Books & Java

The Summer Guest

by Justin Cronin

Synopsis:

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.

My Review:

 
This is one of the best books I have EVER read. Cronin's writing is simply beautiful. There is so much in this book that it is a bit challenging to condense everything into this short review. This is the story of life and how life and death is a different journey for everyone because of our individual circumstances: tragedy (war), loss (death of a loved one), love (of a child, of a parent of people for how they impact our lives), sacrifice (the unconventional and practical decisions we make for the benefit of others), and death (everyone's different journey through the same path). Harry Wainwright is a self-made millionaire whose life links him to Joe and Lucy (owners of a fishing camp in Maine), Kate (Joe and Lucy's daughter), Jordan (the guide at the camp), Joe's father, Hal (Harry's son), Meredith (Harry's wife)and others who at some point are directly and indirectly linked to Harry throughout his life. Harry is dying of lung cancer after a full life. However, before dying, Harry wants to connect all of the loose ends that tie all of the characters together. He returns to the fish camp in coastal Maine where he has visited regularly for the last 30 years. This place has become over his lifetime the place where he is not Harry Wainwright the millionaire but Harry, the kind friend and summer guest who is as much part of the camp as all of the residents. 

I find myself lately reading a lot about the journey of life and death. I recently lost my mother and have been plagued with many questions about death and the why and how people undertake that journey. Always the same inevitable outcome but the journey unique to each. Justin Cronin takes us through what goes on in this dying man's mind - his thoughts, his wishes and regrets. Even through the confusion of a heavily medicated (morphine) last weeks, Harry manages to relive his entire life through the beautifully written pages. At the end, I felt like I was a witness to not only Harry's life but Joe, Lucy, Kate and Jordan. When Harry dies, I felt all of the same emotions I experienced when my own mom and dad passed away. The confusion of why and the anti-climactic moment when a person you have known to have been so alive and present in your life takes that last breath. Although it sounds like this book would be sad to read, it really wasn't. Somehow, it made me feel better to know Harry's experience in comparison to my own parents. What I took from this amazing book is so obvious and yet so eye-opening to me. The fact that death is inevitable but how you choose to live the life between your birth and right before your death is what it is all about. 

I will definitely be reading Mary and O'Neil (also by Justin Cronin) which I have read many reviews about and seems equally as impacting.