Maybe I Don't Have the Right Mitt

This book started out quirky and endearing, and ended up annoying me. Ellie is the only child of a marriage that didn't last due to her father's repeated dalliances. With such a messy wake behind him, his tradition is to celebrate all holidays with his varied children in the off-months so they can be together as a patched-together family, these children of a few different women. Therefore, the childrens' relationships with each other are thin and situational, and it seems that they're all somewhat jockeying for the attention of the most charismatic member of the family, dear old dad. When he dies unexpectedly, it throws Ellie into a turmoil that she can't reconcile. The tchotchke that he leaves her in his will not only makes her feel like he didn't love her as much as she thought, but was almost an insult. The author can write, and weaves the story together pretty well, but I just didn't like the main character at all. I found her frustratingly self-centered and of dubious integrity. The mystery of the bequest threaded through the story gets explained at the end--but by that time I didn't much care.