notanotherbookreview

"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Tolstoy's Anna Karenina   may be set in Russia in the 19th century novel, but it's certainly echoed in the eccentric unhappiness of Rebecca Waiit's modern British family in I'M SO SORRY YOU FEEL THAT WAY (Harper Perennial). The three adult children; Alice, Hanna, Michael, and their mum, Celia, have insights into each other's predictable, self-defeating crazy behavior. They roll eyes, wring hands,and hope others will get wise to how they are making themselves miserable. Self-knowledge is often submerged in a self-deprecating humor, that they will somehow "muddle through." "Family is worth it, it's all you may have?" is the mantra of Alice, the "good daughter," who ruefully accepts the "lack of progress" in her life.  As  I'M SO SORRY YOU FEEL THAT WAY opens,   Alice, in her self-assigned role of family "greeter," at the f...