Halfway House - Book review

Genre: Family Epic
Premise: Girl has a psychotic break at a swim meet and the whole family starts to crumble.
Author: Never heard of her, but I saw her at a reading. She read the opening swim-meet scene and I just had to read it.
Movie it reminds me of: American Beauty without the violence.
Why I chose it: The reading I went to. She had some really original analogies and the writing was very fresh. Plus the story kind of hooked me early on.
Fun facts: Her husband, Eric Puchner, is also a writer.
Verdict: It's great, entertaining writing. It makes me wonder if I would enjoy a book that had great writing but no story. This wasn't it, but since the writing was so good and so enjoyable, the question popped into my head.
Favorite: The analogies. The voice of the girl and the insight it gives to mental illness.
Underlined: "Her mouth was jagged, like a bottle broken off at the neck."
Should you read it? Simple. Get over to Borders, find it, take 15-20 minutes to read the first chapter, the swim-meet part, and you'll know if it's for you or not. If it is, you're in for some fresh writing.
Time: Week and a half.
Next up: The Wal-Mart Effect