This was a very strange read. It's about a family living in a kibbutz and how the kids grow up and go live their lives. There are a lot of secrets and rumors. The story is so intriguing it just keeps you engrossed and you just keep reading more.

The author gives you little hints about each child, well adults now, that peak your interest. When I first started reading it, I was thinking that I was not going to like it. However, very shortly into it, I just could not put it down. It's just hard to put into words exactly how the author attracts you but believe me, she does. A strange read that intrigues and pulls you in.

Thanks to Grove Atlantic for approving my request and to Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

Yakov Solomon emigrated to Israel after WWII and settled in a kibbutz in the Jordan River Valley. He met and married the beautiful Vivienne and raised a family. Eventually Yakov became a wealthy man with his construction company and his children grew up and began began to scatter. Marc, the former commando, had moved to Los Angeles and married a beautiful Gentile woman with many secrets. Ziv, the gay son is estranged from the family and living in Singapore. Shira, a self absorbed actress travels between Israel, lOs Angeles and New York. She also has little interest in her only child, Joseph. Keren is the daughter still living on the kibbutz and married to a man who barely makes a living. She relies on her father's generosity for the family existence.

Friends like Marc's first love, Maya and the Shymatsky brothers also make appearances and continue to complicate the lives of the Solomons.

In Los Angeles, Marc has been accused of financial misdeeds and sees his successful asset trading business all apart and his fortune confiscated. Then Yakov dies and most of the clan return to the kibbutz to mourn him and also share his fortune.

This is a well written book by a new author, Bethany Ball. She presents a multigenerational family of imperfect people. There are no heroes, just realistic characters.

A lackluster read that sorely disappointed. I had to DNF it in the end.

What to do About the Solomons by Bethany Ball

Tolstoy’s quote from Anna Karenina “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” is certainly applicable to the Solomon family. Yakov Solomon, a successful construction entrepreneur and his beautiful wife Vivienne, raise their five children during the aftermath of WWll in an Israeli kibbutz, not far from Jerusalem. Ball’s debut is a madcap tragi-comedy masterpiece with the screwball Solomon family drama at center-stage. I devoured this in one afternoon and I was simply unable to put it down.

Half way through this story, I was ready to pull my hair out. I was soooo spent and exhausted, I wanted to SCREAM!!! - so I made a cup of green tea and took a breathing break!
My brain actually started to hurt. I felt like I was the sounding board for EVERYBODY'S problems.......*LOTS* of EVERYBODY'S in this novel!

Messy-craziness....IMPULSIVELY READABLE.....[Tea break needed about half way]....
but this is one heck of an ambitious family saga from Bethany Ball.

An Israeli mother leaves her eleven year old son alone in Israel, while she is in Los Angeles.
She shops on Melrose Street...smokes some joints...a little cocaine... a little booze... a little sex. That's just 'one' pathetic situation. Readers are in for a bumpy ride for many more jaw-dropping scenes!

Bethany Ball delves into the psychological history of grown children. Funny at times but frantically sad.

As a Jewish woman myself - who has lived on a Kibbutz- with a special heart for stories like this one -- I'm very glad I read this. Each family member is artfully crafted - all different - nobody was heroic .....( a little satire -realism -comedy - pathos) ... but I'm happy to leave their chaotic lives --and return to my own. However, I've been slightly altered - for the better!!!

Thank You Grove Atlantic, Netgalley, and Bethany Ball