Keeping the House by Ellen Baker

It is 1896 and Wilma is a new bride who has moved to the small Wisconsin town of Pine Rapids. Wilma met John Mickelson in college and left school early to marry him. The book follows their family for the next fifty-five years. Interwoven with the story of the Mickelson brood is that of Dolly Magnuson who also comes to Pine Rapids as a newlywed in 1950. She becomes obsessed with the grand Mickelson home on the hill and the story of the family who abandoned it. Keeping the House is a saga set against the backdrop of both world wars and shows how both women find out that married life takes some adjustment.