Being polite to Hitler, by Robb Forman Dew

I hadn't read much of this acclaimed author, and probably this wasn't the best choice. I learned after I read it, with a little puzzlement, that it was the last novel of a trilogy. Perhaps I would have enjoyed it more if I was acquainted with the characters as old friends. The complex clan, with overlapping names, some used as a first name, others as the last name, was a little hard to follow. Set in the 1950's and going forward about twenty years, it centers on Agnes Scofield, who at fifty-four is thoroughly bored with her life. What happens to her in late mid-life surprises both her and her extended family. In the end, "It was about reclaiming and slaking her own desires after the long years of their being defined by the people to and for whom she felt responsible. She was neither glad nor sorry to discover that a curious detachment had insinuated itself into her expectations of what remained possible during the rest of her life." I kinda get that..... 297 pp.