That's largely Quindlen's point - toward the end Mary Beth says "I used to worry about them all the time - in utero, when they were babies, toddlers. Light sockets, swimming pools, bee stings. I worried about everything. ... I think every fear you ever have, every one - thunder or spiders or roller coasters - they're all fear of dying. Every last one." Quindlen captures the ups and downs of motherhood in beautifully written anecdotal moments, like when Mary Beth tries to help Kiernan after prom or in an interaction between her mother and Max at a soccer game. Without giving too much away, I can say that I've read a fair amount of novels where Something Terrible Happens and the Family Must Learn to Survive. Most of the time you can see the twist coming, but this one really knocked me for a loop. That's a compliment to Quindlen, but I also wonder if she has upped the stakes. It seems that we read so many books about tragedy that authors have to increasingly create the worst thing they can imagine. Is Every Last One: A Novel a really good read? Absolutely. But I'm not sure that it's something I can easily recommend, as I can envision a fair number of women cracking open this book while sitting at an Ocean City beach and an hour later then bursting into tears. In the end, my advice is to proceed with caution when reading Every Last One: A Novel .
