Gentle, heartfelt, and raw in an understated Midwestern way. I had been slogging through a novel on grief that, as Pehl's mother often noted, I just ,"couldn't get into it," when I picked this up instead. The whole read was like a soft, wet hug at the comforting buffet after a funeral. The love was never sappy, the family exasperation was always tempered with affection. A cathartic pleasure to read.