Blink Book Review: Anna Quindlen’s “More Than Enough”

By Reba Hull Campbell

Anna Quindlen has long been one of my favorite authors, so I downloaded this audiobook without knowing much about this novel. That turned out to be a good call.

This book revolves around the concept of families – how they change, what causes changes, and the importance of friends as family.

For Polly Goodman, an English teacher in a pricey Manhattan girls’ school, the idea of family dumps upside down when her book club friends give her an ancestry kit as a joke. Of course, it comes back with unexpected results that call into question everything Polly thought she knew about her family, just as she and her husband are desperately trying to start their own.

The emotions of everyday life play prominently in this book. The author artfully weaves the undertones of tragedy – infertility, fatal illness, infidelity, lies, challenging parental relationships – with the undertones of joy that keep us going daily – valued friendships, hope, supportive marriages, fulfilling jobs and everyday grace.

It’s the ordinary realness of these emotions that moves the book along among several storylines. Don’t read this expecting a plot-driven book. From page one, you’ll find a book built on feelings and relationships that drive the ultimately intertwined stories.

Polly plays a role in all of these stories and her role changes fluidly in each relationship. That’s one of the things that appealed so to me about this character. She’s a confident professional. While at the same time, she’s a daughter who can’t navigate a testy and uncertain relationship with her mother. She’s a consistently likeable friend, family member and mentor to her students, while also living out the flaws and insecurities that make her so relatable.

I particularly loved all the details about the book club gatherings – the fact they must buy, but don’t have to read, the books. This book club, like so many, becomes its own kind of family with quirks and personalities to make the characters so relatable.

I’m a harsh critic when it comes to book endings. I have high expectations that books often don’t meet. If I have one negative about this book it’s the fact that the ending is just too abrupt for my taste. I like to be gently glided into a book ending. This one falls a little short on that. But please don’t let that put you off. The journey is enough in this book. This is an easy, fun read with characters I’m happy to have added to my summertime posse.

I’ve long collected quotes I love from books I’ve enjoyed. This one was a standout in “More Than Enough.” Polly reflects on marriage with the musing of “Marriage. Like calculus without the answers.” Think on that one for a minute.

In 2022, Reba Campbell set out to get off the screens and back to books for the summer. Her accountability was writing short Blink Book Reviews (so short you can read them in a blink). Now it’s an annual summer thing on her Substack, Random Connect Points. Join Reba’s Blink Book Review Facebook group to follow along. Reba is president of Columbia, SC-based The Medway Group and can be reached at [email protected].