“The christening party took a turn when Albert Cousins arrived with gin.”

The arrival of the uninvited guest to the baby Franny’s christening party almost seems like the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, when the uninvited fairy arrives and curses the kingdom. Bert’s arrival, the kiss between Bert and Beverly, and the subsequent affair and marriage curse both families, who become divided by divorce, their lives forever altered by Bert’s arrival at the party. Yet, the 30-page discussion of this party is also described as a wonderful miracle, with its bountiful profusions of alcohol and orange juice, fueling and animating the guests, all of whom are blissfully unaware of how the direction of both the Keating and the Cousins families will be changed forever, as evidenced in the 50 years the book chronicles.

“Cousins’s arm was weightless now and he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one bit.”

Bert Cousins flees the burdens of his large and growing family, with all of their needs and desires. Ironically, he wants the burden of this other child, Franny, a child that is not his own. He can’t help but be struck by her beauty, which reminds him of her mother. Fifty years later, after having both married and divorced her mother, he still feels close to Franny, who always brought him joy, even as a baby.