Several voices, including a male in-law - reflect on three generations of the Irish/American McLaughlins - and seem to demonstrate that it's not only your parents 'that really f-k you up'. It's a book about hope though, and one that left me wanting to know about the McLaughlins, as well as much fonder of my own kin.
Our problems were normal and boring; we couldn't come up with one exciting, knee-slapping story among us. We had fewer brothers and sisters, fewer brawls, fewer secrets. Our lives were not shaped by unbreakable Catholic rules and inescapable Irish history. We began to feel small, and although we never voiced the decision, at some point we simply stopped running towards the sound of the McLaughlins' laughter.
