Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: Moving and Unsettling

Without a hint of melodrama, the secrets of a family ruled twice over -- externally by an abusive and hateful patriarch, and internally by an oppressive, formalistic, religious devotion -- are played out through the eyes of an outsider, the family's daughter-in-law, Ellen, compelled by her husband's job loss to move her family in with his parents. As we learn more of each family member's life story, we see that the only chance Ellen has to save her personal soul is to abandon her religious soul, as well as all of her female role models. Although I had absolutely nothing in common with the characters (the novel is set in a Catholic, German-American farming community in Wisconsin in 1972) I was unable to put this novel down. The prose is elegant, lean, and very special.