A review by kirstenrose22
A Good House by Bonnie Burnard

4.0

I picked this up at the library book sale because the blurb on the back refers to Carol Shields, whom I adore. This book reminds me a lot of Shields - the author is also Canadian, there is a quiet, almost unflappable, tone throughout, and it's one of those books in which not a lot happens (and at the same, quite a lot does happen). It traces one family in Ontario from the 1950s to the present. The stepmother is definitely the standout character - just a rock at the center of everything, and always the one who somehow knows just what other people need. Sometimes the skips in the timeline were a little jarring (but how else do you tell a story that lasts 50 years?).