You can't get sentimental about houses. Or bodies. They're just, I don't know, the Tupperware of the soul.”
― Eileen Pollack, Breaking and Entering: A Novel

I really wanted to like this way more then I did. While not bad, did not love this one.

When Louise and Richard move to small town Michigan, from sunny liberal California, they find themselves amongst people who do not understand them and whom they do not understand. Many of their neighbors are part of the Militia. This book is also set right after the Oklahoma City bombings. I thought I'd love it.

I think part of the issue for me was the "bait and switch" component. The focus really is not on the things I just described. Those things seem to be more of a backdrop.

Rather, more of the book is focused on Louise and an affair she starts with an (also married) man. That plot point seems to take over the whole book and I did not know and was not prepared for that.

I thought I'd get more of a literary story on how people with different political believes from different social classes learn to live alongside each other. And really, that is a heck of a selling point with me because I love books that focus on those issues.

Reading about the affair was a bit tedious and I wasn't all that invested in what happens. It was not the political and literary read that I'd thought it would be.

I did enjoy aspects of Breaking and Entering but it felt to me anyway, like a bit of a bait and switch as I said. I also felt the end was a little to pat and wrapped up to neatly.

It was not my favorite but is not bad by any means. Different people have different tastes. With this book, I loaned it to a friend who adored it. ( )

Really enjoyed this book! I definitely thought it would be more about the Oklahoma City bombing being related to the Michigan Militia. All I'll take away from this book is the gritty, no frills lives the characters lead. The only frills were in the protagonist's dreams about her dalliance with the minister. ( )