Ask Again, Yes!

We enjoyed a lively discussion about the novel  Ask Again, Yes.  Our discussion centered  around a delicious Italian meal at Joe & Joe’s Family Restaurant, formerly of the Bronx, where author Mary Beth Keane was born, now located in Pearl River, Keane’s current residence.  It is also the setting for the book, known in the novel as the fictional town of Gillam.

This book debuted earlier this summer on the NY Times best seller list as one of the 20 Best Books of the Year so far.  Keane, who is now 42,  has published other novels such as Fever and The Walking People and was honored in 2011 as one of the best young authors with a 5 under 35 award from the National Book Foundation.  The book, Ask Again, Yes is a domestic novel about two families of NYC  rookie police officers, Brian Stanhope and Francis Gleason, who end up living next door to one another in Gillam,  set in the 1970’s.  It follows the complicated lives of these two families over the course of 40 years, especially the lives of two of their children, Peter and Kate. The families are intertwined by Peter and Kate’s ongoing love story, but also by an unusually violent act by Peter’s mother, Ann that changes all of their lives forever. I found Ask Again, Yes to be an incredibly moving account  of  the forces that drive people together and away from one another through love, devotion and sometimes even fear.  It is a multi- faceted love story that often drove me to the edge of my seat with tears, frustration and heartbreak.

What a wonderful way to begin the new year and decade!  Wishing everyone a very happy, healthy 2020!

                                                              ---Robin A.