I thought this book was really beautiful and eloquently written and a fine example of how women's fiction can be literary fiction, deep and moving with a great portrayal of mental illness.

It did take me several chapters to become engrossed in this novel and to get my bearings regarding who was who. Even then I felt I could have stepped away; however, the characters were intricately developed and crafted with each having their own and I thought of them affectionately.

This story has its origins in a real law case and though the rest of it is fictionalised I was impressed by the way that Yoerg set up the effect of the case on the generations to come. Additionally, the setting of Vermont was well done and I felt like this could have been memoir at points.

Classism was portrayed in such an incredible manner. I was fascinated by how we saw it slowly creep through the story to play a huge role, and the way that prejudice was so easily dismissed and explained away. The concept of bad blood coming back later through Carole's illness was so incredibly poignant and ironic, and I loved the way the last twist of information worked against those who'd used the idea.

The connection between Solange and Alison was honestly so sweet. Alison was an absolute delight to read about and was incredibly well-written; I could see aspects of my twelve-year-old sister in her. The way she talked about feeling lonely and forgotten leading up to how she comes to really appreciate her mother was incredibly touching.

Not all characters were 'good' and I appreciated the way this showed all facets of people--the good, the bad, and the ugly. I loved how even when I adored a character, they showed their flaws and did something I wouldn't expect.

Finally, and most importantly, I loved how this talked about mental illness. So often literature does no justice to this very important matter, but this showed how mental illness is real, how it needs to be talked about, and how it is something that we can live with.

Beautiful, beautiful novel. I highly recommend for those looking for a deeper women's lit read.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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This is a very well-written novel about some difficult subjects. Carole LaPorte is at the heart of the book as a daughter desperately trying to understand the absence of her mother and the distance of her father. Born to a father from Vermont's Protestant elite and a mother from the French Canadians struggling with abject poverty, Carole is torn between two disparate worlds. Her mother, Solange, gives birth to a second daughter, Janine, and reveals the child is the result of an affair with a man from her youth, which destroys her marriage and Carole's life as she knew it. Solange and her husband had become estranged when, as an attorney from a well-respected firm, he represented a wealthy man in a well-publicized and historically factual case, against a poor lake dweller.

Solange is committed to a mental hospital by her husband where she lives out her life trying to understand where her baby is. As an adult, Carole visits her mother regularly and watches her decline after endless treatments, which were used at the time for those deemed mentally ill. These treatments are also well documented at that time. Carole begins to experience very worrying symptoms of her mental health. This subject is treated with compassion and understanding by Sonja Yoerg. Janine is a conniving person, whose devious plots add another element of interest. ( )

This book is one of those rare literary gems that has a bit of everything. Gorgeously written, All the Best People unabashedly explores the messiness of real life. Told through the voices of three generations of women, and spanning history from the twenties to the seventies, the pages of this book are filled with, "madness, magic and misfortune" in the great state of Vermont. How could you ask for anything more?

Author Sonja Yoerg artfully delves into the dangerous territory of mental illness, including its treatment, its effect on families, and its stigma, in a novel taught with suspense, pain and longing. The voices of the characters were masterfully crafted, the emotion keenly real, and the story kept me on tenterhooks. I couldn't put this book down, as in, my fingers feel blistered I was turning the pages so fast! 5 stars!

So the good news is . . . I've got an incredible book to recommend to you. Now, the bad news . . . I read an advanced copy, so it won't be available to you until its release in May, 2017. (Sorry, not sorry). But . . . and maybe this will soften the blow . . . the author, Sonja Yoerg, has written two other great books, House Broken and The Middle of Somewhere, which you can get your hands on now! ( )

3.5 stars.

Written from four distinct perspectives and weaving back and forth in time, All the Best People by Sonja Yoerg is an engaging novel about mental illness and to a lesser extent, social injustice between the wealthy and poor.

