This Strange Eventful History is the latest novel to find a place on Claire Messud's crammed bookshelf. Strange/History follows generations of the Cassar clan, as its members — each lugging a steamer trunk of personal shortcomings — roam the world unmoored seeking to live a fulfilling life. Messud packs the four hundred plus pages with literary sentences/paragraphs that initially prove engaging but become tiresome, forcing the reader on unnecessary detours down story side streets.

The main characters are well developed and evolve nicely throughout the chapters, but none of them elicit empathy and that proved to be a problem. I simply didn't care what happened to them. As a result, when I got to page 257 I asked myself why should I continue reading. I didn't.