This was the first book I've read from this author and I enjoyed it very much. It was very well written and the characters were well thought out.

Ask again, yes by Mary Beth Keane

Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope are trainee policemen in the same precinct in New York.

They end up living next door to each other with their families in a suburb, and Frances’ daughter Kate, and Brian’s son Peter are close friends.
All is well until an event happens which rips them all apart, and makes people question their loyalties.
The story is told through various voices, Kate, Peter, Frances, his wife, Lena, and others. This is a good way to get different perspectives on the same event and works well.
I enjoyed the book, but didn’t warm to any of the characters, and I’d like to have heard more of some, like Lena, and Brian, to see their perspectives.

In the end, I couldn’t understand why certain characters made the decisions they made, for example what happened to all of Peter’s running potential?, and found the conclusion unsatisfying.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Michael Joseph for the opportunity to read this book.

I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Penguin/Michael Joseph, and the author Mary Beth Keane.
Contemporary American literature written in the prevalent style of recent years. Normal families and normal lives that are ripped apart by a tragedy which echoes throughout future years and events. It covers the extraordinary elements of ordinary lives, and difficult themes of mental illness, alcoholism, and adultery.
I enjoyed this novel, but I didn't love it, and it didn't leave me with any profound impressions.
I read the book waiting for a denouement which never really arrived, leaving the ending falling a little flat. However, the characters are beautifully written and dynamically portrayed.
3.5/5

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3 ok stars

This book started really strong however it became quite slow going and drawn out.

I couldn’t really engage with any of the characters, and the most interesting character of Anne, we wait until 60% in until we read her story.

I kind of knew how the Peter / Kate storyline would pan out, so for me the book was too long and too depressing with no real ‘hook’

I did enjoy this book but found it a little slow in parts
It is a very poignant tale about 2 families whose lives were torn apart following a serious incident one day
The book takes the reader through the lives of the families both prior to and following the incident and leads us concisely through the years
Definitely a thought provoking novel worth reading and I would recommend to others

I found this book really moving and quite gripping in parts. It's not the sort of thing I'd normally pick up, but from very early on I started to care about the characters and wanted to know how their lives unfolded.

This book starts roughly in the 60s and comes right up to present day. It follows the lives of two families in north east US. All the characters feel real and flawed and complicated and I loved how the author didn't make any parts of their lives saccharine or soppy. That's not to say it wasn't moving - I had tears in my eyes twice whilst reading, but it always felt very real and raw.

For some characters, it's a coming of age story. For all the characters, it's a study about how life doesn't go the way you planned and you can't always behave the way you'd like. I think the themes here, particularly the theme of forgiveness, will stay with me and I'll turn them over for a while.

About two thirds of the way through the book did slow, but recovered. And sometimes there was too much 'tell' or I'd feel like a page was a summary of something that should have been more filled out. But overall I just think this is an absolute gem of a book that makes you reflect on the importance off love and kindness, to others and ourselves.

A well written and thought provoking novel. It addresses some big issues but in a fairly sensitive way. I liked the setting of New York and the way the book tells the story over four decades. It was sometimes moving, sometimes sad but overall gripping and made me want to read it to the end, hoping to see a satisfactory conclusion. I think there were some threads that got lost along the way but it didn’t really detract from a damn good read. I would recommend it to those who like a family saga with drama.

Peter and Katie have known each other since they were babies. Now teenagers they have a growing attachment but in trying to do something about this they inadvertently bring about their separation. Peter moves away from their home town to New York and they don't meet again until years later. Will their relationship survive the trauma that was part of their earlier years or will this drive them apart?

This is a sensitively written novel about mental illness, functional alcoholism and whether we can ever really redeem ourselves for a terrible act. It is also about forgiveness and acceptance. I found the characters believable especially Peter's mother whose experience of mental illness is realistic and moving. I don't know whether I actually enjoyed the book as it is quite difficult to read about subjects like that but I nonetheless wholeheartedly recommend it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC>

Two families are linked by an act of violence that changes the course of their lives as they attempt to move past the tragedy.

This book was completely unknown to me at the time - I was given an ARC. I didn’t know what to expect but found I was presently surprised by the way the story unfolded. What seemed to be a typical story took a number of unexpected turns, with deep emotional consequences and many trigger points. Overall, it was a great piece of writing and I’m glad I got to read it as it wouldn’t have been something I’d pick out usually.

A great family saga to get your teeth into, this absorbed me and kept me reading. I got through it quickly and thoroughly enjoyed every page. Highly recommended.

Ask Again, Yes starts in the 1970's with two young rookie cops who are paired up with each other on their first beat in NYC and finishes in the present day. It's almost a saga, following them as they marry, move to neighbouring houses in suburbia and have children who grow up together. The story then pivots on a tragic event that comes to pass one night and changes their lives forever, and we then follow the effects of this over the coming years.

What this book did really well was to explore how much we are products of our families, both in terms of upbringing but also more fundamentally- the author treats themes of alcoholism and mental illness particularly convincingly. We also see how important childhood is to the author- events that have happened to the children in the book (or the adults when they were children) reverberate through the generations .

