Summer House

April 13, 2009
Thayer (Shell Moon Beach
) explores the tarnished interior of a family of Boston bankers as well as the more polished exterior they display in public in this tepid melodrama. Charlotte Wheelwright has a guilty conscience, so she flees Boston for Nantucket to start an organic farm on her grandmother's land. Nona is nearly 90, and the family is happy to have someone on the island with her year-round. A few years into her project, Charlotte begins making a small profit, and some members of the extended family have a problem with that. The clan gathers at the seaside mansion for the annual family meeting where the fate of Charlotte's garden will be decided. Much of the group, including Charlotte's addict brother, stay at the house all summer, to share in more festive occasions like Nona's birthday celebration, a wedding and the birth of a child. Charlotte, meanwhile, suddenly finds herself attracted to two men, but which will she choose? The clichéd family's clichéd squabbling—and the narrative as a whole—ends up being much ado about nothing.

June 1, 2009
During the summer, life for the prestigious Wheelwright family revolves around their Nantucket house, although Nona, thematriarch, lives there year-round with her granddaughter Charlotte. Charlottetriedworking in the familys bank in Boston, but she didnt fit the mold. Now shes hoping for success with her latest project, an organic farm on three acres of family land. As Nonas ninetieth birthday party approaches, Charlottes family is altering what itmeans to be aWheelwright. Her motherandfather are drifting apart, while her fathers rigid adherence to tradition and the family bank appears to have fallen by the wayside, what with Charlotte farming, her gay brother Oliver living in California, and Teddy, the prankster, showing up with a pregnant wife or girlfriend (no one is sure which). Three generations of Wheelwright women find common bonds on their way to self-discovery as secrets are unearthed making this clan a true family. Thayer shrewdly humanizes the privileged bygiving readers a glimpse intotheir problems.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)