Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

Alert: This review has spoilers.  

In this transcendent novel, Mary Beth Keane’s talent for describing people’s inner lives appears on every page. Nuanced and insightful, the characters in Ask Again, Yes feel authentic and alive. The novel explores the emotional fallout of a tragedy that involves two families. Is forgiveness possible? What do we owe our families amid a calamity?

The year is 1973. Both Frankie Gleeson and Brian Stanhope are New York City rookie cops. When they each begin to start the families, they each move to the suburbs and coincidently land next door to each other. Francis and Lena soon have three daughters: the youngest named Kate. Anne and Brian Stanhope have one son whose name is Peter. The adults don’t interact with each other. Francis tells his daughter Kate to stay away from Peter’s mother, “Something’s not right.” When Peter and Kate enter school, they become close friends. Then a mental illness induced tragedy strikes when Kate and Peter are fourteen. Peter’s mother shoots Kate’s father. The repercussions from this shocking event will entangle the Gleasons and the Sandhopes in perpetuity.

Keane’s keen knowledge of the human condition allows the characters’ inner thoughts to propel the plot rather than external events. Yes, life moves on after the shooting. Everyone lives, though in a state of emotional and physical pain. There are graduations and job promotions, weddings and funerals, but Keane’s focus is on these characters’ internal reflections. Like a kaleidoscope, she shifts the narration, so readers learn the thoughts of Kate and Peter, Francis and Lena and Brian and Anne. 

Kate and Peter’s love story dominates. The book’s cover made this plot seem sensational: the enigmatic title certainly added to that impression. Yet in Keane’s skilled hands, the notion that Kate and Peter would want to be with each other seems entirely believable. People who experience trauma together often gravitate toward one another. The fall out from the shooting dominates Kate and Peter’s inner lives. How could it not? They each experience grief, guilt and anguish for their parents and themselves. In the uproar and upheaval that follows, Peter moves to another town to live with an uncle. Kate’s father lingers in the hospital. As they move through their teens and into their twenties, Peter and Kate can think of nothing but each other. All four parents are living with pain and exhort Kate and Peter not to find each other. But they do - and all the family members must now navigate the complex maze of emotional dynamics and begin to understand the heartbreak of mental illness. As a psychiatrist tells Peter’s mother, “You repeat what you do not repair.”

Ask Again, Yes is a thoughtful rumination on how people navigate complicated feelings. She explores the passing of time, the randomness of life’s big choices, the need for understanding, the persistent ignorance around mental health issues, and the importance of forgiveness. The ending moved me in its simplicity and beauty. There is healing and mercy, compassion and empathy. Ask Again, Yes, is one of the most satisfying novels I have read this year. Thanks to the DJKKS Book Club.