|
|
Loading... | 554 | 13 | 43,987 | 
(3.93) | 51 | Fiction.
Literature.
HTML: With a rare combination of emotional insight, narrative power, and lyrical grace, Justin Cronin transforms the simple story of a dying man’s last wish into a rich tapestry of family love.
“A work of art . . . a great American novel.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer On an evening in late summer, the great financier Harry Wainwright, nearing the end of his life, arrives at a rustic fishing camp in a remote area of Maine. He comes bearing two things: his wish for a day of fishing in a place that has brought him solace for thirty years, and an astonishing bequest that will forever change the lives of those around him. From the battlefields of Italy to the turbulence of the Vietnam era, to the private battles of love and family, The Summer Guest reveals the full history of this final pilgrimage and its meaning for four people: Jordan Patterson, the haunted young man who will guide Harry on his last voyage out; the camp’s owner Joe Crosby, a Vietnam draft evader who has spent a lifetime “trying to learn what it means to be brave”; Joe’s wife, Lucy, the woman Harry has loved for three decades; and Joe and Lucy’s daughter Kate—the spirited young woman who holds the key to the last unopened door to the past. As their stories unfold, secrets are revealed, courage is tested, and the bonds of love are strengthened. And always center stage is the place itself—a magical, forgotten corner of New England where the longings of the human heart are mirrored in the wild beauty of the landscape. Intimate, powerful, and profound, The Summer Guest reveals Justin Cronin as a storyteller of unique and marvelous talent. It is a book to treasure. … (more) |
▾LibraryThing Recommendations ▾Will you like it?
Loading...
 Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. ▾Conversations (About links) No current Talk conversations about this book. » See also 51 mentions ▾Series and work relationships
|
|
| Canonical title |
|
| Original title |
|
| Alternative titles |
|
| Original publication date |
|
| People/Characters |
|
| Important places |
|
| Important events |
|
| Related movies |
|
| Epigraph |
Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language. I'll look for you in old Honolulu,
San Francisco, Ashtabula,
Yer gonna have to leave me now, I know.
But I'll see you in the sky above,
In the tall grass, in the ones I loves,
Yer gonna make me lonesome when you go.
- Bob Dylan, 'You're Gonna Make Me
Lonesome When You Go'  | |
|
| Dedication |
Voor Leslie en Iris For Leslie and for Iris | |
|
| First words |
Ten noorden van Boston reden ze langs de zee. North of Boston they followed the sea. | |
|
| Quotations |
There are regulars, too, people who come up here every year at the times they like best: early summer for the big mayfly hatches, or else the long dry days of August, after the blackflies have gone, the days are as crisp as a butterfly on pins, and the fish have wised up and aren’t especially hungry besides – not the easiest time to catch then, but that’s not why these folks are here, and not why I’m here, either. Of all the concessions one must make to age, I have discovered this is actually the easiest to face, because its theme is not scarcity but abundance: we have simply loved too many others – spouses, lovers, children, dogs, in all the golden days and hours in our lives – to add one more to the pile. Love there is between us, but it’s an impersonal sort of love, more like a recollection of love than the thing, itself, and what we have to offer one another is the chance to sip together from the cup of memory. “Here’s the question, Harry. Do you want to go home? Because if you do, there are things that can be done.” He nods me along. “To make you comfortable.” He is asking me where I want to die, of course. It is not a question one longs to hear. And yet I am glad he has asked it. I loved him as one can only love such a dog; but I also knew what he was. Behind his eyes, twin chestnuts of the most tender soulfulness, lay encased in its suitcase of bone, a brain that knew nothing at all of time or sorrow or even the true joy that sorrow makes possible – only its own desire to please, an aching, needful love that could achieve its fullest contentment with the most meager offering: a stale biscuit, a walk around the block to do his business, a pat on his golden head. His own existence, its nature and finitude, was a mystery to him; he might have thought he was a person, or else I was a dog. The day I took him to the vet to have him put down – he was thirteen, his hips so bad he could barely walk to his bowl – I could think of only this to say: “You have been a good dog, and a great comfort to me, and I thank you.” It was all he wanted to hear. I’d never wished so badly to be the dog he thought I was. | |
|
| Last words |
|
| Disambiguation notice |
|
| Publisher's editors |
|
| Blurbers |
|
| Original language |
|
| Canonical DDC/MDS |
|
| Canonical LCC |
|
▾References References to this work on external resources.  Wikipedia in English
None ▾Book descriptions Fiction.
Literature.
HTML:With a rare combination of emotional insight, narrative power, and lyrical grace, Justin Cronin transforms the simple story of a dying man’s last wish into a rich tapestry of family love.
“A work of art . . . a great American novel.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
On an evening in late summer, the great financier Harry Wainwright, nearing the end of his life, arrives at a rustic fishing camp in a remote area of Maine. He comes bearing two things: his wish for a day of fishing in a place that has brought him solace for thirty years, and an astonishing bequest that will forever change the lives of those around him.
From the battlefields of Italy to the turbulence of the Vietnam era, to the private battles of love and family, The Summer Guest reveals the full history of this final pilgrimage and its meaning for four people: Jordan Patterson, the haunted young man who will guide Harry on his last voyage out; the camp’s owner Joe Crosby, a Vietnam draft evader who has spent a lifetime “trying to learn what it means to be brave”; Joe’s wife, Lucy, the woman Harry has loved for three decades; and Joe and Lucy’s daughter Kate—the spirited young woman who holds the key to the last unopened door to the past.
As their stories unfold, secrets are revealed, courage is tested, and the bonds of love are strengthened. And always center stage is the place itself—a magical, forgotten corner of New England where the longings of the human heart are mirrored in the wild beauty of the landscape.
Intimate, powerful, and profound, The Summer Guest reveals Justin Cronin as a storyteller of unique and marvelous talent. It is a book to treasure. ▾Library descriptions No library descriptions found. ▾LibraryThing members' description |
Current DiscussionsNone Google Books — Loading... Swap (1 have, 21 want) |
)
)
1
The Summer Guest is set at a remote fishing camp in Maine, during the time span from post World War II to more or less the present. It follows several generations of owners, employees and guests of the resort as they come together and drift apart in a complex waltz of love, friendship, desire, anger, illness, and fear. The viewpoint shifts among several of the main characters and gradually reveals each of their secrets and desires.
There are no car crashes and certainly no vampires lurking — this is not Stephen King's Maine! It is a lovely, gentle story told in a lyrical fashion that honors its characters enough to let them speak for themselves. And it may well make you want to book your next vacation at a New England fishing camp even if, like me, you prefer to encounter fish battered and fried with a squeeze of lemon. (