I have only just begun this book, but I love it.
Let me give you a sample, describing a small girl:
. . . smitten with books, devoted to wildlife, . . . . not so pretty as to be morally deformed by it . . .
I freaking love it. Or this, description of a young middle class mother pushing her pram through her gentrifying neighbourhood:
Behind her you could see the baby-encumbered preparations for a morning of baby-encumbered errands; ahead of her, an afternoon of public radio, the Silver Palate Cookbook, cloth diapers, drywall compound, and latex paint; and then Goodnight Moon, then zinfandel. She was already fully the thing that was just starting to happen to the rest of the street.
And this, off hand, about a middle aged mother:
Merrie, who was ten years older than Patty and looked every year of it, had formely been active with the SDS in Madison and was now very active in the craze for Beaujolais nouveau.