Terry Mangan Memorial Library

Dying, Laura Spelman looks upon her illness as a journey during which she must take account of her life, see the connections between things, and then let go.

Represents a variety of families, some big and some small, some with only one parent and some with two moms or dads, some quiet and some noisy, but all alike in some ways and special no matter what.

Matthew Vaber’s life has just taken a turn for the worse. His father has killed himself—a tragedy for which he feels bitterly responsible, when he lets himself feel much of anything about it at all—and his thrilling but damaged mother has taken center stage yet again. Into this cocktail of familial mayhem, Matthew tosses a bubbling new ingredient: the Pump Line, New York’s tawdriest phone sex service, where men appear and disappear with the...