Ask Again, Yes

An interesting and complicated story about two families living next door to each other. One home has a mentally-ill mother and alcoholic father and these issues in the one family ultimately affect both families. Both families also have one person each who is born in Ireland which was mostly irrelevant but gave the book an interesting flavor. It's well-written and I became invested in all the characters.

This book started out strong, but dragged in the middle and then everything was tied into a neat little package that somehow still didn’t fully satisfy me. I didn’t buy into Peter and Kate’s love story. There was no passion between them. The same goes for Lena and Francis, and Brian and Ann (obviously). The author skims the surface with the different plot lines. For example, Lena gets cancer-then she recovers; Francis has an affair, then he is fo...read more

Ask Again, Yes is a bleak insight into life with a family member who has a mental illness, and the impact that can have on the lives of their spouse, children and neighbours. The story starts fairly slowly and it took me a while to engage with the story or characters but the plot does develop into a gripping web of tragic events leading from one to the next. It is not a light read and deals with a range of heavy issues which I won't list due to s...read more

A lovely descriptive book about the hardships of relationships and family. The title is perfect.