A review by jessicaxmaria
The Most by Jessica Anthony

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

4.5

A swift, excellent read that ping pongs like a game from different perspectives chapter to chapter. The game is tennis, as one of the protagonists, Katherine, is a former college tennis star. She quit tennis and married a genial, good-looking man named Virgil nearly a decade ago. Over the course of a few hours, while Katherine dips into their apartment complex's pool on a unusually warm November day, the layers of their marriage is revealed to the reader, as they grapple with what to reveal to each other. Biting and propulsive, I greatly enjoyed the volley of perspective and how deftly this was written. I also greatly enjoyed how it ended; it's a dark tale but ended with more hope about people and their capacities than I'm used to when it comes to recent reads about marriage.

I bought this two days before it was long-listed for the National Book Award, and perhaps it suffered a little from higher expectations contextually since I read it shortly after the announcement, but I won't deny its worth.