Moriarty, Liane. Apples Never Fall. Henry Holt and Company, 2021.
You are going to love this book – especially if you are a mom of adult children – particularly if you are ready to retire. I really love the Delaney family that Moriarty created. A husband (Stan) and wife (Joy) who have worked together giving tennis lessons and their 2 sons (Troy and Logan) and 2 daughters (Amy and Brooke) are as real as they get. One minute they seem totally crazy and the next you are cheering them on because they are so believable.
Moriarty has an economy of style where every person and every event matters to the outcome of the story. She layers the narrative expertly by switching between points of view and time. She starts near the end with a mysterious and abandoned bike, a fatal car wreck, and a newly retired couple trying to figure out how to navigate an empty nest and retirement.
It is so much more
You might think it is a murder mystery, but it is really about family, acceptance, and loss. The mystery plays a back seat to the characters and that makes it a great read. One daughter struggles with mental illness and the other with crippling migraines. One son seeks his father’s approval and even though he is immensely wealthy, he never feels good enough. The other son can’t seem to find a woman who will stick it out with him. Joy is a tiny little woman married to a giant of a man with four gigantic kids. Those giants are competitive to the nth degree.
I guess because I married a man with four competitive brothers and two competitive sisters and we raised six competitive children, I really can relate to the Delaneys. My husband just retired. I was biting my nails as I read it, hoping everything would work out in the end so that I could eventually retire too!
Tennis and Australia
All the tennis talk was pretty interesting. Moriarty did her homework. I’m a tennis fan, but not much of a player, so it was realistic enough for me. Australia is similar to the US, but there are enough differences to make it interesting. I was shocked when I read, “one summer afternoon a week before Christmas,” it took me a minute to register the different seasons downunder.
I’m glad it’s summer here
I had recently read Moriarty’s book Nine Perfect Strangers and liked it. When I saw Apples Never Fall, I felt confident that I would enjoy it. Actually, I liked this one much more than Nine Perfect Strangers, which is saying a lot, because Strangers was great! A quick check on Amazon and I see she has written 8 other best sellers! Three Wishes, The Last Anniversary, What Alice Forgot, The Hypnotist’s Love Story, The Husband’s Secret, Big Little Lies and Truly Madly Guilty. Now that it is summer in the US (and school is out), I think I will read them all.
I don’t want to spoil it
My students hate it, but I NEVER give them spoilers. I hope you weren’t expecting any here. This is a book recommendation website, not a book summary website (go to SparkNotes for that!). You need to pick this up if you like a twisty plot, great writing, and are getting up there in years. Don’t retire until you’ve read this!