The High Season

March 15, 2018
The quiet part of Eastern Long Island is invaded by the glitterati and the Twitterati--will they ruin it entirely?"Let the billionaires have the Hamptons on the South Fork, with the shops and restaurants and parties that re-created what made them so exquisitely comfy in Manhattan. The North Fork was two ferry rides away, and it showed....It was pies and parades and stony beaches that hurt your feet, banging screen doors and peaches eaten over the sink." Blundell's (A City Tossed and Broken, 2013, etc.) latest is her first novel for adults, and she brings to it much more than just believable teen characters. As this accomplished, engrossing domestic drama begins, North Fork resident Ruthie is losing it all. An ultrarich widow is taking over both her house and her ex-husband; she's being betrayed by her staff and ousted from her job as director of a small museum; her lovely 15-year-old daughter is involved in dangerous relationships she knows nothing about. Blundell has more balls in the air than most writers could smoothly handle--a Patek Philippe watch, lost then stolen; a forged painting; a character with a deeply buried, sordid past; lots of art-world specifics--but the story never feels overstuffed, and she steers confidently toward a satisfying blend of happy and imperfect endings. A dim view of what it means to be a middle-aged woman crops up here and there, creating an interesting curmudgeonly undercurrent. Of an overweight teenage girl: "At forty-five, the iron gate of indifference would clang down...and she would know she was stuck back exactly where she was in high school as if all that sex and attention had happened to someone else." After a betrayal: "A man might feel anger right now. As a woman, she felt only shame."Luscious but not too sweet, astute but not too serious, Blundell's novel is a treat you don't have to feel guilty about and a sign of good things to come.

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April 1, 2018

Memorial Day marks the start of the high season at the Long Island shore, but Ruthie can't really enjoy it. The only way she can afford to keep her beloved house by the sea is to rent it out for the summer, to the dismay of her teenage daughter. Ruthie also senses that her job as director of a local museum called the Belfry might be in jeopardy, as local queen bees begin to make stinging remarks. The wealthy and entitled crowd from the nearby Hamptons seems to be taking over. Ruthie's ex-husband has fallen for socialite Adeline Clay, who is renting the house with her spoiled stepson Lucas. Add a local social-climbing photographer and a billionaire and his daughter who are used to getting their own way and trouble is brewing in this idyllic seaside town. In YA novelist Blundell's (What I Saw and How I Lied) first book for adults, the author makes the most of her clever plot while taking a scathing look at the art and museum world and tossing off observations that witty readers will want to underline. VERDICT This sophisticated and delicious portrayal of subtle class warfare at the shore would make a perfect beach book, but it's a pleasure to read any time.--Leslie Patterson, Rehoboth, MA

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