I don't care about any of these people ( )

I did not like the plot or characters of this book. In fact, I'm trying to figure out how the blurb on the back could have even been written about these stupid characters. Ack. ( )

Really enjoyed this one. Not nearly as predictable as it seemed from the outset. A great depiction of an American family. ( )

Widowed, of modest means and in her late 70s, Winnie shocks her family and friends by deciding to marry again. The groom, Jerry, is roughly the same age and also widowed. So far it’s a happy picture. Until we meet Jerry’s family. Apparently the groom has millions in the bank, money he has earned building two companies from the ground up, money his daughter Annette wants to remain in the family. Her worst fears are confirmed when it is revealed that Jerry has bought the town’s famous—albeit dilapidated—mansion for his bride.
Two other couples share the “commute”: Winnie’s daughter Rachel and her husband Bob, and Jerry’s just-out-of-rehab grandson, Avery and his girlfriend, Nona. The reader “commutes” to and from the different couples’ points of view as Tedrowe switches between relationships. Quite a tour de force: writing credibly about couples in their late 20s, mid-40s and late 70s.

Ms Tedrowe’s characters are complicated people. I fell in love with Bob, Winnie’s son in law, who is on disability leave from the law firm where he works: a fall from a ladder inflicted head trauma that would require months of rehab. Rachel is frustrated—and I think envious—that Bob has decided to use these months to write a book. Their finances dwindle until they are forced to move into the self-contained apartment in their house that they used to rent out. And when Rachel turns to Jerry for some help, and by help I mean $$$, the reader begins to sympathizes with Annette.

Jerry’s grandson, Avery, grows so much during the course of the novel. He begins as a selfish, self-absorbed individual estranged from his parents and not terribly connected to his grandfather. As he warms up to Winnie and Jerry, Avery matures, his heart becomes large enough to contain more than his own desires and wants. His girlfriend, Nona, is a talented singer of modern art songs and here Tedrowe does a superb job of describing sounds. Reading about a song can so easily kill the mood. Tedrowe is equally skillful when she dishes up fusion menus through Avery, an avid foodie and budding chef. She knows how to taste with words.

Commuters ends in an untidy, realistic way. Through a neat literary device, we learn that Bob’s book is going to be published under the title “My Commute: Head Trauma, Recovery, and Finding My Way Back”. Rachel doesn’t understand it as her husband doesn’t commute to his job. Winnie offers another meaning of the word: “To change, or exchange. To give one thing in exchange for another.”

The title of this post is taken from a photograph in the story: enthusiastic volunteers fundraising for the renovation of the town’s train station hold a banner proclaiming that “We Are All Commuters!” With Commuters, Ms Tedrowe offers the reader thoughtful and thought-provoking views of change and impermanence, love and loss, learning and growth within the immensely satisfying carbs of a story well told.

8.5 out of 10. A story with substance. ( )

An interesting, though not compelling, read about old age and the ramifications thereof, for the old and for their families. ( )