The most lasting impression I gleaned from this well-rendered novel is that middle-class life in the suburbs is full of land mines. Middle-class values and rewards have been a central theme, an award for lifetime achievement in the United States until only recently. But larger numbers of people have begun to harbor the dream of instant wealth (and thereby safety) via state lotteries, game shows, or whatever current carrot (opportunity) is dangled by the media PR machine. But as lower middle-class and poverty-level families have long realized, the seemingly mundane middle-class still offers, at least figuratively, the appearance of safety in an ever more unsafe world. A Trick of Nature serves as a subtle reminder that appearance is often deceptive. Two college-educated parents with well-paying, stable jobs, and their twin teenage daughters are just as vulnerable to the random assaults of fate as anyone. The June and Ward Cleavers are a figment of 50's pop culture, as society's ills continue to infect the suburbs, spreading indigenous blight along the way.

Greg, the 38-year old father, isn't even middle-aged when a flash of lightening suddenly changes his life, and he makes a series of bad judgments, precipitating a premature mid-life crisis. But his wife, Patty, has more finely honed perceptions, intuiting a crack in the marriage long before the act, yet helpless to alert her complacent husband in time. Greg has adapted the path of least resistance, sliding comfortably into his passive role. The daughters, typical white middle-class American teenagers, are full of youthful complexities: rebellion, angst, rage and adolescent fear of an unknown future. Their parent's problems only serve to accelerate their own insecurities, as they act out their conflicts.

Patty is a strong role-model as the mother, but I'm not sure Greg takes on the full coloration of a "guy"; I was constantly sensitive to a woman writing the male character, often too "Women from Venus, Men from Mars" stereotypical. Some of Greg's adventures are barely believable, since he is so inured to his middle-class values. However, I like Patty's choices and her ability to bravely face life with each new situation. I can't help thinking that if John Irving (A Widow for One Year) had written on this theme, the weight would be substantial. Perhaps this comparison is unfair, and not my intention. But Matson is still young, and, as some of us have learned the hard way, certain knowledge is only acquired by the passage of years and life experience. Matson certainly has the skills and awareness; I have no doubt that 10 years from now she will be a powerful and accomplished writer. I certainly can't fault her enthusiasm, and look forward to her evolving talent.

"A Trick of Nature" insinuates itself beneath the consciousness of your everyday life, making you think of it at odd moments during your day...as if the characters were somehow real, and you worried about their lives. How Suzanne Matson pulls off such a feat is the incredible beauty of this novel. However, due to some editing and continuity flaws, this story falls short of being nearly perfect.

Matson breathes life into all of her characters in a manner similar to Catherine Ryan Hyde (Pay It Forward, Electric God), but without the dramatic emotional insight that would bring them up out of the story and into emotional realism. While I thoroughly enjoyed "A Trick of Nature", it left me feeling somehow cheated, like something was being held back from me...some vital and important piece I wasn't privileged to.
All in all, I would recommend this book for those searching for a good diversion from reality for awhile.

When an oblique bolt of lightening strikes Timothy Phelps during a junior varsity football practice, its force not only extinguishes the youngster but shatters the calm, predictable and unremarkable lives of the Goodman family. Suzanne Matson is little less than brilliant in her wise, sad and compelling novel, "A Trick of Nature." Through the terrible force of this freak accident, a family's facade is crumbled, and its members forced to face the raw and painful realization of unexamined lives, suppressed rebellion and desperate dissatisfaction. That Ms. Matson so convincingly allows her characters to suffer, to wrestle with frightening questions, to make awful mistakes and to learn to live with newborn responsibility and freedom testifies to her skill as a writer and great compassion for the human condition.

Each of the fascinating characters which populate "A Trick of Nature" has his/her life altered by the accident and its consequences. Told through multiple perspectives but interwoven gracefully in a manner which both advances and illuminates both the plot and themes, the novel's focus on its tormented, befuddled and anguished characters emerges as its most impressive strength. Greg Goodman, whose quiet reserve and emotional detachment for his wife and daughters, confronts his own guilt by embarking on actions which not only disorient his own life but disrupt his household. Suspended from his teaching job, his marriage disintegrates, his twin teen daughters spin off in separate worlds, and he undertakes a perilous search for Tim's mother, partly to understand his own responsibility and partly out of a guilt so enormous, so consuming that it distorts his ability to function. Greg's wife, Patty, in turn responds to the paradoxical pressures of he life by leaving her home. An obsessive housekeeper who controls and programs practically every movement inside her house, Patty feels liberated by the act of abandonment; work refreshes and familial ties weaken. Her lonely journey into independence rings true in its melancholy and consequences. Tim's mother, Lorraine, receives exceptional treatment. A woman who abandoned her child at an early age, she lives a near nihilistic life, and her encounter and developing relationship with Greg proves pivotal to the resolution of the novel's central conflicts.

Suzanne Matson ably joins other modern authors who have explored the disintegration of middle-class marriage and the sudden, unexpected and ironically unwelcomed obligation of adults to come to grips with both the need to learn their true identities and to understand how and why marriages work. What makes "A Trick of Nature" so exceptional is its compassion and tenderness. This sad, painful novel consumes the reader; from its inception, the author has delicately interwoven the anguish and confusion of its characters into the texture of our own lives. As Greg and Patty face their own demons, their lives become even more insecure. It is this insecurity, this lack of certain answers and the comfort of day-to-day routine, which gives the novel its purchase.

This book was a good read although quick. The writing style gets you to feel for the characters from the first three chapters. This will draw you in until the very last page. I think it could have been longer and a bit more complex. The author could have elaborated on each of the main characters in more depth. This book was entertaining.

What a wonderfully written story of three women that are woven together. Matson is a gifted author who makes us feel her characters emotion. I laughed, cried and wanted more at the end. I feel that they are among my own circle of friends and I will miss them greatly. A easy to read yet still makes you think. A perfect summer book!

I enjoyed the way the author let the readers enter the lives of these 3 strong women, how their lives intersected, and how a family was created. I particularly liked the way the author didn't title each chapter with a number, but used the names of the characters instead. I started the book and couldn't put it down. I can't wait to read the author's next book!