In the opening scenes of Ayelet Waldman’s Red Hook Road, the Copaken and the Tetherly families line up for wedding pictures. Then, within an hour, the bride and groom die in a car crash.
What a day-ruiner.
Waldman’s story is about picking up the pieces.
Besides the obvious tragedy, we have the family conflicts. The bride’s people are New Yorkers who show up in Red Hook, Maine, every year to “summer.” The groom’s mom, single and stripped of life’s illusions, cleans the bride’s family’s summer house.
And how do the Copakens and Tetherlys put their lives back together? Everybody’s got a coping mechanism. Somebody jumps into a boxing ring and throws a few jabs. Somebody runs people’s lives and somebody else makes darn sure life doesn’t get run anymore than it already has. And somebody makes out.
I think you will care about these characters enough to stick with them to the end. Along the way, you will have to endure a few exchanges of flat dialogue, a few improbable plot devices and few exasperating pages about prize violins. Waldman did her research and, by golly, you’re gonna hear about those fiddles whether they move the story along or not.
But the coastal scenery and the class tension should be enough to keep you turning the pages.
Meanwhile, in real coastal towns everywhere, the summer people have vanished and the year-rounders batten down for the blasty weather that lies ahead. If I were them, I’d warm up from the inside out with Mashed Potato Beef Casserole.
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