Good Daughters (Maynard)

Book Reviews
Maynard's genius is not in the telling but in the details. "When" is revealed. "Why" is a given. Just as you think you have deduced the "what," you will be required to endeavor to understand the "how." But beware. The plot is a slippery slope with many turns that Maynard forces you to navigate. As is true in her 2009 best-selling novel, Labor Day, Maynard's supporting characters are extraordinarily developed. You know them. They might be a part of your family.
Jackson Times Union

Two families, the Planks and the Dickersons, are mysteriously entwined in this exquisite novel that centers on decades of life at a New Hampshire farm. Youngest daughters Ruth Plank and Dana Dickerson, born on the same day in the same hospital, take turns narrating the struggles they face as children. Ruth feels a coldness from her mother; Dana is unsettled by her kooky parents constantly uprooting her and her brother Ray. Regardless, the Planks pay a yearly visit to the Dickersons no matter where they've ended up living. As the girls come of age, Ruth takes an interest in art, sex, and Dana's brother, Ray, with whom she later reunites, at Woodstock, in a swirl of drugs and mud. Meanwhile, Dana realizes that her desires are directed toward women and sets off to pursue agricultural studies at a university, where she meets Clarice, an assistant professor. As time goes by, the floundering Plank Farm is in danger of being seized by Ruth's former boyfriend, a man who has had his eye on the land for years. As Ruth and Dana pursue love, contemplate children, and search for home, the truth of what unites their families is finally—at long last—revealed, in this beautifully written book
Publishers Weekly

Maynard tells an evocative story of two babies born on the same day in the same hospital to two starkly different families.... Although Maynard relies on a central plot contrivance that strains credulity, she consistently brings emotional authenticity to the long arc of her characters’ lives and to the joy and loss they experience. A profoundly moving chronicle of the primacy of family connection. —Joanne Wilkinson
Booklist

Maynard’s excellent storytelling keeps readers eagerly turning the pages, and she raises some interesting questions along the way: How much of who we are is shaped by our family background? How do our families limit who we may become? Ultimately, Maynard suggests...it is the responsibility of the good daughter to create her own identity in spite of [the family].
BookPage