Helen is drinking to forget, and for a while Geneva succeeds in cutting off her supply of vodka. As Geneva struggles with her conflicted feelings about her mother and her fears that she may become estranged from Ella as Helen did from oldest daughter Paris, she recalls her childhood and some of the more confusing events of those years. We see the unfolding of this family drama through the eyes of three generations of women-Geneva, her mother Helen, and her daughter Ella.

I had my reservations about this book when I started it, and Yoerg quite successfully swept them away. Geneva will be forced to confront her issues with her mother. So the only real option is Geneva and Tom's house near San Francisco. Their sister Florence lives in New York, and their sister Paris is somewhere in Africa-and has been for almost thirty years. Dublin's house is too small, and Helen doesn't cope well with his autistic son. With a busted knee and a busted shoulder, even after she can be released from the hospital, it's going to be weeks before Helen is able to return to her own apartment. Then her brother Dublin calls to say their mother, Helen, has crashed her car while driving drunk and is in the hospital in Los Angeles. There are some stresses, as in any life: her kids are teenagers now, and she and husband Tom have different and sometimes conflicting views on discipline and rules.

Geneva Novak is happy in her career as a veterinarian, and reasonably happy in her marriage, too.

House Broken by Sonja Yoerg