idiosyncratic characters, humorous and distinct narration, and a whole lot of personality. Each character’s emotional growth is just enough to satisfy, without being overbearing. And while a family overview at the start makes for a tricky entrée, Crane’s summer novel has undeniable heart. Agent: Alice Tasman, Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency.

June 15, 2012
Crane delivers a unique and dizzying tale that delves into the emotional life of a family teetering on the brink of everything. Best known for her three short story collections, Crane (You Must Be This Happy to Enter, 2008, etc.) graduates to novels with a surprisingly centered and cohesive debut about a family that is, as their self-centered teenage daughter would phrase it, "losing their shit." Our most promising and emotionally truthful character is Jean Copeland, seemingly dutiful wife to husband Gordon and equally devoted mother to teenage daughter Priscilla and 9-year-old romantic Otis. But we soon learn that life in the Copeland family is not at all what it might seem on the surface. In fact, Jean is having a joyful affair with James, a member of her book club who quietly suffers from disabling depression. Gordon is dealing with his own challenges, as the self-professed expert in nearly everything is rapidly losing his memory. Priscilla thinks her future lies in reality TV shows, but that's mostly beside the point--"First of all, Priscilla is a bitch," Crane candidly writes. Otis' story is sweetest as he pines away for a classmate, toiling away at heart-shaped crosswords to win her heart. The beauty in Crane's novel is her sweep from acid commentary to heartfelt portrayal of real-life loves and losses. "Review: difficult daughter, know-it-all dad, son sweet and okay if a little weird, mom delayed potential/having affair, great grand-mother bitchy, granddad losing it. So we know where we're starting," writes Crane. But Crane's offhand style is woven seamlessly with heartbreaking arcs like the suicide of Jean's lover, Gordon's inappropriate Facebook stalking of a former classmate, and Jean's elegant dismissal of her daughter's drama. "God didn't punk you, daughter," adds Jean in an internal monologue. "Life is what you make it. Nobody knows this better than me." Life in a snow globe made from dashed dreams and misunderstandings.

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Starred review from May 1, 2012
After three scintillating short story collections, Crane delivers her first novel, a tragicomedy of epic familial malfunctions. Four generations of Copelands are finding problematic ways of coping in a big old house in a small midwestern town. Gordon subjects everyone to tedious recitations, ruining breakfast, for instance, with a lecture about pancakes. His wife, Jean, stopped listening long ago. Just as she tunes out their bitchy and confused 19-year-old daughter, Priscilla; pays too little attention to their sweet and precocious 9-year-old son, Otis; and deflects the cutting remarks of Gordon's elegantly commanding 98-year-old grandmother, Vivian, while trying to care for Gordon's father, Theodore, a lovely man afflicted with Parkinson's. Jean found secret happiness with a lover but now struggles to hide her despair over his shocking suicide and is oblivious to everyone else's needs and sorrows. As Crane illuminates each floundering character's thoughts and fears, she addresses the reader in the first-person plural, admitting at one point, We know a lot, but not everything. Not only doesn't the allegedly omniscient narrator know all, Crane averswe barely understand ourselves, let alone our loved ones. Although Crane's quicksilver humor and facile plot can feel glib, this is an irresistible and winsome read. A truly astute tale of love neglected and reclaimed, family resiliency, spiritual inquiries, and personal metamorphoses.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)