The Believers

I just finished reading this book last night. The follow up to Heller's "What Was She Thinking?", "The Believers" had me hooked from the beginning. Following the Litvinoff family through a tragedy, the book introduces us to characters that, like in her previous novel, the reader doesn't necessarily like much.

Each character has their own problems to deal with, and their own personality flaws. Joel, the patriarch, is a famous attorney. Audrey, his wife, is a fiery personality who is very hard to like. Rosa, one daughter, is having a crisis with religion. Karla, the other daughter, is having a crisis with marriage. Lenny, the son is having a crisis with drugs.

The story centers around the way they all deal with their issues after Joel suffers from a stroke. The family is quite dysfunctional, but intriguing.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and would recommend it to others.