THE GRIEF OF OTHERS (Leah Hager Cohen) - August 26/13

While I can definitely see why Tom Perrotta wrote a blurb for this - the book's portrait of a crumbling family feels very Perrottaesque - The Grief of Others can't quite live up to its potential. There are plenty of captivating stretches here and the characters are very richly drawn, but Cohen overwrites the proceedings to an almost mind-numbing degree. So much of the book is devoted to backstory-building, overly descriptive passages that I eventually began to lose interest. The characters drown beneath the prose, if that makes sense. The book could (and should) have been edited down considerably. I liked it, but I wanted to love it. **1/2 out of ****