First novel by Dana Precious who lives in L.A. but was born in North Muskegon, MI, the major setting of this book. Jeannie is one of 4 girls and 1 boy in the Thompson family. Told from her perspective, the story moves back and forth between one very eventful year in her family's life, 1986, and her current life 20 years later. It's almost impossible to imagine a house with 5 women and only one bathroom, but that seems to be the least of their problems. This family has over the top things happen to them along with all the ordinary challenges and joys of living. When grandma's nursing home has to close for 2 months to renovate, they do not hesitate to take her in...even though she is prone to running out of the house without clothes, and finally, in her deteriorated mental state, tries to blow up the house by jimmying a gas line. It's a little hard to believe that children raised in such a loving and supportive family nevertheless seem to pick really bad marriage partners and live such out of control lives. But I could not walk away from the book, simply because I wanted to know what was going to happen next, and kept hoping things would end well--which they did. There are some--in my opinion--laugh-out-loud scenes, like that of Jeannie's dad trying to rescue a squirrel who has gotten his head trapped in the supposedly squirrel-proof bird feeder. The major characters are reasonably well-developed, especially Jeannie, her mom and dad, and the sense of small town place is palpable. Definitely an enjoyably read.
