Johnny Casey’s 49th birthday sets the scene for a major family implosion, with many secrets spilled and three marriages put at risk, after a head injury leads to home truths.
Jump back six months to another family get-together and then forward through several more, all instigated by Johnny’s wife Jessie – the self appointed family matriarch.
They gradually reveal the complicated history of this large and messy extended Irish family that requires a gnarled tree at the start for reference as to how everyone is related, or not.
Sisters-in-law Jessie, Cara and Nell could not be more different, but then again neither could their husbands – the Casey brothers.
The sprawling tale of all their interactions, children, flaws, mistakes and shenanigans is warm and witty, if at times a little hard to swallow.
Keyes has never been shy of a cause, but she perhaps goes a bit overboard here, with asylum seeker policy, eating disorders, period poverty and gaslighting all getting an outing, along with something of a lecture.
She also veers into exposition a few times to fill in the very intricate back stories of so many characters.
Jessie’s aggressive and oppressive generosity, Cara’s body insecurity and Nell’s terrible decisions don’t make you like them any less. Good people sometimes do bad things, but they can redeem themselves and in the end family matters more than anything else.
Several of Keyes’ earlier novels were linked by one family – the Walshes; each focussing on a different family member. There is scope for the Caseys and Kinsellas to form a similar nexus; it would certainly be interesting to find out what happens next for the younger generation, particularly the luscious Ferdia.
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