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As lyrical as a sonata, Ayelet Waldman’s follow-up novel to Love and Other Impossible Pursuits explores the aftermath of a family tragedy.
Set on the coast of Maine over the course of four summers, Red Hook Road tells the story of two families, the Tetherlys and the Copakens, and of the ways in which their lives are unraveled and stitched together by misfortune, by good intentions and failure, and by love and calamity.
A marriage collapses under the strain of a daughter’s death; two bereaved siblings find comfort in one another; and an adopted young girl breathes new life into her family with her prodigious talent for the violin. As she writes with obvious affection for these unforgettable characters, Ayelet Waldman skillfully interweaves life’s finer pleasures—music and literature—with the more mundane joys of living. Within these resonant pages, a vase filled with wildflowers or a cold beer on a hot summer day serve as constant reminders that it’s often the little things that make life so precious.
Set on the coast of Maine over the course of four summers, Red Hook Road tells the story of two families, the Tetherlys and the Copakens, and of the ways in which their lives are unraveled and stitched together by misfortune, by good intentions and failure, and by love and calamity.
A marriage collapses under the strain of a daughter’s death; two bereaved siblings find comfort in one another; and an adopted young girl breathes new life into her family with her prodigious talent for the violin. As she writes with obvious affection for these unforgettable characters, Ayelet Waldman skillfully interweaves life’s finer pleasures—music and literature—with the more mundane joys of living. Within these resonant pages, a vase filled with wildflowers or a cold beer on a hot summer day serve as constant reminders that it’s often the little things that make life so precious.
92 Reviews
3.0
Beth Sperber Richie
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“Apparently I prefer the less-acclaimed wives of critical darling male authors. Nicola Krauss? Waaaaay better than Jonathan Safran Foer. And now? Ayelet Waldman wins out over her pretentious other half Michael Chabon.
This one gets three and a half stars, really. Good but won't leave a lasting impression.
The lives of two families are torn apart when their son and daughter are killed en route from their wedding ceremony to their reception. The book is divided into sections describing the first, second, and third summers following the accident that claimed the lives of Becca and John. Becca's parents are Jewish New York intellectuals who spend their summers in the Maine town her ancestors helped establish. Still, Iris is seen as an outsider by John's mother Jane who lives and works as a cleaning lady in the town year-round. Iris takes Jane's adopted niece under her wing because she needs to feel like she is in control of something, and this serves only to further strain Iris's already delicate marriage. To complicate matters, Becca's sister and John's brother begin to date in secret.
Waldman's prose is manageable and full of emotion, her characters feel lifelike and complex. There's not a lot of new ground covered here, but it's an enjoyable read and I loved the way it was structured - the prologue introduced the major characters and foreshadowed how they'd unravel without feeling forced. The ending was ultimately a little too convenient, and it never does feel like there's any true consequence to anything that happened in the first 90% of the book.”
About Ayelet Waldman
AYELET WALDMAN is the author of Daughter’s Keeper, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, and the New York Times bestseller Bad Mother. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, New York, Elle, Vogue, and other publications, and on Salon.com. She and her husband, the novelist Michael Chabon, live in Berkeley, California, with their four children.
Other books by Ayelet Waldman
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