Meandering Em's

I would give this book 2 1/2 stars if that were an option. I have an Advance Reader's Edition from Harper Collins. The book centers around five generations of women who live together. None of these women seem to age, so a scientist comes to investigate why. His visit is the catalyst for revealing the stories of the five Keller women. The book is divided into five sections; each woman is given a chance to share her thoughts and secrets. Unfortunately, I could not really relate to any of the characters. As soon as I begin to get interested in one character, the story would switch to another member of the family. I was most interested in Deb, who is in prison for shooting her husband. However, she abruptly leaves the story and is only mentioned occasionally thereafter.I know that this book has not been published. Hopefully, there will be massive changes, especially with the story of Anna, the first character of the book. This section dragged and I almost stopped reading because of boredom and poor writing. On page 24, there is a long description of the town, Kidron, being moved, house by house. Anna is reliving this history from 1900, when she is six years old, but she skips around in an incoherent way to discuss her daughter's home and to mention the great grandchildren of the first settlers. I had to read it several times just to unravel the timeline.The book is more enjoyable after this. It took about as long to read the first 40 pages as it took to read the remaining 260 pages. A good book should grab the reader's attention quickly.I do have one quibble about Frank. He is supposedly suffering from lewy body dementia. However, I know someone who has this terrible disease. It is progressive and the vast majority die within 8 years of diagnosis. (Frank has had the disease for 20+ years.) There is no way someone with this disease would be permitted to do what Frank does at the end of the book.This episode, as well as others just as improbable, made the book unrealistic to me.