THE HOUSE OF CAVANAUGH

A family confronts a long-buried secret in Dugan’s novel.

In 1964, Peter “Hutch” Hutchinson meets a lovely woman named Joan Cavanaugh in New York City. Both Joan and Hutch are in their 20s, and they strike up a pleasant friendship. Joan is married to a man named Graham, with whom she has a young child, but with Graham constantly busy with law school, things between Joan and Hutch become intimate. Hutch, knowing the relationship will go nowhere, eventually breaks things off. The narrative advances to the 1980s: Hutch and Joan now both have families. In 1985, Hutch experiences tragedy when his teenage son dies. In 1989, Joan dies of cancer, leaving three daughters and a grieving Graham behind. By 2001, Joan’s daughter Carolyn has relocated to Portland, Oregon; as luck would have it, Hutch and his wife, Alice, later move to Portland as well. In 2014, Joan’s daughter Anne takes a DNA test and learns that Graham is not her biological father—after all these years, Joan and Hutch’s indiscretion has resulted in a rather awkward situation. Though the story spans many years, it moves quickly as the characters do their best to deal with whatever is currently on their plates—the brisk pace helps to keep the reader engaged as the various characters come to terms with something that happened long ago. While the question of how Anne and her sisters will break the news to Graham is compelling, some of the dialogue is lackluster; characters make comments like, “You outdid yourself, again, Mom. Dinner was fabulous” or “I’m fine, thank you,” that are realistic but add little to the story or atmosphere. Still, the book grapples with death and infidelity in an authentic and entertaining way.

A well-paced, chatty generational drama that holds the reader’s interest as the decades progress.