This book is so well crafted, so well thought out, and so specific--how then is it possible these sisters are commuting back and forth from Pilsen and Northwestern with such ease? At one point a character even says they've never lived more than 20 minutes apart, but Pilsen to Evanston without a car is at least an hour and a half. This seems like an odd oversight for such a well written book, am I missing something?

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2 years ago
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LindaN That detail was definitely an oversight and incorrect, and there were others regarding the Northwestern/Chicago area. A library science degree requires at least 4 years of college, often 5, and community colleges in Chicago, at least during the time frame in question, were 2-year junior colleges. For the basketball players searching for William, to end up following the very ambulance sent for him defies belief; in a metropolitan area that large, in the course of a many-hour search, there would have been many ambulances. And for William to be in the same hospital where Charlie died and Izzy and Alice were born is unlikely, as those events were in very different parts of the city. Nevertheless, these inaccuracies have not reduced my iterest in the book or taken away my enjoyment.

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Michelle Huffman It bothered me a lot - it is physically impossible to make that commute in anything under 30 minutes under the best conditions. It's not like a little thing either; their proximity both physically and emotionally is a key part of their early adulthood. I get the feeling she doesn't know the Chicago area well at all and nobody who read/edited it did either so nobody caught this.

Frankly, there are many more neighborhood/university combos that would have fit just fine (especially because I don't think she really talks very specifically about any of these places) if she wanted them to be closer but ignoring that commute is so unrealistic.

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Amy I went to NU at about the same time as these characters and nothing seemed correct about it to me. There's no apartment housing overlooking a quad. They have undergrad's who are RAs not random men. The enrollment in and pursuit of a history PhD looks very different to me. She says in her acknowledgements that she did research but it didn't feel that way to me. I am glad I stuck with it because it was an excellent book in spite of what I saw as huge inaccuracies.

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Debbie Mcafee I don’t know enough geography to answer the question, but I thought the same thing while reading. I found several parts of the book unrealistic and far-fetched, primarily Julia’s meteoric rise in the business world and ability to luck up, have a professor who hires her, find a free place to live in NYC and provide private school for Alice. She had a lot of unlikely conveniences even as someone ambitious and driven.

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Marlee Rio In the acknowledgements, Napolitano said she chose Pilsen as a tribute to her uncle who used to send her post cards. She did say she took some liberties.

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Susan D'Entremont Ha. I really enjoyed this book, but that bothered me so much that it is the thing I wrote most about in my review. I even looked it up on Google maps! According to Google in 2005 during NON-rush hour, it would take about 50 minutes by car, and over an hour by public transit.

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Judith Maybe geography & commute times were off, but these characters were supposedly extremely close emotionally. But then rather than tap into that great love & support each other when things got complicated, the family fell apart & they treated each other horribly if you ask me!

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