Think Of England

The year is 1964, and the MacLeod family is gathered in front of the TV, anxiously anticipating the Beatles’ performance on The Ed Sullivan Show. It is the last felicitous moment 9-year-old Jane will recall; that night, her father dies in a car crash. Fifteen years later, a still haunted Jane moves to England to escape her ghosts and guilt and ”figure out…what she could do with her life other than trying to make them into the happy family she thought they should be.” Short-story writer Dark delicately constructs the enduring web of filial dynamics in her debut novel, quietly tackling the grievances that are passed down through the generations. B*