This story focuses on children growing up in what would now be called dysfunctional families - but in the past might have been considered to be complicated, odd or even somewhat normal, at least from the outside. The story follows three generations in one family, as each generation grows from childhood to adulthood in England. The various decisions they make have lasting and often unfortunate consequences. 
 The main character was Ruby Lennox, who the reader first meets at the moment of conception and who is followed through most of her life. She was raised in a complicated situation, mostly because of her mother (Bunty), who was also raised in a complicated environment by her mother (Nell), who was raised by an absent mother (Alice) and unloving step-mother (Rachel). The message that mothers have a strong influence (in this book, often negatively so) on their daughters comes through loud and clear. 
 Three aspects of the book that I found particularly engaging were the sense of humor, the portion of the story set in WWI, and that it had characters make reasonable decisions for the time. In my opinion, many stories that have a "coming of age" component or that follow a character's life story seem to be a little too serious (or perhaps try too hard to be profound), but this one features some irreverent and snarky humor that brings a tongue-in-cheek quality to the story that I welcome. The character of Ruby seems to not only be able to experience what is going on, but acknowledge the ridiculousness of the context. The ability to inject this insight, while also conveying how difficult such situations would be first-hand, makes the character very appealing to me. 
 WWI has long interested me. Although wars are all ugly and destructive, WWI strikes me as particularly brutal - between the chemical warfare, closeness of combat and lack of medical treatments, the physical and psychological injuries inflicted were truly hideous. I thought this book did an excellent job of describing the war and its impact on the men who fought. Without dropping anvils, the book set the right tone and I found those sections especially engaging. 
 (view spoiler)[It was tempting to want the characters to be more "progressive" in their choices. But the reality is most of the characters were poor and had limited experience with anything beyond their immediate community and culture. There was not a lot of "therapy" to help people through the loss of husbands, wives and children. Depression and its treatment would have been challenging in past generations. Although Ruby's household had a television, the range of shows and channels would be limited at that time. For the most part, while the characters could have made different choices, the ones they made were largely honest, I thought, as were the consequences. (hide spoiler)] 
 I would give it a 4/5.