Dog-eared Books

What did you take from this book?
The author's descriptions of the Maine coast are as vivid as her scenes of family struggle and the terror experienced by the Jewish families in Denmark in the 1940s. I now long to see that Maine coastline firsthand, and I will not forget the inspiring courage of those caught in the horror of World War II that Gutcheon describes. But history aside, many of the undercurrents in family struggles that Gutcheon explores in the Brant/Moss family remain universal, and for people interested in these relationships, in seeking compatibility and strength in marriage and family life in our own day, her story is riveting and insightful. I will be looking for other novels by Beth Gutcheon.

What did you tell your friends about this book?
Gutcheon supplies readers with an engaging read. She intersperses chapters on events in the various characters' lives in a fast-paced plot that kept me turning pages rapidly -- and late into the night.

Brief summary:
Gutcheon traces a family's joys, tensions and sorrows during their annual summers in the Victorian cottage in Dundee, Maine, when old and young return for reunion and renewal by the sea. The mother-daughter conflict is interwoven with that of the married daughter's husband, a musician whose own family becomes involved in the Danish Resistance in Copenhagen during World War II.

- Rachel Moore, 
retired senior lecturer in English