Upstate

Alan Querry has never been to America to visit daughter Vanessa, who's teaching philosophy at Skidmore. When he learns from her new boyfriend Josh that she's severely depressed, he hurriedly leaves England, teaming up with Vanessa's hard-driving music executive sister Helen, who needs to be in New York. Somewhat withdrawn and fragile since her mother's desertion of the family, Vanessa seems stymied in her career but crazy about carefree, younger, devilishly handsome Josh. Will he really commit? Was his call for help as much for him as for Vanessa? Questions multiply as Alan wrestles with business reversals, Helen asks for help with the start-up she envisions after quitting Sony, and they both debate what's best for Vanessa, even as the sisters continue their lifelong squabbling and Alan adopts the plangent role of aging but caring parent. Can we be responsible for others' happiness? How do we manage life's "unfinished and perhaps unfinishable complexities?" What's really a life well lived? New Yorker book critic Wood (The Book Against God) contemplates deep questions while painting an indelible portrait of a family coming to grips, clarifying complex, recognizable problems as he moves his characters forward in ways that seem real and satisfying.