The final 10% of this book could have been edited down by half to make a very touching and well-written short story. Unfortunately, the foregoing 90% is like a grandparent's overly-long Christmas letter, full of scrupulous detail about not-very-interesting lives and "wisdom" you should have already learned as a young adult. It's very rare that I don't finish a book, and if we hadn't been reading this for my book club, I never would have made it to the end. Some of the writing is lovely, but that's not enough to make up for the lack of almost any plot development whatsoever and the gratingly anachronistic dialogue. Not recommended.