The former high school math teacher in Billington, Texas, Mary Alice did not retire gracefully. She even shows up to harass the new math teacher on the first day of school. She is a tormented woman who sees it as her mission to torment everyone else. She lost her husband to suicide, one of the secrets she keeps, then lost her son, Michael, soon after Kenny, his best friend and the son of Ellie, her neighbor, died in an accident.
As the novel begins, Mary Alice and Ellie have finally restored their broken friendship and have begun having morning coffee together. But then Katherine, Mary Alice's estranged younger sister, returns, threatening to reveal Mary Alice's even bigger secret. Her son isn't really dead — he had sent his own obituary to the newspaper — and is now at Katherine's house in Atlanta. She wants to take Mary Alice to him.
Ever obstinate, Mary Alice agrees to go, but only after the community picnic, which she is, as always, in charge of. And this delay leads to the final crisis.
The title, which for most of the novel seems odd, refers to a lakeside cottage owned by Mary Alice, which she has not visited in years. So isolated is it that its location is itself something of a secret. Yet so much of the back story happened there.
This is fine novel with many layers that offers much for discussion groups to talk about.
No comments:
Post a Comment