It is possible to have too much of a good thing. This book, beautifully written, goes on at great length about a disastrous marriage between an alcoholic and a neurotic and shows the deadly effects their love-hate relationship has on their children. Set in the Virginia Tidewater at about the time of World War II, it depicts the social background to which the characters react. But the book is long--perhaps deliberately so, to show the long-lasting effects that such an unhappy marriage can have.