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Title: Red Hook Road
Author: Ayelet Waldman
Narrator: Kimberly Farr
Format: Unabridged
Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
Language: English
Release date: 07-13-10
Publisher: Random House Audio
Ratings: 3.5 of 5 out of 98 votes
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
Publisher's Summary:
As lyrical as a sonata, Ayelet Waldmans follow-up novel to Love and Other Impossible Pursuits explores the aftermath of a family tragedy.
Set on the coast of Maine over the course of four summers, Red Hook Road tells the story of two families, the Tetherlys and the Copakens, and of the ways in which their lives are unraveled and stitched together by misfortune, by good intentions and failure, and by love and calamity.
A marriage collapses under the strain of a daughters death; two bereaved siblings find comfort in one another; and an adopted young girl breathes new life into her family with her prodigious talent for the violin. As she writes with obvious affection for these unforgettable characters, Ayelet Waldman skillfully interweaves lifes finer pleasuresmusic and literaturewith the more mundane joys of living. Within this resonant novel, a vase filled with wildflowers or a cold beer on a hot summer day serve as constant reminders that its often the little things that make life so precious.
Critic Reviews:
"A thoroughly gripping and elegantly written story about love, grief, friendship, and the unexpected ways in which disaster brings families together. The novel is chockfull of revelations and insights on how people both unravel and manage to find grace under strain." (Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner)
"In her latest novel, Red Hook Road, Ayelet Waldman has nailed the indelible mark that the state of Maine leaves on all visitors who fall for its subtle, insinuating glamour. Red Hook Road is a terrific novel, and might even be a great one." (Pat Conroy, Amazon.com review)
Members Reviews:
Brilliant
So many reviews of this book I have read so far focus on the topic of grief being the main thread. True, the book begins with a tragedy and the story unfolds within an envelope of grief and loss, but it is more about the interactions of two cultures in a small town in Maine - the advantaged, elitist summer people and the local "townies". Waldman, herself a daughter of a culturally mixed family, as set forth in her memoir "Bad Mother", handles the combinations, relationships, and odd juxtapositions and unlikely pairings with such depth, accuracy, beauty and polish that the novel amazes the reader at every twist and turn. Metaphors and connections abound, delighting and astounding the reader with their precision and subtlety; Waldman is no heavy-handed purveyor of symbolism.
This reader alternates between loving and hating one of the main characters - at times shrewish, superior-minded and unrelenting in her pedantic insistence on getting her way, and at times knowing that "her way" is really maybe one of the best ways. And, in the end, she becomes more accepting with more of a "laissez-faire" perspective.
As a leitmotif there is the theme of professional musicianship, musical allusions - instead of an "epilogue" there is a "coda" - and the development of a child prodigy. The rocky Maine coast and its mercurial weather patterns become a veritable character in the story.
The narrator's contribution is brilliant as well, using a hard, no BS Maine dialect to further entrench the Mainers in their attitudinal stances, and rendering with no accent the well-educated, culturally advantaged summer people.
Brava!
An enjoyable read/listen
Though I don't usually read family stories, I found Red Hook Road overall very enjoyable.
