At other times, it is a blissfully welcome element that elevates an interesting story into truly something special. The priest announces the couple as man and wife. The bride faints. The only girls who escape New Waterford are those who are pregnant, and they leave to have their children away from embarrassment before returning.
Life is bearably unbearable only through the understanding of a couple of outsiders.
But because he is an outsider looking in, he can full well understand an insider trying to get out. In other words, they are running from something, and that involves Lou's father, a boxer of some repute who is back in the States, in jail. Moonie, with her glowering cool gaze, is the gloom that precedes Lou's doom. Far too often, the story meanders and relies on quirkiness, not character, to carry the day. That's too bad because Fish, who grew up in New Waterford and came up with the idea after attending her high school reunion, has a special story to tell.