In 1972, Carole Gifford La Porte is a mother of three who works with her husband Walt in the family's car repair business. When she begins forgetting things and hearing voices, she is quick to assume her recent insomnia is responsible for her mind playing tricks on her. However, she cannot ignore her family's history of mental illness since her own mother, Solange, has been a permanent resident of the Underhill State Hospital ever since her father had her committed thirty-four years earlier. As Carole's condition worsens, she continues hiding her symptoms from her family and she begins growing paranoid and fearful of those around her.

Carole and Walt's eleven year old daughter Alison is becoming increasingly frustrated by her mother's bizarre behavior. She is also quite upset by her mom's refusal to help with the normal preparations for the upcoming school year. When her attempts to bring her mom's strange actions to her father's attention do not yield results, Alison tries casting spells and other supernatural phenomena to try to help her mother.

Thirty four year old Janine is nothing like her older sister Carole. Her birth is the catalyst for their father to commit their mother to the state hospital and Carole is the only maternal figure in her life. Janine is incredibly self-absorbed and she will go to any lengths to try to get her way.& Her actions throughout the story are extremely self centered and her final efforts to snag a husband go horribly wrong.

The middle part of the story centers on Solange and her marriage. Solange meets and marries her wealthy husband back in the 1920s and at first the differences in their family's socioeconomic status makes no difference in their lives. Solange is initially content to view the world through her husband's eyes but as she witnesses her poverty stricken family struggle to survive during the Depression, she begins forming her own opinions on the division between the classes. Her once happy marriage begins to flounder and in a moment of anger, Solange makes an ill-fated choice that will reverberate for generations.

The premise of All the Best People is quite unique and the historical elements are fascinating. However, Carole's worsening mental health symptoms become repetitive and somewhat annoying. While it is initially plausible that she successfully conceals her symptoms from her immediate family, there comes point when it is impossible to believe that Walt and their sons do not become more concerned about her increasingly strange behavior.

All the Best People is a well-researched novel that touches on some very relevant social issues. The portions of the storyline which focus on the Solange's history and Carole's attempts to hide her symptoms from her family are gripping but Janine's ridiculous attempts to snare a husband are, for the most part, an unnecessary distraction. Sonja Yoerg does an outstanding job educating readers on classism and the horrifying mental health practices that are thankfully no longer used. Overall, it is an interesting read that is quite informative. ( )

Carole LaPorte has had an up-and-down life. A happy childhood underwent a dramatic change when she was ten, and her sister Janine was born. For reasons that make no sense to her at the time, suddenly her mother, Solange, tries to take the baby to her own mother, Carole's grandmother, Rosemarie Bouchard. Her father, Osborn Gifford, arrives with police in support. Carole finds herself holding her baby sister, while her mother is hurried off to a hospital for an illness Carole doesn't understand.

As an adult, she meets Walt LaPorte, falls in love, and embarks on a warm, loving, supportive marriage, eventually having three children, Warren, Lester, and Alison. As good as this marriage is, Carole now lives with the knowledge that her mother's illness is mental illness. She's the only one in the family who regularly visits Solange. She doesn't share the secrets she knows of what of what led up to her mother's confinement at Underhill.

She also doesn't share the fact that she herself has started to hear voices, voices that say disturbing and alarming things. And Alison, just eleven years old, almost the same age as when Carole's mother was taken from her, is coping with both the challenges of impending adolescence, and the confusion of her mother's increasingly strange and distant behavior.

The setting is rural Vermont, and events stretch from before the Great Depression through to the 1970s. It takes us from a time when both gender relations and the understanding and treatment of mental illness will seem shocking to modern readers, to a time when the roots of our contemporary social mores and a more science-based and medically objective treatment of mental illness was developing. This is a moving looking at an imperfect but loving family, and how the shadow of mental illness challenges them. Yoerg is a humane and insightful writer, and tells a difficult but ultimately hopeful tale.

Recommended.

I received a free electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ( )