Pywell's strong second novel echoes the domestic drama of her well-received debut, What Happened to Henry
, this time pitting an idyllic Arlington, Va., family against the Vietnam War. Iris Sunnaret, at 19 the baby of the Sunnaret family, is the curious but shielded narrator, her sunny view tempered by her siblings' perceptions and her own dim memories. Having lost both their parents at a young age (father left; mother drowned), Iris and her three siblings—Eddie, Perry and Angie—were taken in by their Aunt Eleanor, Uncle Charlie and cousin Hank. Eldest brother Eddie has volunteered for the war, and Perry follows; when the family learns that Eddie has been killed and Perry is missing in action—and, furthermore, that Perry may have killed Eddie—it turns the family against itself. Rock-ribbed patriots Charlie and Eleanor square off against rebellious Angie, and Iris and Hank are caught in the middle. Iris makes it her mission to discover what really happened in Vietnam, leading her to discoveries about her broken family and the world outside of it. Pywell's sharp depiction of complex sibling relationships and the Vietnam-era generation clash is occasionally betrayed by unlikely character reversals, providing glimpses of the morality play hiding behind the flesh-and-blood Sunnarets, but Pywell's ability to nail the dynamics of a family in crisis make this an immersive, affecting read. (May)
