Goodreads: 5-Stars
January 11, 2025
Susan Sage
“A home away from home. For some, a port in a storm to heal. For others, a retreat to cultivate hopes and dreams.”—Eva Pasco
This is one of those rare novels that I truly didn’t want to finish! I’ve always thought highly of Pasco’s fiction, but this one is truly my favorite. It wasn’t only a ‘Heartfelt Contemporary’ as subtitled, but a keen psychological study of the connections between love and guilt. Through third-person personal voice, Pasco deftly and distinctly breathes life into her portrayals of Aileen, her mother Gert, retired schoolmarm Lillian Wright, the birdman Drake Lynch, Aileen’s boyfriend Ox, as well as one of the later guests—the deeply troubled Perla Moreno. Truly, is there anything sadder than the death of a child?
Not only does this novel contain great descriptions of local New England charm and seaside ambiance, it is also a sometimes nostalgic look back at American culture of the 1970s. I was roughly the same as Aileen in the 1970s and loved the many references to that period (Mod Squad, Teen Magazine, the Monkees, 8-track players—to name a few.)
It’s truly a symphonic novel: lighter parts and tender moment between mother/daughter, girlfriends girlfriend/boyfriend are followed by darker passages of tragic losses. Pasco perfectly creates a rise and fall of tension as she weaves the common thread of connections made from guilty consciences. There’s a poetry in her word choices and an architectural complexity in the book’s development that turns this work into a most powerful read.
My only disappointment was that after finishing it, I couldn't locate a link to a guest registration form!
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