Award-winning author Jennifer Haigh must be a superb judge of character. In The Condition, her third novel, she expertly draws portraits of each member of the McKotch family. In doing so, she reveals the commonalities among people who have been labeled, or wish they were, special.

The novel opens with scenes from the summer before Frank and Paulette’s marriage begins to fall apart. The family is vacationing on Cape Cod, according to the tradition in Paulette’s old-money family. Haigh gives us glimpses of all manner of problems within the McKotch family: Paulette finds herself getting jealous of her niece for being young and pretty; Frank is working in his lab at M.I.T. and might not make it that weekend; and their daughter Gwen is devastated to find that her cousins are going through puberty and she’s not.

The story then accelerates forward to a time when Paulette and Frank have divorced; Gwen has been diagnosed with a condition that prevents her from developing fully into a woman; and the younger son Scott has just returned to New England after fleeing to California without a word to anyone.

No one in this family, including the golden-boy son, Billy, is happy with the way his or her life turned out. Paulette still carries her ridiculous need to be the belle of the ball at all times. Frank dreams of the big break that will get him published in Science and elected to the National Academy of Sciences. Scott is just beginning to take responsibility for the situation in which he finds himself, and Billy is frightened of disappointing everyone.

It is interesting, then, that Haigh presents Gwen as the most well-adjusted one of the bunch. She has learned to be independent and deal with her condition better than most of the people around her. She moves away from her mother, holds down a job she likes, and learns how to scuba dive. Her mind and personality are sharp, but her family seems incapable of treating her like an adult.

When Gwen, age 34, meets a man on a scuba diving trip, her self-involved mother finds it impossible to believe that she’s not being tricked. “So, why would he choose to take up with your sister?,” she asks Scott. “I’ll tell you why. . . . It takes a particular kind of woman to fall for a character like this. A lonely and vulnerable and inexperienced young woman. And your Rico found his mark.”

Paulette, Frank, Scott and Billy look at the world solely through their own disappointments. Gwen, who has suffered possibly the biggest disappointment, is the only one who tries to understand and respect their various quirks.

Haigh doesn’t condemn Gwen’s family. She gives their failings a human quality with which the reader can easily connect. It’s what makes it easy to root for them to put themselves back together in the end.

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