Preview of Shelter Summary:

Shelter develops Phillips's recurring theme of disintegrating families. Although clearly the most dysfunctional, the Carmody family differs only in degree from the Briarleys, the Campbells, and the Swensons. None is these families is stable, as the recollections of Alma and Lenny reveal. Long before the novel opens, reenacting the Briarleys' fights has become a game for Cap and Lenny. Catherine Winthrop has already left Henry Briarley, returned to her family home in Connecticut...