I really enjoyed the author's writing and was completely absorbed by the plot and satisified by the ending. My disappointment lay with the characters themselves who I just didn't feel I got to know well enough, and I'm not sure why. I didn't feel that I could picture any of them in my mind's eye. Although I felt sympathy for various characters as the book went on, I just didn't feel as emotionally invested in them as I felt I should have done.

Overall I did enjoy reading this book and am very grateful to the publisher and to netgalley for this reading copy, but in the end I didn't completely fall in love with it.

Ask Again, Yes is a moving family saga set around two blue-collar police families in New York State.
Kate and Peter are two star-crossed lovers that are destined to be together, despite their respective families' best efforts. They grow up next to each other until a shocking incident separates them.
This novel explores the strength of families, desertion, mental illness and alcoholism. How the families come through that makes for a good read. Four stars.

Thank you to Penguin, Michael Joseph, and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book to read for free for an honest review

The book is set in New York city and surrounding areas and spans a period of around 40 years from the 70’s onwards. It tells the story of two police colleagues who live next door to each other and how their children Kate and Peter form a bond which threatens to be broken by one horrific night’s events.
The story is one of families pulling together, through difficulties such as depression, alcoholism and mental illness The characters are complex and the story compelling, it had me hooked, to find out how their lives would progress and how the problems they had faced could be resolved. Having just visited New York, I really connected with the story and could visualize the areas described by the Author. I read this in two or three sittings as I couldn’t wait to find out what would happen next.

This is a family saga: two American families become neighbours and (the husbands) work colleagues, and their lives are entwined for both good and ill.
I liked the complexity of the relationships between the Stanhope and Gleeson families and the way that no character is ultimately good or bad. This really resonated with me.
Other reviewers have said they found it very American but I really didn’t feel that. Their lives felt very universal to me.
I wouldn’t give it five stars - there was something about the pacing that didn’t quite work for me, and I thought it occasionally needed more momentum - but I think that Keane is a great writer and this is a really good novel. In fact, it reminded me of some of my favourites: Anne Tyler, Margaret Atwood, Margaret Forster.
Recommended. A really engrossing read.

This is quite a schmaltzy, American affair. A long tale of two friends, from early on in their careers to being neighbours and friends with their respective families. It is a descriptive prose, painting a picture of the US through the years and the writing style reminded me of Anne Tyler, always a good thing!

If you can get past the phrasing and Americanisms, it is a good heavyweight of a story, plenty of life is laid out bare and pecked over. It makes you sad in parts, happy in others. Cleverly written and well laid out. Not a light read by any means, but a very enjoyable and reflective one.

Couldn't put it down, intrigued right to the end.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I found this book quite easy to read and well written, I became a little disconnected and struggled a little with not being familiar with the American way of life plus some differences in vocabulary, however the basic story over rode this. It deals with a lot of thorny issues with the emphasis on mental health and lack of help when tragedies happened a while ago before there was such help available. The book covers quite a long period in time and focuses on two characters who are children at the start of the book plus their respective families who are mainly first generation immigrants so there is little fall back on a wider family and background. A few twists and turns which keeps the readers attention but on the whole I found the book rather long and a little slow at times.

At the end of ‘Ask Again Yes’, Lena says to her husband as they think back over half a century, ‘“I think we’ve been luckier than most people.”’ This might seem strange when the reader considers that this novel has focused unflinchingly on mental illness, alcoholism, abuse, abandonment and physical disfigurement. Yet Mary Beth Keane’s focus on two families living in the New York suburbs has at its heart the importance of love and forgiveness. If this sounds shmaltzy, fear not. Throughout the novel, she writes bravely and with clear insight about familial friction and dysfunction.
Those who enjoy the novels of Celeste Ng will find plenty to be engrossed by in ‘Ask Again Yes’. Mary Beth Keane’s creation of real, engaging and important characters allows the reader to appreciate just how difficult it is to live with someone whose mental illness means that she has a very different view of the world, who often withdraws, who feels as if everyone is against her. This is how it is for Anne Stanhope’s family.
Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope, both originally from Ireland, meet through training together in the NY police academy and a few years later become neighbours, bringing up their families in respectable suburb of Gillam which is ‘nice enough but lonely’ for Francis’ wife, Lena, who has three daughters in quick succession. Try as she might to befriend Brian’s wife, Anne, the latter refuses these overtures. Nevertheless, over the years her son, Peter, and Kate, the youngest Gleeson girl, become the best of friends.
When Anne behaves in such a way that has terrible consequences for Francis, ensuring that she is sectioned indefinitely, the teenage Peter moves to New York city to live with his uncle George, no longer able to rely on his father. He appears to cope magnificently with the family breakdown and it is only when he has a young family himself that the wounds of the past open, threatening to destroy all that he loves. Mary Beth Keane shows us that previous tragedies always make their mark. It is how the afflicted are treated that will make the difference between a life well led or one that mirrors the past.
My thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

This is an original story, set in suburban upstate New York where 2 policeman and their wives set up home. Lena has a daughter Kate, and is struggling to settle away from life in the city so is delighted when Anne moves in next door, and has a baby Peter. Although Peter and Kate grow up as friends, Anne seems cold and keeps to herself. No one realises how mentally unstable she really is until tragedy strikes. I loved the story of Peter and Kate, as well as their parents, it kept me reading too late! Some difficult subjects were tackled but it always felt like a very real story.