The Arrivals: Book summary and reviews of The Arrivals by Meg Mitchell Moore

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Terri DuLong

Very True to Life
I felt the author captured the family dynamics very well. The middle-age parents, the adult children returning home for various reasons, and the love and flaws every family experiences.

Cathryn Conroy

Selfish, Whiny, Entitled Characters No Plot = A Boring Book
This is summer ChickLit with a big ol' helpin' of whining and complaining. Enough already!

Written by Meg Mitchell Moore, this is the story of William and Ginny, sixty-somethings who are happily retired in Burlington, Vermont on the shores of picturesque Lake Champlain and still living in the home in which they raised their three children. Those three now-grown kids each have problems they think are so insurmountable that they rush home to Mom and Dad. But here's the weird part: The kids show up on the doorstep one-by-one, but it takes seemingly forever for each of them to actually reveal to the others why they are there and why they are suffering so.

• Lillian is living in a beautiful home near Boston with husband Tom and their two children Oliva, 3, and Phillip, three months. The home is decorated from the pages of a Pottery Barn catalog. Soon after baby Phillip's birth, Tom has a drunken one-night stand with his very young secretary at an out-of-control office party, and of course someone immediately calls Lillian to squeal. In a fit of anger, she flees with the kids, yelling at Tom not to contact her—ever again.
• Stephen, a mediocre freelance editor lives in a tony New York City loft apartment with his MBA-credentialed wife, Jane, who makes the big bucks. Jane is pregnant and very moody, so Stephen decides the best way to cheer her up is to whisk her off to his family's home for a long weekend. This is puzzling because Jane and Ginny are like oil and water. THIS is going to cheer up the moody pregnant wife? But then there is a medical emergency, and Jane is ordered to bedrest in Vermont for 10 weeks.
• Rachel, who just broke up with her live-in boyfriend because he won't marry her, is failing at her job as a casting agent for one reason only: She has given up trying. Meanwhile, she can't afford the rent on her New York City apartment since the boyfriend walked out. Instead of trying to make the job work out, she flees to Vermont in emotional and financial distress.

That's the set-up. Everyone is home in Vermont in a house that isn't big enough for all of them. Chaos ensues. There is much rage and resentment. The problems take a long, long, long time to come to light before they resolve, which only happens because Ginny and William finally have had enough and force the "kids" to act like the adults they are. (But first they blame themselves that their children are so unhappy. Sigh.)

What bothered me the most about the book—in addition to nothing happening except a lot of noise and laundry—was the unrealistic expectations and actions of every character. They are all wrapped up in their own little world and can't see past themselves to reach out and help the ones they love the most. Instead, they just whine and complain. I had little patience for the characters because they were ALL so selfish, spoiled, and entitled. The result? A boring book.