Synopsis
Anita Diamant's international bestseller The Red Tent brilliantly re-created the ancient world of womanhood. Diamant brings her remarkable storytelling skills to Good Harbor -- offering insight to the precarious balance of marriage and career, motherhood and friendship in the world of modern women.
The seaside town of Gloucester, Massachusetts is a place where the smell of the ocean lingers in the air and the rocky coast glistens in the Atlantic sunshine. When longtime Gloucester-resident Kathleen Levine is diagnosed with breast cancer, her life is thrown into turmoil. Frightened and burdened by secrets, she meets Joyce Tabachnik -- a freelance writer with literary aspirations -- and a once-in-a-lifetime friendship is born. Joyce has just bought a small house in Gloucester, where she hopes to write as well as vacation with her family. Like Kathleen, Joyce is at a fragile place in her life.
A mutual love for books, humor, and the beauty of the natural world brings...
Library Journal
Linda Emond's performance helps to enliven the second offering by the author of the best-selling biblical epic The Red Tent. This novel, far narrower in scope than Diamant's first, focuses on two women: Kathleen Levine, a 59-year-old children's librarian undergoing radiation therapy for breast cancer, and Joyce Tabachnik, a 42-year-old journalist and romance novelist struggling to cope with a workaholic spouse and their increasingly impertinent 12-year-old daughter. Kathleen is a longtime resident of Cape Ann, MA, while Joyce and her husband have just purchased a summer home there. The two women meet one night after synagogue and immediately hit it off. While taking long walks along Good Harbor beach, the two gradually share their personal histories, developing a deep friendship that helps them cope with their domestic problems. Diamant's smooth prose, well-drawn characters, and vivid descriptions of Cape Ann help to compensate for the novel's slow-moving, minimal plot. A solid choice for large fiction collections.DBeth Farrell, Portage Cty. Dist. Lib., OH Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.