This book was highly recommended to me. I had trouble getting into it and a friend told me to stick with it which I did and just finished it. I found it insipid and boring. It got a bit more interesting once I was 90% through it. I agree with some of the other reviews about the switching of eras being confusing, which daughter was speaking when, Joe was a wimp, and I didn’t find anything compelling about the book at all. Loved her book Bel Canto though!