When The Summer Place by Jennifer Wiener came up in my reading schedule, I was ready to sink into a character-driven novel featuring a multi-generational family. The timing was perfect for this 430-page story of the Weinberg-Danhauser family, who in the second year of Covid lockdown, are preparing for a wedding at Cape Cod.
Ms. Weiner takes readers deep into the history of Veronica, the family matriarch, her twins Sam and Sarah, Sarah's husband Eli, and his daughter Ruby. All have secrets that risk being exposed when everyone gathers at Veronica's beach house for Ruby's wedding to Gabe.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, especially watching events unfold through the perspectives of three generations of a family and the autobiographical elements woven into the plot including the 'lock down' experience of the pandemic. However, coincidences key to the plot that require major suspension of disbelief and anthropomorphisizing the beach house, which was used too little to be effective and felt like a distraction, took away from the reading experience.
Many thanks to Atria for the review copy of this novel
Ms. Weiner takes readers deep into the history of Veronica, the family matriarch, her twins Sam and Sarah, Sarah's husband Eli, and his daughter Ruby. All have secrets that risk being exposed when everyone gathers at Veronica's beach house for Ruby's wedding to Gabe.
Overall, I enjoyed this book, especially watching events unfold through the perspectives of three generations of a family and the autobiographical elements woven into the plot including the 'lock down' experience of the pandemic. However, coincidences key to the plot that require major suspension of disbelief and anthropomorphisizing the beach house, which was used too little to be effective and felt like a distraction, took away from the reading experience.
Many thanks to Atria for the review copy of this novel
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