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Gretchen M. (Martinsburg, WV)
Underdeveloped
This book had so many layers that could have made a good novel become a great novel. I found myself less interested in the murder and wanting more story about being a young widow, the House of Incurables and what this meant to Georgie and who lived there, William's life as an immigrant, the role segregation played on the affair between William and Clementine, Thomas' adjustments after the death of his father, the character of Venus. I liked it but it kind of felt like an outline of a really good story to come.
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Tracey S. (Largo, FL)
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I had a hard time getting into the book. I am not a fan of chapters going back and forth in time as I tend to get confused! I stuck it out because I wanted to find out who really killed Georgie's mother. I really liked the relationship between Thomas and Georgie. They had a special bond. There were also a lot of characters to keep remembering who they were and who was related to whom. I don't think the author did a great job doing that.
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Shirley F. (The Villages, FL)
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This story of a woman finding answers to a lifelong question approached the idea in a unique manner. When 70 year old Georgianna decides to return to the Wisconsin camp where her life changed forever, and take along her family, only one child was looking forward to the trip.
The book explores many issues including racism, loss, grief, and parent-child relationships. I liked the book but didn't feel there was much tension in it, and the modern day mystery was not resolved - just accepted without any repercussions.
The murder from the past was also solved for Georgie, and I hope the author intended to show some resolution in the way she presented it. I liked the way that the author developed the story but found some of the situations unrealistic, and the characters a a little too stereotypical. One family relationship was not revealed until too near the end and it seemed contrived to me. That child had issues which were glossed over and I felt could have been incorporated into the story better.
I want to thank BookBrowse and W.W.Norton for an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review
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Colleen F. (Carrollton, TX)
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This story was interesting and then it lost me. I wanted to know more about her parents and what it's like to live with her grandparents. It was just okay for me. I just wanted more. I wish we could have known more about the other characters at the camp.
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Roberta W. (Los Ranchos, NM)
Lost opportunities
Georgianna Grove is about to celebrate her 70th birthday when she receives a letter that takes her back to a trip that occurred when she was four years old. During that trip her mother was murdered and her father confessed to the murder. She decides to recreate the canoe trip and takes her reluctant family with her. Can she find the answers to her mother's murder?
I think there were too many characters in the book which resulted in no character being fully fleshed out. I had to re-read parts of the book to try to figure out who everyone was and how they fit into the story.
The author goes back and forth in time and uses different narrators.
There are themes of racial discrimination and bigotry and these too are not well-developed.
Without giving anything away, I found the ending wholly unsatisfying.
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Marjorie W. (Naples, FL)
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It took me a while to develop an interest in reading this book. It was a good story and kept me guessing who killed Georgianna's mother right up to the end. I really enjoyed the ending and Thomas's final pages of his memoir.
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Nancy D. (North Bend, OR)
Secrets from the Past
I wanted to like this book. The thesis is compelling: return to a place you experienced as a child to confirm that a situation did or didn't happen the way you were told.
Georgianna Grove celebrates her 70th birthday by compelling her family to revisit a camp site where her father murdered her mother. A professor of Cultural Anthropology, Georgie knows how to bring the past alive, and her family, a son and two daughters and grandchildren, must accompany her. The trip involves canoes and bad weather. Dangers abound and accidents happen. They arrive at the camp and secrets are unearthed. But are they the secrets Georgie wanted told?
Like I say, a compelling thesis. But unbelievable. The son doesn't want to go in the first place, yet he does, even though he is working on the Obama campaign and checks in as often as he can. Once this character finds himself in a fearful situation, he bangs his fists against the earth. Unlikely. The son's wife, an actor working out of town, is unfortunately not with the group as she might have provided some needed support for her husband.
The two daughters live with Georgie, as does Thomas, in a house called the House of the Uncurables where stray people are free to wander in, to stay, to cook, to hang out until they are ready to leave. In this day and age, unlikely.
The most interesting character is a 13 year old grandchild named Thomas who seldom attends school and spends his time writing comic novels.
Everything that could go wrong does and no one has the sense God gave a goose.
I wanted to like the book but I struggled to finish it. It seems unrealistic, which brought me out of the story, and only Thomas was worth the time.
