Author : Richard Russo
Narrators : Fred Sanders
Genre : Contemporary
Publisher : Random House Audio
Listening Length : 11 hours 17 minutes
Rating : 2/5
Narrator Rating : 4/5
Three old friends meet up on Martha’s Vineyard where they’d spent many happy moments as college students. Lincoln is a real estate broker who married his college sweetheart. He’s also the one who owns the house (which was his mother’s) on Martha’s Vineyard where they all had congregated then and where they are meeting up now. Teddy, who is bi-polar and subject to sicknesses, is in publishing and Mickey, the impetuous brawler is a musician.
As each of them talks about the time gone past, they remember the lovely Jacy Calloway (they were all in love with her) and her mysterious disappearance after the Memorial Day Weekend when they all went their separate ways. They talk and they talk, and rehash the various things they remember in an effort to gather some clues. The books chapters are told from the perspective of each of the friends, but ultimately the book meanders on, to a very unsatisfying ending.
Now, with Russo, the pleasure is in savoring his words, because he writes so well about the people we are and the relationships that keep us afloat. Even if you don’t relate to a particular character because they might be so far removed from anyone you’ve ever met or imagined, you can still feel for them because of the skill of Russo’s writing. You get attached to his characters; they inspire affection.
This book however did not do that. I found the basic premise weak, and the characters not very likeable. The characters ramble on and wax philosophical, but in general that’s what Russo’s characters do. The difference here is that mostly I’m sympathetic to their plight or at least like them a little – here I didn’t really care to follow along or get swept up in the anguish of their one lost love, who disappeared 44 years ago.
I can’t recommend this book. Re-read Empire Falls instead.
Narrator Fred Sanders is great; I look forward to more of his work.
