Obviously, what makes it different from other books about young marital dysfunction is the backdrop of the housing debacle and the resulting fall-out. The wasteland of Carousel Court is surreal—an armed lunatic in a pup tent, marauding wolves, black vehicles circling like sharks. Phoebe’s disintegration into full-blown opiate addiction mirrors the physical disintegration of the cul-de-sac. McGinniss takes on some difficult contemporary issues—career expectations, pernicious banks, infidelity, and violence of many kinds. Even though, I found myself asking more than once, who ARE these people? Their plight was recognizable and deeply affecting.