Look no further – pick up Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane at your local book store and enjoy 388 pages of superbly relatable story. Ask Again, Yes is the tale of two families growing up next door to each other in suburban New York. It starts in the 1970s when the two fathers are young men, starting out as cops in New York City and follows them through marriage and all the way into old age.
In between, there’s love, of course. There’s also much more – mental illness is a key theme, as is addiction. Memories, abandonment and forgiveness play notable roles in this narrative.
But it’s the way Keane puts readers right inside the everyday lives of her characters that makes this novel special. We follow them to Little League games, to college classes, to the playground, all the while privy to their innermost thoughts. And Keane, who lives in New York and has written two other novels, is gifted at giving readers authentic characters who will remind them of themselves.
This one will stick with you long after you’ve read the last page.
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