“Physician Bess Codman has returned to her family’s Nantucket compound, Cliff House, for the first time in four years. Her great-grandparents built Cliff House almost a century before, but due to erosion, the once-grand home will soon fall into the sea. Though she s purposefully avoided the island, Bess must now pack up the house and deal with her mother, a notorious town rabble-rouser, who refuses to leave.”
Michelle Gable is the author of one of my favourite books of 2016, I’ll See You in Paris. Her newest release, The Book of Summer, takes us to Nantucket and tells the story of a family and their summer home, from present day struggles to the people and events of the past. In present day, Bess is back on Nantucket and dealing with the events surrounding the slow demise of Cliff House due to erosion, and her mother’s battle to save their cherished summer home. The novel also flashes back to Bess’ grandmother, Ruby Packard and her life as a young newlywed and navigating life at the start of WWII. Also throughout the novel are entries from a guest book kept at the Cliff House, which Bess and family had come to refer to as The Book of Summer.
There are many aspects of this novel that are quite appealing, and there is a charm and likability to a number of the characters throughout. The issues surrounding erosion on Nantucket along with the history of Cliff House and the significance of this home to Bess’ family is what captured my attention the most. I did find it difficult to connect to any of the characters, which kept me from truly engaging with the stories throughout. As I mentioned, there is definitely a certain charm to these characters, but that does get kind of lost in the dialogue, which is full of expressions and lingo that I assume is of that region and also time period in regards to the 1940’s era. The book is very dialogue heavy, which is not something I typically enjoy, so that combined with the content of the dialogue itself kept taking me out of the story and made the characters feel far too unbelievable. Unfortunately, The Book of Summer simply did not work for me.
*ARC provided by NetGalley for an unbiased review. Publication date: May 9, 2017.
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