A THEORY OF RELATIVITY by Jacquelyn Mitchard is a gripping story
about how families cope with the burdens of love and loss. But it
also serves as a cautionary tale about how a novel can pull you in
with a grabby opening, then test your mettle by dragging you
through uncut prose, snarly legal scenes, and weepy flashbacks.
Mitchard presents readers with tandem challenges: Will the
characters endure? Will you?

RELATIVITY begins with a fatal car crash --- "They died instantly.
Or close enough." The victims are Ray and Georgia Nye, a young
couple whose untimely demise leaves their one-year-old daughter
Keefer an orphan. The families on both sides are devastated, and in
the midst of their heartbreak emerges an ugly and frantic custody
battle. On one side is Gordon McKenna, a carefree 24-year-old high
school math teacher and Georgia's brother. On the other side are
Delia and Craig Cady, Ray's affluent born-again cousins. Since he
is Georgia's sibling, Gordon appears to have the advantage.
However, a legal bombshell explodes when the petitions reach court.
Because Georgia and Gordon were each adopted by the McKennas when
they were babies, they are not related by blood, and the statute
specifies that only blood relatives can file for an expedited
adoption. Overnight, the McKennas turn into lobbyists, pressuring
the state legislature to rephrase the law. The wrangling over
Keefer takes place against the backdrop of the abrupt coming of age
of Gordon and all of Ray's and Georgia's loved ones, especially
their parents.

Mitchard, who is also a syndicated columnist, has chronicled her
struggles with adopting a child in her newspaper writing. Here, she
tackles ambitious and important questions about identity and
relationships, but her insights are obscured by all the words.
After the taut opener, she follows up with: "Gordon, of course,
knew that 'instantly,' in this context, didn't mean what it seemed
to suggest: Several minutes would have passed inside the car after
the impact, while the final tick and swoosh of Ray's and Georgia's
heart-sent blood swept a pointless circuit, while muscles
contracted loyally at the behest of a last volley of neurological
commands."

There's also heavy-handed foreshadowing --- "The day of the
accident, the drive home from the bridge, would be the last time
Gordon would be confident, stupidly confident..." --- and overripe
descriptions --- "he would…feel her tiny breasts with their
startling large nipples like echinacea flowers crushed against his
chest…" While Mitchard is known for the forthright humor in
her columns, any laughs here seem unintentional, as when she
writes: "How would Keefer, the puree of Georgia and Ray, turn
out?"

What does keep the reader going is wanting to find out who will be
the little girl's guardian. Towards the end of the book, the judge
proclaims his exasperation with the "endless wrangling" and orders
the two sides to come to an agreement. The reader will only wish he
had intervened sooner. A freak incident and three more chapters
later, A THEORY OF RELATIVITY finally finishes with a whimper after
starting with a bang.