[Finished 8/06/14] Anna Quindlen’s novel tells the story of an aging New York City photographer, Rebecca Winter, who once was famous, but now is struggling financially—to keep her NYC apartment and to pay for her parents’ different nursing home situations. She is divorced but has an adult son. She rents a run down cottage in upstate New York both to escape the pressures of her life but also to save money and to take some time to rethink her life. A gunshot-like noise in the middle of the night alerts her to the presence of an angry raccoon in her attic and this brings her in contact with a middle-aged roofer named Jim Bates.
The story unfolds as Rebecca reflects on her past but also begins to make connections in the small town that she’s found herself in. Though it’s obvious early on that Rebecca and Jim will end up together, this isn’t a romance novel and both characters have paths to travel before they connect. There’s a lot of critique of the New York art scene here and some interesting meditations on photography and art in general.
The best way I can describe this novel is “gentle” because you are sucked into Rebecca’s complex history but you never feel like you’re going to drown in it. Ironically, this is the second book in a month that I’ve read that involves a house out in the middle of nowhere, a dog, and mental illness. It works and I enjoyed the read even though it didn’t overpower me.