eleanorfranzen 's review for:

When All Is Said by Anne Griffin

4.0

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Maurice Hannigan is drinking. On a bar stool in a hotel that used to be the country home of the family that employed and abused him, he makes five toasts, one for each of the important people in his life: his son, his wife, his sister-in-law, his brother, his daughter. Because tonight is not going to be like all the other nights; tonight, Maurice Hannigan has a plan. Anne Griffin's debut novel has more than a touch of the commercial crossover about it, and some of the execution is a little awkward (when are writers going to learn some restraint with speech indicators?), but the book is rescued from mawkishness by being genuinely felt. There has been real sadness in Maurice's life, as well as real joy. He has not been a perfect husband or father, but he hasn't been a monster: his obsession with acquiring money and land is revealed to be part of an obsession with avenging wrongs against his family that he has been angry about since he was a boy, and it has affected his relationships as an adult in unattractive ways. But he's honest with himself and us, and the final chapter—when his greatest decision yet becomes clear—is surprising, moving, and bold. I've not read another novel in which the author allows her character the particular type of dignified choice that Griffin gives hers.