Good to a Fault - by Marina Endicott (Paperback)

About the Book

"There's heartbreak, there's joy, there are parts where you cry--and it's very high quality writing. Well done!" -- Margaret Atwood

"Unpretentious and affecting, with characters to remember and themes that linger and resound." -- Meg Wolitzer, New York Times bestselling author of The Ten-Year Nap

Marina Endicott's Good to a Fault wrings suspense and humor out of the everyday choices we make, revealing the delicate balance between sacrifice and self-interest, between doing good and being good. In the vein of the novels of Carol Shields and Ann Patchett, Good to a Fault is a "witty, wise. . . . [and] brilliantly paced" (Colm Toibin) delight.

Book Synopsis

"There's heartbreak, there's joy, there are parts where you cry--and it's very high quality writing. Well done!"
-- Margaret Atwood

"Unpretentious and affecting, with characters to remember and themes that linger and resound."
-- Meg Wolitzer, New York Times bestselling author of The Ten-Year Nap

Marina Endicott's Good to a Fault wrings suspense and humor out of the everyday choices we make, revealing the delicate balance between sacrifice and self-interest, between doing good and being good. In the vein of the novels of Carol Shields and Ann Patchett, Good to a Fault is a "witty, wise. . . . [and] brilliantly paced" (Colm Tóibín) delight.

From the Back Cover

Shortlisted for Canada's prestigious Giller Prize, this "profoundly humane novel" (Vancouver Sun), wrings suspense and humor out of the everyday choices we make, revealing the delicate balance between sacrifice and self-interest, doing good and being good.

Clara Purdy is at a crossroads. At forty-three, she is divorced, living in her late parents' house, and near-ing her twentieth year as a claims adjuster at a local insurance firm. Driving to the bank during her lunch hour, she crashes into a sharp left turn, taking the Gage family in the other car with her. When bruises on the mother, Lorraine, prove to be late-stage cancer, Clara decides to do the right thing. She moves Lorraine's three children and their terrible grandmother into her own house--and then has to cope with the consequences of practical goodness: exhaustion, fury, hilarity, and unexpected love.

What, exactly, does it mean to be good? What do we owe each other in this life, and what do we deserve? Good to a Fault is an ultimately joyful book that digs deep, with leavening humor, into questions of morality, class, and social responsibility. Marina Endicott looks at life and death through the compassionate, humane lens of a born novelist: being good, being at fault, and finding some balance in between.

Review Quotes

"Marina Endicott is a sweet-natured but sharp-eyed and quick-tongued social observer in the Jane Austen-Barbara Pym-Anne Tyler tradition, who can wring love, revulsion and hilarity in a single page." - Globe and Mail (Top Fiction of 2008)
"The novel shows that the gift of love, even with tangled motivations, holds people together and makes it possible for them to go on. . . . Reminiscent of the work of Carol Shields, Good to a Fault is a profoundly humane novel." - Vancouver Sun
"Good to a Fault is sturdily old fashioned. The main protagonist worries about the state of her soul, the characters are a believable mix of strengths and weaknesses, and the narrative arc brings the novel to a satisfying close. Endicott's prose is plain but purposeful, carrying the story through moments of sorrow and heartbreak as well as joy and comedy. . . . Good to a Fault doesn't offer any easy answers, but in its depiction of ordinary people facing hard choices and challenging situations, it rings true." - Toronto Star
"This book explores, in clear, beautiful language, what happens when acts of kindness become selfish. . . . Compelling, funny, and meaningful." - Calgary Herald
"Warm and witty. . . . Utterly engaging. With a theatrical sensibility, Endicott, an established playwright and dramaturge, beautifully illuminates the interior lives and stunted interactions of her cast of struggling strangers. . . . Told in time to the steady, poignant pulse of domestic life, and with sharp observations and characters so vulnerable they're impossible not to care about, this is a novel that gets under the skin." - Quill & Quire (Canada)
"You'll find abundant variations on the accidental family in fiction and in life, but the one Endicott selects for the childless, parentless, partnerless Clara is peerless-and literal. . . . Although Lorraine's illness casts its shadow over everything, it's the quieter introspective dramas, provided by Endicott's skillful rotation among the characters' points of view, that hold your attention. . . . John Updike once said the Pym's 'Excellent Women' was 'a startling reminder that solitude may be chosen, and that a lively, full novel can be constructed entirely within the precincts of that regressive virtue, feminine patience.' And so it can." - Mary Jo Murphy, New York Times Book Review
"Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott started out as a quiet book, then it stealthily cranked up, building its plot and its characters until suddenly I found myself ensnared and unable to put the book down... [It] fire[s] truly and surely into the heart of the reader... Endicott slowly and expertly draws her characters... The magic-- the goodness -- in life and in poetry is in finding beauty both high and low, and sharing what is found, as Endicott shares with us in Good to a Fault." - The Huffington Post
"There's heartbreak, there's joy, there are parts where you cry--and it's very high quality writing. Well done!" - Margaret Atwood, Giller Prize Jury remarks
"A brilliantly balanced and engrossing work about illness, charity, and the very tenuous nature of goodness. Fans of contemporary fiction exploring the dangers of complacency and how domestic upheaval can lead to personal growth will enjoy; think Anne Tyler, Elizabeth Berg, and Anita Shreve. Highly recommended for all fiction collections." - Jenn B. Stidham, Library Journal
"An enjoyable and affirming meditation on altruism, goodness, and loneliness.... A touching story." - Publishers Weekly
"Probing the moral and emotional minefield of heroic Samaritan acts, Endicott's enchanting and poignant novel of compassion run amok handles provocative issues with a deft and winsome touch." - Carol Haggas, Booklist (starred review)
"An Anne Tyler-esque domestic drama. . . . Narrated with such lambent detail and compassion that it succeeds in casting a spell. . . . A limpid, witty, humane talent to watch." - Kirkus Reviews
"Good to a Fault is one of those novels you want to tell people about. It's unpretentious and affecting, with characters to remember and themes that linger and resound." - Meg Wolitzer, New York Times bestselling author of The Ten-Year Nap
"Marina Endicott's novel is a superb realization of a morally complex character whose confrontation with suffering leads to a journey of growth and self discovery. With delicate precision, Good to a Fault tackles some of the big, eternal questions--love, mortality, God--in a deceptively modest story populated with very ordinary people brought together in extraordinary circumstances. Endicott's wry, understated prose turns a few surprising months in Clara Purdy's life into a gripping moral quest, searching to discover what it means to live a truly good life." - The Commonwealth Writers Prize Jury remarks, Canada/Caribbean Region 2009
"Absolutely ingenious. Almost unlikely, in the sense that you wouldn't advise somebody to write that plot, that you wouldn't say, "Oh, what a great plot, what a great idea," but as you were going along, you were thinking--turning the pages--'This is simply delightful.'" - Colm Toibín, Giller Prize Jury remarks