For whatever reason, I had a hard time getting into this book initially. I like "beach reads" and I like this author, but some of the characters annoyed me! I should have given them more time for "growth" before condemning their character(s) though I guess. ;)
I completely understand how awful it would be for your son to go to Vietnam, but Kate just seemed over-the-top. She was disregarding her husband and the rest of her family, and totally absorbed with trying to get her son home. Her drinking was out of control, to the point that her husband refused to come visit her on Nantucket for awhile. Of course her son wanted to go to Vietnam, but she didn't seem to care about that. And then her anger towards Bill Crimmins seemed so unwarranted. I can't imagine it would be normal to have enough sway with the military to send a man home to America simply because his mother wanted it! Seriously.
And then Blair irritated me because all she could do was complain about being pregnant. She chose to marry her former boyfriend's brother (Angus), and then whined about everything. It's normal to feel neglected when you change your life for your husband and then he is too busy at work to be supportive. I understand that. But it just seems like Blair was about Blair and no one else. I actually liked when she realized that Joey (Angus' brother) didn't actually have some profound love for her; he just wanted to get back at his brother for marrying his girlfriend. That was a wake-up call that Blair needed. I didn't think that Angus was having an affair with Trixie. If Angus had just communicated with Blair in the first place, it would have saved Blair a lot of anguish. I did feel bad for her about that.
Kirby seemed like an intelligent, spirited young woman of the times. I thought she was brave to go to Martha's Vineyard on her own; find a place to live; find a place to work; continue her activism; date a black man; stand up to her friend's abusive boyfriend. Even her disillusionment with Ted Kennedy seemed to signal a mature young woman who thinks for herself.
Jessie went through the growing pains of becoming a teenager: falling "in love" with someone older than her and being devastated when he introduces his new girlfriend; getting her first bra; learning a deep, dark secret from her mother and then deciding on her own to not share it with anyone else out of respect for everyone else, including her own father; reporting the tennis instructor's inappropriate touching; fighting for her Jewish heritage; apologizing to her grandmother for stealing.
In the end, the family reunites on Nantucket, except for Tiger who is still in Vietnam and loving the military. There actually is a lot of growth in both Kate and Blair by the end of the book. Despite the slow start (for me), I liked the book a lot once some of the characters realized that the world does not revolve around them!
Wendy's Rating: ****
