Wow. Just . . . wow. This book had me feeling all the feels at various times, with all the things Covey experienced and all the complicated emotions of her children, learning about her life while dealing with their own shit.  I was heartbroken to see all the missed opportunities between Benny and Byron and in their relationships with their parents, especially Benny. But there was comfort in knowing that Eleanor got Benny's letter with the pictures of the cake and Benny found out that Bert had gone to NY on multiple occasions to see her, even if he never contacted her. And at least Benny and Byron got to finally reconcile.

If I had to quibble about any part of the book, it would be the Marble chapters, which felt a little off-key with the rest of the book and thus slightly jarring, especially the parts with Wanda and Ronald Martin.

The line about how they "did not think of it as buying a baby," but rather "as speeding up the process," as well as the line "Wasn't race an outdated concept, anyway?" really had me cringing.

 

At its core, this is a story about love and resilience--both the good and bad parts of it all. It was an emotional punch in the gut in the best way.