‘Labor Day’
By Joyce Maynard
Harpercollins
Pub Date: 8/1/09
$ 24.99
244 pp
Thirteen-year-old Henry lives with his mother who rarely ventures out of the house. His father has a new wife and baby, and his stepbrother is everything Henry’s not — handsome, athletic and popular. On Labor Day weekend, when he and his mother are shopping for new pants for school (his fault for growing so much), a stranger approaches and asks for help.
They take Frank home, later to find out he’s an escaped convict. But as they absorb him into their lives, he seems to offer a kind of normalcy that is new to Henry and brings life back to his mother. When the inevitable happens, all of the characters are better for it.
Maynard capably keeps the story believable through all the ups and downs, and the voice of Henry is both pure and wise. Ultimately, “Labor Day” is a story about love, trust, betrayal and forgiveness. CV — Alice Meyer
’That Old Cape Magic’
By Richard Russo
Random House
Pub Date: 8/4/09
$ 25.95
261 pp
What do you do when your life goes exactly according to plan? If you’re Jack Griffin, the answer is: Change the plan.
The son of two academic snobs, Griffin thinks he’s pretty content with his job, his dream home, his wife and daughter. His father has recently died and it falls to him to scatter the ashes, which he plans to do while on a trip back to Cape Cod to attend a wedding. This is also the place where he spent his childhood summers, and when a conversation with his wife alters everything he ever believed, he is forced to examine his past. But how much of the past is really just your own version of it? How reliable is memory? And why does it have so much power?
Russo’s latest delivers a good story with his characteristic down-to-earth prose, wry humor, a few anvils and a hopeful ending. CV — Alice Meyer
