What is it about a shared summer cottage that has housed generations of a family that brings out the worst in the relatives? One theory might be that it is the power of the childhood memories that one has of a particular loved space that has been a constant throughout one’s life. Here, perhaps, on a sunny vacation as a ten-year-old or a new bride, you were happiest. The magic of the place; its musty smells; its collections of old birds’ nests, shells, and the memories it contains have a powerful hold. It is also where old hurts and animosities may seem as fresh and raw as when you were a child. Matriarch Alice decides, unbeknownst to her children and grandchildren, to donate their summer cottage, and the modern house the most successful son has built, to the Church upon her death. During this final summer, her children and her grown grandchildren visit, including successful son Patrick and his martyred wife Anne Marie; Kathleen, a recovering alcoholic (the family disease) and “worm farmer” in California; and particularly Maggie, pregnant and alone. All have secrets, particularly Alice who hopes to work out her life-long guilt over the death of her sister in the Coconut Grove fire in 1942. Despite the theme and my love of family cottages, with all their "baggage," I didn't feel this novel lived up to its early rave reviews. 400 pp.
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