Kim Larsen was an ordinary teenager, she had just graduated high school and was living her last ordinary summer before leaving for college. She slept late, spent time with her sister, went swimming with her friends, and made plans to meet up with them again later after her work shift. And then she was never seen again.This isn't the suspenseful, edge-of-your seat police procedural you might expect. Rather it's an in depth study of how Kim's disappearance affects the lives of her family and friends. This is the insightful look at seemingly ordinary people that O'Nan does so extraordinarily well. O'Nan is my man. I love his subtle, quiet prose, his rich but never over the top details, his unassuming presentation of family dynamic. I could see why some might consider his books boring (nothing really happens) but this is what I love about him. This was a heart wrenching tale, all the more so given its even tone, about a young girl, Kim, who, the summer before her start at college, goes missing. Her parents dedicate themselves to finding her, her clique begins getting concerned about secrets they are harboring, her boyfriend acts strange, her sister withdraws into her room.And that's pretty much it. O'Nan takes us through each character rather than dwell on any given one, so it is not clear whose story this is - it's Kim's, partly, though she disappears early on, and in an odd way it ends up being the younger sister's, but in truth everyone gets a moment, and every character, if not richly memorable, rings true in a way.I guess my main beef with this one is that there is a lot that is never fully explained. The friends' secrets are alluded to, and there was a sort of dissatisfying air to the work. I would also say that I was left wondering what the point was. In a way this was like that Anna Quindlen book where almost everyone dies and the family that's left tries to cope and voila. Here, too, we see more about how a family responds to tragedy (in a weird? insightful? impressive? horrifying? way, the mom sort of becomes this celebrity spokeswoman while the dad just kind of idles by, and the sister passively grows up) than an actual story story. O'Nan creates a spellbinding enough world (for me) that I didn't mind this too much, but it made this squeak by with four stars.
What do You think about Alle, Alle Lieben Dich (2009)?
Not as exciting as I had hoped. Sad and drawn out. Interesting look into a family's tragedy.
—Smellyshelly
Is satisfaction due to a lack of satisfaction possible? Isn't that life?
—emillewinger
O'Nan writes about people rarely mentioned. One of my favorite writers.
—maryvirginiaguice
