Overall, what did you think of Evie as a character, particularly of her desperate desire to hold onto the island?

Overall, what did you think of Evie as a character, particularly of her desperate desire to hold onto the island? Did your opinion of her change over the course of the novel?

I could totally understand her desire to keep the Island - our family cottage is my Happy Place, the place of wonderful memories, our escape from the stress of the city, the place where we relax, where we gather, the place we hope to share with future generations.
Evie seemed unformed to me, I didn't get a real strong sense of her at all; she was accomplished in her field and yet still insecure. After reading of the romance of Joan and Len I was surprised not to get more details about how Evie and Paul became a couple and married. The relationship between Evie and her cousins was just presented as a fact, and it felt off to me.

I don't think Evie was a well developed character. I totally understand her wanting to keep the Island. But other than that the only other feeling I get is that she allows her husband to play the Jewish card over and over and rather than refute his perspective, she allows him to instill guilt, shame and insecurity in her.

I liked Evie, not as much as I would have liked to, though. These characters fell short of full disclosure in my opinion, but her honesty about her feelings and her family made up for the lack of depth deficit. I understood her need to hold onto the island. I would have felt the same. The older one gets, the more they cling to the memories of the past, through rose colored glasses or not.

I did not like Evie. I found her weak, selfish and unsympathetic.

While I didn't always like Evie, I grew to understand her as the novel progressed. Keeping the island was her way of keeping her mother's spirit alive, and it's easy to sympathize with and relate to that. The island was significant to her in a way that it wasn't for her cousins, and I think it's admirable that she fought to have her voice heard when everyone else wanted to sell.

I agree with several comments. I especially liked what Lisa BB said about her wanting to hold on to her mother’s spirit. I think it was significant that she found her voice to fight for what she wanted, even though she didn’t fight back with Paul.

Evie propels the story along but her own story is not as strong as the others. She is the tool the author uses to tell the story.

I didn't always like Evie similar to other readers, but her character represents probably 25% of our population that suffer in silence unnecessarily due to their insecurities / poor self-esteem. I wish that she had set boundaries with her husband and others, but as I indicated too often this occurs in real life. I appreciated that she finally stood her ground to keep the island when everyone else wanted to sell.

I agree with several of the other comments that Evie is not as developed as some of the other characters in the book and not as sympathetic. She is trying to hold on to a past that does not really exist. I was surprised at how rustic the house really seems and that it appears so run-down and disheveled.

I lived most of my life in the east, where I feel traditions like this are more prevalent. The whole book, including this character Evie, feel second to the author’s theme of focus on minority injustice.

In the beginning I supported Evie's obsession with holding on to the island but towards the end I felt she should just let it go and get on with her life. It was almost like that place haunted and held on to her.

I agree that Evie viewed the island and the preservation of its memories as a means to honor the spirit of her mother and grandmother. It seems that there was a great deal of Joan's past that Evie was never told and could therefore never understand. The relationship between her parents seemed a bit of a mystery for her, for good reason as we find out later. Perhaps the island was the one place that she and her mother felt closest, and Evie sensed that Joan was happiest. Their mutual love of the island could have been the strongest feeling the two women had in common. I believe Evie also wanted her son, another only child, to have the same sense of family history on the island that she felt.

I agree with several other readers about Evie’s character not being developed. It seems she was a traditionalist and hanging on to the the island was keeping the island memories intact and her mother’s family leadership in place. Evie certainly did not like change.

For some people memories and emotions are attached and wrapped up in places and things. By giving up the island, I think she would have felt like she was giving up the memories she had of her mother and grandmother, and also saw it as a sort of betrayal of them. I really understand those feelings. I have a few things that belonged to people who were close to me and are now gone. The idea of getting rid of those items upsets me a lot. I'm just not ready to give them up. Maybe some day, but for now, nope, can't do it. Sentimentality and family connection can be a powerful force.