From Booklist — She was christened Delphine, but—strong-minded in this and other things as well—she chose to call herself Finny, and this is the story of some 20 or so formative years of her life, from age 14 to (roughly) 34. That not all of these years are presented consecutively—Kramon skips over high school and a cluster of years in Finny’s twenties and early thirties—lends a not unattractive episodic and even wistful air to this first novel of emotional development, disappointment, and, perhaps, fulfillment. A clutch of eccentric characters evidences Kramon’s fondness for Dickens, and the frequent allusions to Finny’s future (of the years later she would realize sort) salute Dickens’ sentimentality, as well. For the reader, this invites both a parallel nostalgia for that future and an air of the inevitable to Finny’s sometimes unhappy experiences. This mood impacts Kramon’s characters, too, whose actions sometimes seem more imposed than organic. Not a perfect book, therefore, but one that is suffused with tenderness and the promise of good things for the author’s future. –Michael Cart