Grief Cottage

Character's inner ruins lay concealed, their grief diverted by obsessions and addictions, in Gail Godwin's novel Grief Cottage.

After the death of his single mother, eleven-year-old Marcus' only living family member, his Aunt Charlotte, becomes his guardian. While his depressed aunt spends her days in her art studio, painting and sipping bottles of red wine, Marcus uses his honed homemaking skills to keep the beach front cottage spic and span, making himself useful, as he did for his working mom. Marcus is also an expert caretaker, responsible and useful; his own needs are shunt aside, his own grief and doubt internalized.

The rest of his day Marcus walks the South Carolina beach to visit the deserted house locals call Grief Cottage. show more Marcus is obsessed to know more about the tragedy that took place there. A family vacationing at the cottage disappeared in the 1954 hurricane, the parents searching for their missing son. How could no one have recorded the family's name? Marcus visits the empty shell of a house daily, 'courting' the ghost of the boy who appears to him.

"Marcus feels the pain of others," said Aunt Charlotte, "even when they're dead and gone."

Charlotte's cottage is filled with grief. Charlotte tries to escape the memory of her 'devil' father who at age five began to 'poison' her. It is 'the good old family horror story', Greek or Shakespearian in nature. Marcus is burdened by his lonely childhood, shamed when his one friend discovered he shared a bed with his mother. In a rage, Marcus beat the boy up. He underwent counseling and then his mother left her job and they moved-- to worse conditions--then his mother was killed in a car accident.

In the galley reader's note, Godwin writes that she was inspired by stories of ghosts whose arrival coincides with a mental crisis, tales grounded in 'daily life,' but which 'leaves a window for the possibility of a reality we haven't discovered yet."

"People see what they want to see. Or imagine they saw. "

For a lonely eleven-year-old child in a new place, deep in grief, imagining a ghostly friend is not a far stretch. I had Homer the Ghost to keep me company when we moved the year I turned eleven. I knew he was imaginary. Marcus has to work to keep his 'realities' separate, the duties he owed to his aunt and to the ghost boy, to keep his sanity. It makes him feel even more isolated, for who would understand?

I was compelled by this story to read far into the night. Even the supporting characters are sympathetic, full and real. There is a climatic revelation, and life goes on as it had, Marcus and his aunt supporting each other. And at the very end, a moment of grace returns Marcus something he had lost and gives him something he had long searched for.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review. show less

I have yet to wipe all my tears away. Gail Godwin eloquently describes some of my most personal feelings about loss, family and love. She put into words nuances I didn't even realize I still needed to explain to myself. This is my introduction to her writing, and I will choose another of her novels after I digest this one a bit more. I was honored to meet her and have her sign Grief Cottage, and I'm glad at that time I didn't realize what a genius she was, or I would have been too nervous to speak. This is the kind of literary fiction you take your time with, jotting quotes and reflecting. Much of the story is like its setting, a contemplative stroll past dunes and turtle nests on a South Carolina beach.

No Ghost But Plenty of Self-Discovery

Let’s begin by mentioning that this is not a traditional ghost story. No ghosts here, except for those we choose to conjurer to reconcile issues in our life. Grief Cottage combines a coming-of-age story with that of a one about a boy coping with feelings of insecurity, self-worth, and loneliness. These may sound like adolescent growing pains, true; however, eleven-year old Marcus’ go beyond those of typical ‘tween fare.

Marcus lives with his mother in a hand-to-mouth existence in the Appalachians, having moved there after losing her furniture manufacturing job in the North Carolina Piedmont. Marcus is a precious little boy and sensitive about how he and his mom live. Their quarters are tiny, so show more they sleep in the same bed. When revealed, this fact drives away his best friend, his only real school friend. Also, he has no idea who was his father. His mother promises to tell him when he is older. That day never arrives, as one night she dies in a single-car accident. After living for a while in a foster home, he goes down to South Carolina to live with his great aunt on a small island.

