


They have three children, two boys about to graduate from college and a 16-year-old daughter, Annie.

She's married to a good-natured engineer, Trace, who takes comfort in facts and who isn't much for emotional expression-a common, likable sort whom Laura still loves dearly after many years. Hickman tells her quiet story through the eyes of Laura Randall, whose very name cries out ordinariness. A first novel that, beginning with its title, begs comparison to Judith Guest's Ordinary People, by an author best known for her nonfiction writing on grief (Healing After Loss, not reviewed, etc.).
