In the way Wharton and James provide character studies to talk about love in all its forms, so does Robb Dew. In stolid Washburn, Ohio unexpectedly exceptional people dwell, dream large, and fulfill deep ambitions for success and domestic tranquility. Three families', the Scofields, the Butlers, and the Claytors, lives intertwine from the town's beginnings, through its prosperity during WWI, and its tranquility during the mid-20s.

Dew peels back layers of detail, letting small quotidian events cascade into life-changing scenes; seemingly placid families erupt when emotionally unstable parents let loose violence tamped down too long. Contrary to the popular opinions, lovers "mismatch" and surprise the denizens of Washburn, upsetting expectations.

This is a novel that will remind readers of Wilder's "Our Town," a play also crammed with quotidian detail but encompassing great spaces that yield to ruminations and internal musings as the men and women live and complete their lives in small town America.

Dew's prose flows smoothly like a river, tranquility pervades in the face of temporary crises. But a limpid style does not equate with a boring book. As the three central characters: Lily; her cousin, Warren; their childhood playmate and later Lily's husband, Robert; and the younger Agnes who weds Warren grow up, the city does too and we see a portrait of the kinds of steadfast and solid characters who forged the American dream and an international power. Dew has produced a candidate for the title, "Great American Novel." ( )

Although a little slow at times, this was a readable story of one family. It reminded me a bit of looking at the branchings of a family tree, and wondering what the private lives were of its inhabitants. ( )

http://mmerubies.blogspot.com/2006/07/evidence-against-her.html ( )