Call number
FIC COO
Collection
Genres
Publication
Touchstone (1997), Edition: Reprint, 245 pages
Description
Nine weeks after losing her husband, Charlotte escapes to a wooden motor yacht in New Hampshire, where her shipmates are an aging blue-haired widow, an emotional seventeen-year-old, and the ugliest dog in literature. A genuine bond develops among the three women, as their distinct personalities and paths cross and converge against the backdrop of emotional secrets, abuse, and the wages of old age. Off the boat, Charlotte, an archaeologist, joins a local excavation to uncover an ancient graveyard. Here she can indulge her passion for reconstructing the past, even as she tries to bury her own recent history. She comes to realize, however, that the currents of time are as fluid and persistent as the water that drifts beneath her comforting new home.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member writestuff
'I came across a love of moving water kneeling in the current of Caudel Run, the small creek behind our home in Kentucky, whose waters were as clear and cold as my fear, falling over black ledges of slate, gatheing in white sluices of anguish, numbing my feet, blueing the skin. I could hold the
When Charlotte's husband dies suddenly, she flees from her home in Kentucky to New Hampshire to escape her memories and her overbearing in-laws. There she meets Grace - an elderly woman with a sharp wit and an uncanny ability to fool others with her realistic paintings - and Chloe, a seventeen year old girl who battles a weight problem and an abusive boyfriend. It doesn't take Charlotte long to join an archeological dig and begin to uncover secrets from the past.
Coomer combines a love of the water with archeological details to establish a setting which draws the reader in. He creates characters who thrum with life. Weaving through the story line is the idea of creating a life - past, present and future. Charlotte wishes to escape her memories and bury her past; for Grace going "to Heaven without my memory" is unthinkable; for Chloe, just starting out, the future is full of memories to be made.
At times, the novel stumbles and becomes too predictable, but Coomer rights it quickly and takes the reader to a satisfying conclusion.
Recommended.
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water in my hands and bring it to my mouth.' -From Beachcoming for a Shipwrecked God, page 8 -When Charlotte's husband dies suddenly, she flees from her home in Kentucky to New Hampshire to escape her memories and her overbearing in-laws. There she meets Grace - an elderly woman with a sharp wit and an uncanny ability to fool others with her realistic paintings - and Chloe, a seventeen year old girl who battles a weight problem and an abusive boyfriend. It doesn't take Charlotte long to join an archeological dig and begin to uncover secrets from the past.
Coomer combines a love of the water with archeological details to establish a setting which draws the reader in. He creates characters who thrum with life. Weaving through the story line is the idea of creating a life - past, present and future. Charlotte wishes to escape her memories and bury her past; for Grace going "to Heaven without my memory" is unthinkable; for Chloe, just starting out, the future is full of memories to be made.
At times, the novel stumbles and becomes too predictable, but Coomer rights it quickly and takes the reader to a satisfying conclusion.
Recommended.
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LibraryThing member BCCJillster
intriguing characters; you come to care about these 3 women of different generation sharing a houseboat and learning from each other.
This was my first Coomer but definitely not my last.
This was my first Coomer but definitely not my last.
LibraryThing member julie10reads
Slow going at the beginning, this book is actually an interesting tale/saga of 3 women at liminal points in their lives: alzheimers, widowhood and pregnancy. Not terribly realistic but a story told well....something along the lines of Nevil Shute.
LibraryThing member niquetteb
I wanted this book to be longer, but enjoyed it greatly. After a friend suggested we read this for our book group, I'm interested in reading more of Joe Coomer's work. The characters feel so real, it's the kind of story that meshes with your memories and you wonder if you actually knew them and
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witnessed the events. Show Less
LibraryThing member sturlington
This is a lovely, quiet book about relationships between women--in this case, three women at different periods of their lives who come together to support each other while living on a houseboat. It's not sentimental or maudlin but rather a realistic look at how we deal with tragedy and the
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unexpected, whether that be a surprise pregnancy and abusive boyfriend, the death of a husband, or our own mental decline, by just soldiering on. There is a lot of archaeology in this book (and I think a recent visit to the Jamestown dig helped me understand what was going on in those parts), and also a lovely tribute to [Anne of Green Gables]. For me, it was surprising that this book was written by a man, but that is what can happen when women characters are depicted as just people--it helps us see how much we all have in common and how our friendships can sustain us sometimes even better than our romantic or family relationships. Show Less
Pages
245
ISBN
068482440X / 9780684824406