Charlotte Lee is an artist. She specializes in island landscapes, among them scores of renderings of the old dilapidated cottage at the north end of the island. She’s also a functioning alcoholic and quite reclusive during the day, locked in her studio painting. Part of the novel revolves around how and the type of relationship these two build together. Charlotte certainly is an imperfect person, but, like Marcus, you come to like and appreciate her, and, in particular, the ever growing bond between the two.

Marcus arrives as a pudgy little fellow but over time, as he walks and bikes the island, he grows taller and turns into a leaner boy. He changes physically, which represents his mental change that evolves over the course of the novel. Upon his first visit to the falling down cottage, he believes he sees a boy. His recollection of the sighting is detailed, almost like it actually happened. A good part of the novel deals with Marcus’ quest to learn what happened to the boy and his family, all of whom perished when Hurricane Hazel (yes, a real Category 4 killer) struck the island in October 1954. No one knows the name of the family or the boy, who was fourteen at the time, except that the boy had gotten separated from his family. Perhaps the ghost boy did exist, or, perhaps he was a projection of Marcus’ own psychologically shaky self. That’s for readers to decide for themselves when they reach the end.

Gail Godwin populates the novel with an assortment of interesting characters with equally interesting preoccupations, the most memorable of whom are Lachicotte and Coral Upchurch. You have to wonder about Lachicotte, so devoted to Charlotte, you suspect something more than friendship. And the idea of young Marcus developing a friendship with ninety-year old Coral is really, well, heartwarming. It also, along with his relationship with his aunt and concern over the cottage boy, brings out Marcus’ caring nature, the core of his character and what will shape him as a man. Don’t worry, Godwin doesn’t leave you hanging in this regard. show less

No Ghost But Plenty of Self-Discovery

Let’s begin by mentioning that this is not a traditional ghost story. No ghosts here, except for those we choose to conjurer to reconcile issues in our life. Grief Cottage combines a coming-of-age story with that of a one about a boy coping with feelings of insecurity, self-worth, and loneliness. These may sound like adolescent growing pains, true; however, eleven-year old Marcus’ go beyond those of typical ‘tween fare.

Marcus lives with his mother in a hand-to-mouth existence in the Appalachians, having moved there after losing her furniture manufacturing job in the North Carolina Piedmont. Marcus is a precious little boy and sensitive about how he and his mom live. Their quarters are tiny, so show more they sleep in the same bed. When revealed, this fact drives away his best friend, his only real school friend. Also, he has no idea who was his father. His mother promises to tell him when he is older. That day never arrives, as one night she dies in a single-car accident. After living for a while in a foster home, he goes down to South Carolina to live with his great aunt on a small island.

Charlotte Lee is an artist. She specializes in island landscapes, among them scores of renderings of the old dilapidated cottage at the north end of the island. She’s also a functioning alcoholic and quite reclusive during the day, locked in her studio painting. Part of the novel revolves around how and the type of relationship these two build together. Charlotte certainly is an imperfect person, but, like Marcus, you come to like and appreciate her, and, in particular, the ever growing bond between the two.

Marcus arrives as a pudgy little fellow but over time, as he walks and bikes the island, he grows taller and turns into a leaner boy. He changes physically, which represents his mental change that evolves over the course of the novel. Upon his first visit to the falling down cottage, he believes he sees a boy. His recollection of the sighting is detailed, almost like it actually happened. A good part of the novel deals with Marcus’ quest to learn what happened to the boy and his family, all of whom perished when Hurricane Hazel (yes, a real Category 4 killer) struck the island in October 1954. No one knows the name of the family or the boy, who was fourteen at the time, except that the boy had gotten separated from his family. Perhaps the ghost boy did exist, or, perhaps he was a projection of Marcus’ own psychologically shaky self. That’s for readers to decide for themselves when they reach the end.

