Marly Swick's most recent book, The Summer Before the Summer of Love, collected stories highlighting the drama of the awkward moments in between actions. Swick returns to this emphasis on the unsaid in her latest book, Paper Wings. In it, a woman tells the story of how her mundane middle-class family is slowly torn apart after her mother rediscovers and redefines her life following the Kennedy assassination. The story isn't particularly compelling, as the end result becomes apparent within the book's first third. However, Swick's portrayals of a couple whose romance crumbles and dematerializes rather than exploding in a supernova of anger and passion, as well as the daughters who must sit and watch it occur, are the book's primary reward. In the vividly detailed settings, these characters are nearly tangible in their authenticity, and it's their minor interactions and reactions to the story's events which make the book enjoyable.