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Overview
"It's been a year since the death of her husband, Henry, and Emily Maxwell gathers her family in Lake Chautauqua in western New York for what will be their last vacation at their summer cottage before she sells the property. Joining her is her sister-in-law, Arlene, a retired teacher who silently mourns the passing of the lake house from her family's hands and still endures the wound of a love lost long ago. Emily's firebrand daughter, Meg, a recovering alcoholic recently separated from her husband, brings her children from Detroit, the blossoming Sarah and the timid Justin. Emily's son, Ken, a struggling photographer who has quit his job and mortgaged his future to pursue his art, comes accompanied by his wife, Lisa, who is secretly heartened to be visiting the house for the last time and not-so-secretly cool to her prickly mother-in-law - and their children, the bookish Ella and the troubled Sam." As O'Nan inhabits the mind and heart of each member of the house through the course of their week together, he illuminates the many lives of the Maxwell family as memories of summers past resurface, old rivalries flare up, and love is rekindled and born anew by the shores of the lake.Synopsis
Award-winning writer Stewart O'Nan has been acclaimed by critics as one of the most accomplished novelists writing today. Now comes his finest and most complete novel to date. A year after the death of her husband, Henry, Emily Maxwell gathers her family by Lake Chautauqua in western New York for what will be a last vacation at their summer cottage. Joining is her sister-in-law, who silently mourns the sale of the lake house, and a long-lost love. Emily's firebrand daughter, a recovering alcoholic recently separated from her husband, brings her children from Detroit. Emily's son, who has quit his job and mortgaged his future to pursue his art, comes accompanied by his children and his wife, who is secretly heartened to be visiting the house for the last time. Memories of past summers resurface, old rivalries flare up, and love is rekindled and born anew, resulting in a timeless novel drawn, as the best writing often is, from the ebbs and flow of daily life.
Publishers Weekly
O'Nan relies on a patient accumulation of detail instead of a focused dramatic arc to achieve a Vermeer-like realism in his latest novel. His strategy is to record minutely the thoughts and actions of all nine members of the extended Maxwell family as they spend a week at their family summer house, until their smallest gestures become familiar to the reader. Now that her husband, Henry, is dead, Emily Maxwell, the matriarch of the clan, is selling the family retreat near Chautauqua, N.Y. Emily and her sister-in-law, Arlene, drive up together from Pittsburgh for a last summer visit; Emily's son, Ken, and his wife, Lise, come next with their two children; and finally Emily's daughter, Meg, and Meg's son and daughter arrive. For seven days the Maxwells interact, with Emily's disappointment in her children prompting them to assess their lives themselves. Meg, a recovering alcoholic, is in the middle of a divorce. Kenneth is a failed photographer, whose latest low-paying job is in a photo lab. Lise, his wife, dislikes Emily, and is jealous of Ken and Meg's closeness. The children, whose tensions are wholly other than those of the adults, are tracked just as closely, with O'Nan's account of Ken's 13-year-old daughter Ella's budding crush on her cousin Sarah, also 13, becoming one of the high points of the novel. Various subplots evolve, especially one concerning a kidnapped local store clerk. At times the story is smothered by its own accumulative logic; yet in clinging so relentlessly to the surface of his world, O'Nan slowly pulls the reader into it. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewTurning from Everyday People's affecting portrayal of life -- and death -- in the predominantly black community of East Liberty, Pennsylvania, Stewart O'Nan introduces a very different group of everyday people -- the white, middle-class Maxwell family of Pittsburgh -- in Wish You Were Here. With his trademark empathy, intelligence, and impressive narrative gifts, O'Nan anatomizes the Maxwell family members with merciless precision as they spend a crucial, emotionally charged week in each other's company.
One year after the lingering death of family patriarch Henry Maxwell, his autocratic widow, Emily, invites her scattered family to spend a last vacation together at their Lake Chautauqua summer home, which she unilaterally has decided to sell after decades of ownership by the family. In August, three generations converge at the house, among them Henry's spinster sister, Arlene, a retired schoolteacher; Meg, the oldest daughter, whose "train wreck of a life" has encompassed alcoholism, financial disaster, and a recent divorce; and Ken, the distant, reserved younger child whose struggle to succeed as a freelance photographer has placed an added strain on his already complicated home life. Accompanying them are Ken's lonely, introspective wife, Lisa, and an assortment of children -- both Ken's and Meg's -- with issues and problems of their own.
The result of this confluence of characters and circumstances is a revelatory novel that illuminates the inner workings of a flawed, deeply credible American family. Using the archetypal materials of domestic life -- shared meals, family outings, and ongoing, eternally unresolved arguments -- O'Nan takes us into the shifting perspectives of eight very different people (and one very old dog), showing us their fears, frustrations, longings, resentments, and secret dreams. In a flawlessly sustained, quietly dramatic narrative, he demonstrates the corrosive effects of time, memory, and disappointment on ordinary people driven by forces they can neither control nor fully comprehend. All of O'Nan's characters are superbly drawn, but special mention must be made of Ella, Ken and Lisa's quiet, "plain" daughter, whose emerging sexuality takes a strange, painfully unexpected turn.
Though it can -- and probably will -- be compared to Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, Wish You Were Here is a singular, deeply felt work by a serious writer with his own distinctive vision of the world. It is a dark, funny, sorrowful book that strikes sparks of recognition on virtually every page. (Bill Sheehan)