Responsibility

Through the lives of Astrid’s three adult children, Straub explores the lengths people can go to in order to avoid responsibility in adulthood while convincing themselves that they are doing right by themselves and others. Porter, who is pregnant and planning to be a single mother when the novel opens, tries to convince herself that her ongoing sexual affair with her former high school sweetheart, Jeremy, is not incompatible with her plans for the future, and that perhaps Jeremy will even agree to be a father to her child despite being married with children of his own. Nicky has sent his daughter Cecelia to live with Astrid following a difficult and controversial incident at her school; while he does not think that Cecelia was in the wrong, he feels that he is protecting her by sending her away, when in fact he is signaling to...