Rating: 
Summary: Well written and absorbing
Review: Although the subject of Dew's novel is well-trodden territory-- a husband and wife, temporarily separated, re-evaluate their marriage and their conceptions of each other-- Dew's writing is excellent. This story of this complicated couple and their families and friends is quietly moving as well as engrossing.
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth the time
Review: I don't know why it won the National Book Award. This book is very slow, & very boring. Where is the action? I forced myself to finish it.
Rating: 
Summary: Emotionally unforgettable!
Review: I read this book years ago, when it first came out in hardback, and it has stayed fresh in my memory. The title refers to a spray-painted sign on a highway overpass that the family references each summer on it's way back to visit the extended family in the heartland of America. While visions of getting centered en famille overtake the mother in this tale, she neglects the danger confronting her own children, ignoring signs of malaise until she is forced to relinquish her dreams, and deal with reality. All the characters are well drawn. My heart went out to every one of them......things do happen that aren't anyone's fault, and happen when you least expect them. All the characters change, grow, adapt....in very realistic ways, and there is a kindness in the way the author tells their story. It's easy to understand how it won the National Book award; what isn't easy to understand is why it was never made into a movie----i feel like I've almost seen it, because Ms. Dew's descriptions are so visual, and her characters are so appealing.
Rating:
Summary: An Empty Book
Review: I saw a blurb about this book in another novel I was reading awhile ago and it sounded interesting. Then when I got it, I saw it had won the National Book Award and that the author had written for the New Yorker and taught at the Iowa Writers Workshop. So, was I ever surprised when the pages turned VERY slowly and the characters never developed and neither did the plot (what plot?!). Honestly, I would think that this writer could do MUCH better, given her background.I found the writing not 'bad' writing, but full of cliches. The book, though, has no plot to speak of, no tension in it, and I was left wondering what the writer was wanting to say or why she'd bothered to write so much about so little. If a novel doesn't carry a strong story or plot, then the characters need to be the centerpiece, but in this book, that was a letdown too. I sure didn't care about any of them, actually disliked the main character, Dinah, even disliked her child, Toby, and found all the characters only shallowly fleshed-out. There are also long paragraphs and little dialogue, and what dialogue there is, I often found odd or unrealistic (I'd say to myself, 'That's not how someone would talk!' or 'That's not what someone would say/think in a situation like this!'); ditto on her observations of people and events--I frequently found them unrealistic or off-the-mark, too. Since there's so little plot, I wondered why Dew hadn't developed her characters more--such as Anne Tyler or Richard Russo do (I was thinking of Sully in 'Nobody's Fool,' where not a lot of earthshaking things happen, but oh, you quickly grow to love Sully and the other characters and are immersed in Sully's world). I, frankly, was very bored with this book, from page one until the very last page. I kept thinking it would somehow get better or have some kind of twist or surprise somewhere, some enlightenment. But nope! I've never given a book a one-star before, had thought I'd reserve that for really 'trashy' books. This isn't a 'trashy' book, it's just that there's nothing much to it and nothing that I could find to like about it. Nada. And I sure did wonder why it had been published (let alone won an award!). My edition of this novel has a chapter of the author's most recent book in it, 'The Evidence Against Her'; I have no idea if this ends up having more of a story to it, but I quickly decided I wouldn't try anything more by this writer. What I read in this excerpt was discouraging--the writing didn't seem to have improved and the strange, not-in-sync observations and dialogue remain (and there are still the long paragraphs and very little dialogue.). Anyway, I'd felt I'd completely wasted my time with this novel, can't fathom why anyone would give it 5 stars--there are so many better novels out there, why not try an author with a solider reputation?
Rating:
Summary: What a Find!
Review: I simply can't recommend this book highly enough! My book club read it, and we are all about the age of the book's protaganist. We all began to realize, as we discussed this amazing book, that we, too, had unintentionally neglected out children--and the other people we love best in the world--while always meaning to do the right thing. We, too, had to learn how to forgive ourselves and our families in order to finally grow up. And we laughed in recognition of our own foibles in the character of Dinah, and her "perfect" friend, Pam, and of poor Martin who misses his family. We are a coed book club, and we try to alternate between "women's" and "men's" books. We decided that this book filled the bill for both! I am so surprised to find negative reviews of this lovely book. It has changed my understanding of my own life!
Rating:
Summary: This book bored me to death...
Review: I will read anything - truly anything. I always make a point of reading a book from cover to cover. While it may seem at first that a novel has little substance, it may blossom into a terrific chestnut or a touching story. Well, I hated this book. While I suppose this story loosely discusses child neglect, it provides little impetus for why these self-centered, boring people behave the way they do. The characters are so loosely developed that no character is really defined by the end. There is absolutely no plot development whatsoever, no satisfying tied ends at the end, nor any ends to tie to begin with. There is never any real conflict, any real need for any of the characters, any passion, any interesting emotion. There simply was no story in ANY of the people presented here, and no story was ever told. Shame on the National Book Award for giving an award to this book. It offered absolutely nothing in the way of interest. This book was totally without inspiration and I highly, highly recommend the potential reader not to frustrate themselves by wasting their time on it.
Rating: 
Summary: Welcome To The Pity Party
Review: It is obvious that Ms. Dew has great writing talent but the characters in this book are so distasteful that it was difficult for me to read.
The main character, Dinah, is completely self-obsessed and lives her life waiting for the other characters to apologize to her for inconsequential things that happened during her youth.
I wanted to shake Dinah and tell her to move on!
Rating:
Summary: brilliant evocation of character and heart
Review: Real writers are hard to find, but Robb Forman Dew is most assuredly one of them. One falls at once into the dream of this book and doesn't leave it until the last page is turned. In scene after scene we meet a most believable family facing the strains of separation and the consequences of poor judgment, facing the complicated tangle of forgiveness. It is a seamless book, a perfect book club book, ripe with beauty, power, and wisdom.
Rating:
Summary: Do not waste your time!
Review: This is the WORST book that I have ever read! Every page reads like the author went a little too crazy with the Thesaurus tool on her computer! I read this for a book club and everyone in the club agreed that the main character is next to impossible to like or feel any connection with. By the end of the book we all could have cared less about what happened to any of the characters and were very disappointed about the waste of our time! I would rather read a trashy romance novel (and I hate those!).
Rating:
Summary: Much ado about nothing
Review: Very little plot, very little dialogue, highly unlikeable characters and many, many words. The writing's not bad, but someone should've told the author that a little action and conversation go a long way in holding the reader's attention and interest. Disappointing.
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