Not Quite Sure What This Novel is Really About...

Is it a family story? A glimpse into Washington history? A suspense story? A love story? A portrait of a community that is just a little too involved in each other’s business? A psychological portrait? “You Are the Love of My Life” (W. W. Norton, 2012), a novel by Susan Richards Shreve, is a “good read,” but a little confused and a little contrived. Lucy, the main character, someone with several secrets in her life (about what happened to her father, and about her own children’s father), moves from New York back to her childhood city, Washington, DC. Others in the close-knit neighborhood have their own secrets. Gradually Lucy and her children become more enmeshed in the neighborhood; towards the end of the novel, the secrets gradually come out. I won’t say more, so as not to give any surprises away.