Montauk--Don't Bother!

Montauk by Nicola Harrison
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

One of the problems with reading and reviewing an uncorrected bound manuscript is that the reader/reviewer has no idea what, if anything, will be corrected or altered prior to the actual publication of the work. It sort of makes the review rather nebulous since it may have little if anything to do with the book that goes out to the public. Still, having waded through this book, as superficial as the entitled rich folk who first and still populate Montauk, especially in summer, it seems something should be said.

Time is summer 1938--a Depression year, though hardly mentioned in the narrative. Montauk is still primarily a fishing village on the very tip of Long Island, several hours distant by LIR from the hot, concrete canyons of Manhattan. One of the rich moguls from this segment of society is on the brink of going under since he developed Miami into the disaster it still is. A hurricane has cost him tons of money and now he needs investors to continue his destruction uh development, of another pristine Atlantic coastal town. A Manor has already been built and to it is brought the spoiled, overindulged wives of his possible saviors. They, their children is any and the requisite nannies, have been deposited safely out from underfoot by the men who return on week-ends to complete their obligations as loving spouses and fathers.

Among these women is an innocent wife, not originally of this caste of American society, who finds herself out of sync and beyond her depth. She feels obligated to play her role as wife, which is to cozy up to the other wives in an effort to gain access to their husbands' influence in the success of hers. Of course, these cliques are well-established and not easily entered. But, loving her husband and believing herself to be loved in return, she does her best. All is not warm and cozy with the husband who prefers cards and hunting and drinking to her company but she's fine, sort of, with that, UNTIL the big reveal--he's unfaithful.

As you can see, nothing, so far is unique or unusual about this plot. And so it continues, as she, as superficial and bored as the rest of the pampered city gals, finds herself insinuating herself into the family of the local laundress, who does the dirty wash for the rich. The book uses every possible way to drive home how little these people do for themselves and how bigoted they are, without really clarifying the lot of the locals who serve them and depend upon their financial contributions to the family income.

Despite the pleadings of Elizabeth. the laundress, and the knowledge that her continued insistence on having a relationship with her might cause the loss of job and income, our heroine, Beatrice, persists and prevails. From this connection she finds herself involved with the lighthouse keeper and here, too, she, without consideration for his reputation or his job security, selfishly pursues a dangerous path. This liaison results in the expected calamity of true love, complications and seemingly unsolvable disaster.

So, not knowing where to go with the situation she has created, the author creates a true natural disaster which ties everything up neatly for all concerned. The whole thing totally expected, none of which is particularly moving and all of which leaves the reader with the sense of having wasted an awful lot of time on a pedestrian soap opera of a plot. For a summer weekend at the beach, probably not too emotionally or intellectually demanding. Maybe that's okay but that is all it is--okay.



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