The first chapters of this book sucked me right in. The story starts with a tight group of friends finding out that two of their own have drowned while celebrating their wedding anniversary. The reader doesn't know the group (self-named The Castaways) yet, so we discover their reactions before we understand the relationships. Once the relationships are exposed - and that's truly what it is, an exposure - I started feeling disturbed by the secret relationships going on between these four couples. It just seems like some relationships should be sacred - life your best friend's marriage - but it seemed like each member of The Castaways were married to one person, but "preoccupied" by someone's else's spouse. It gave me an icky feeling. There were some exceptions though. Both the Chief and Jeffrey seems like good, honest, faithful men. All of the women were a mess!
Eventually though, as you keep reading, you start understanding these relationships better - and why everyone reacted the way they did to Greg & Tess' deaths. An important factor is how much Greg & Tess were loved by the rest of the group. They were the young, beautiful couple. Greg was a musician that women lusted after. Tess was beautiful, kind and a wonderful mother. Their deaths created a deep sense of loss, as well as guilt and anger. I didn't particularly like any of the Castaways (except maybe the Chief and Tess), so I was really surprised how much I liked the ending. It took awhile, but eventually this group was able to think of someone other than themselves. They started to heal in their own ways. They were (finally) open and honest about their secret relationships and what they did that made them feel responsible for Greg & Tess' deaths. It was a little weird that everyone let Phoebe off the hook for giving Tess that pill (that represents itself like heroin) to "help her relax". In my opinion, she was the only person who legitimately should feel partially responsible for what happened to Greg & Tess on their boat. But the rest of the group took her confession in stride, like it wasn't a big deal. I thought it was a really big deal!
Ultimately, this is a story of acceptance and forgiveness and friendship. Amazingly, each of the couples seemed happier at the end than they ever did when Greg & Tess were still alive. It wasn't my favorite Elin Hilderbrand novel, but the ending made it a worthwhile read.
Wendy's Rating: ***1/2
No comments:
Post a Comment