We Only Know So Much: A Novel by Elizabeth Crane

A Paperback Original
 
A funny and moving debut novel that follows four generations of an American family, all living under one roof, as each member confronts a moment of crisis—all told through a unique and unforgettable voice
 
“Crane has a distinctive and eccentric voice that is consistent and riveting.” —New York Times Book Review

We know the Copeland family is in crisis. The question is—do they know it too?

As the novel opens, Jean, the family’s emotionally numbed mother, has taken a secret lover—only to lose him to suicide. Her husband, Gordon, is unaware of her betrayal, distracted by the fear that he’s losing his own prized asset—his mind. Daughter Priscilla (don’t get us started) is probably up in her room right now talking at her friends about clothes, or boys, or the other inane subjects that bluster through her nineteen-year-old brain. (She’s been a total pill since birth; now her biggest career goal is extending her annoying reach to all of America through reality TV.) Nine-year-old Otis—named for the elevator company, but known to his sister as “Freak” or “Baby Freak”—is falling in love for the first time, without parental guidance. At the back of the Copeland house, grandfather Theodore is in the early throes of Parkinson’s disease. (And he’s more or less fine with the whole matter, as long as they continue to let him walk the damn dog alone.) And Vivian, the family’s ninety-eight-year-old great-grandmother, is a razor-sharp grande dame who suffers no foolishness from anyone; yet she harbors secret dreams of her own.

With empathy, humor, and emotional wisdom, Elizabeth Crane offers the unforgettable story of what one family finds when they go looking for meaning in all the wrong places.