Gail Godwin populates the novel with an assortment of interesting characters with equally interesting preoccupations, the most memorable of whom are Lachicotte and Coral Upchurch. You have to wonder about Lachicotte, so devoted to Charlotte, you suspect something more than friendship. And the idea of young Marcus developing a friendship with ninety-year old Coral is really, well, heartwarming. It also, along with his relationship with his aunt and concern over the cottage boy, brings out Marcus’ caring nature, the core of his character and what will shape him as a man. Don’t worry, Godwin doesn’t leave you hanging in this regard. show less

This is the first book I've read by Gail Godwin, but it won't be the last. She has a wonderful talent in depicting human nature, and the bumps and rough patches that we all go through as we grow from a child to an adult. And she does this with beautiful, minamalist language and breathtaking writing skills that can solidify a picture in your mind immediately as you read. When we first meet Marcus, he is an eleven-year-old precocious child who lives with his courageous mother who is trying to raise a young boy on her own. We get a brief look at his life with his mother, and then we see Marcus as a newly-bereaved boy who has just lost his mother in a tragic accident. He is sent to live with his reclusive great-aunt on a small island off show more the coast of South Carolina. Marcus tries to fit into his mysterious aunt's life, and with her small circle of friends, while afraid all the while that she won't want him in her life. Lost and alone, he finds himself mysteriously drawn to a derelict cottage on the island. The cottage has been dubbed Grief Cottage by the locals. In 1954, during Hurricane Hazel, a family - a mother and father and their twelve-year-old son, mysteriously disappear from this cottage. Marcus feels an affinity with this missing boy, and in his loneliness, he tries to find answers as to what happened to this boy fifty years ago. He senses a mysetrious apparation at this cottage that only he can see and he bonds with this lost boy's spirit, which Marcus feels very strongly during his visits to the cottage. This book is a lovely coming-of-age story with a paranormal twist. As we read, we see just how blurred are the boundaries between the living relam and the dead realm. This is a very powerful and beautiful story that depicts sorrow, loss, loneliness, love, and definitiveley depicts the incredible resiliency of the human spirit. Highly recommended. show less

Grief Cottage by Gail Godwin begins when eleven year old Marcus is sent to live with his eccentric Great Aunt in South Carolina after the death of his mother. Aunt Charlotte is a reclusive artist with a drinking problem and Marcus is welcomed into her little house on the beach. Marcus is an extremely bright and considerate boy who was likeable - if not 100% believable - from the very first page.

Aunt Charlotte is divorced and well known in the area for painting a tumbledown house known by locals as Grief Cottage. Located within walking distance, Marcus takes to visiting the ruined cottage every day where he becomes a little obsessed with the story of a nameless family (including a young boy) who went missing during a hurricane fifty show more years earlier.

Marcus and Aunt Charlotte both have secrets from their past and as they get to know each other, they begin to trust one another. Grief Cottage by Gail Godwin contains a number of mysteries, including the identity of Marcus's father, the truth of Charlotte's childhood trauma and the ghost of the boy lost during the hurricane.

After spending so much time with Marcus in the summer of his 11th year, the great leaps forward in time towards the end of the book felt incredibly out of place. I wouldn't have minded another 50-100 pages to follow Marcus on his first day at the new school, through to his Aunt's passing, embarking on his chosen career and other key moments in life. Instead these milestones and events were completely skipped over, and we suddenly catch up with Marcus in his late twenties early thirties which was a real jolt.

There was a nice mystery solved at the end of the book, but the timing of it felt contrived and poorly revealed without much explanation. Handled more skilfully, this could have been an incredibly moving 'reveal' but instead it was ill-timed and just fell flat for me.

Marcus, Aunt Charlotte and family friend Lachicotte were wonderful characters but I felt robbed of a suitable ending to their individual and collective stories. show less

I really liked Godwin's Flora, which was one of those quietly devastating sort of books that's way more powerful because it avoids histrionics. Grief Cottage is similarly quiet, but never really got off the ground for me. A boy is orphaned, goes to live with his bohemian great aunt by the sea, discovers an abandoned cottage where a family supposedly died during a hurricane decades ago, sees a ghost (kind of?). There were parts of this book I really enjoyed, like the relationship the orphaned boy forms with an elderly neighbor lady and (oddly) the passages about sea turtle hatchlings the town helps out every year, but otherwise this was sort of meh for me. Not enough of a ghost story, not enough of a human story...