Quotable:It takes a lot to ruffle Henry. She can do it, though. I always wondered, in a way, why he married her, aside from the fact that he’s crazy about her, of course. Henry needs a safe, sheltered harbor more than anybody else I know. He hasn’t had a whole lot of that with Fairlie. Of course, he’d never say so, but I’ve known him all my life. I know when he needs his home port.And as the slow days burned toward October, Henry seemed to me to have achieved a fragile peace that I thought might be the beginning of healing. Camilla has done this for him, I thought. He’s finally talked it out to her. It was just the right thing to do. Even if the rest of us never heard the particulars of Henry’s terrible odyssey, the one who could truly help him had. Bless her, I thought. Without her he could have simply died of the infection of grief. “I’m embarrassed to death. Look at how well Camilla handled everything after Charlie [died].” “Camilla is an entirely different animal, Anny,” Henry said, “Her will is solid iron. She simply did not allow Charlie’s death to really touch her. She never has. It’s your vulnerability that will save you eventually. It will let you feel it all, go through it all. That’s what this is about. You should not be ashamed of it, or try to hide it.By lunchtime I was pretty much caught up, and my energy seeped out of me all of a sudden, as if the plug had been pulled. The fear did not come, but the grief did: terrible, clawing grief that doubled me over at my desk and took my breath. All of a sudden I allowed myself to look ahead of me, something I had been afraid to do before now. What I could see was, simply, more of today: endless, endless days of watching myself go through a charade of normality, with the ache for Lewis’s voice and touch like a cancer in me. I saw nothing else. When I went out of my office to tell my staff that I was going home for the day, I felt a profound, humbling embarrassment. Grief is an embarrassment. I did not anyone to see me coming, trailing my darkness like a pall on a sunny day.
I picked up "Islands' by Anne Rivers Siddons to try a new author unknown. While I enjoyed reading parts of "Islands" because it brought back memories of the time I lived in the Carolinas, the book was not that great of a read. The main character, Anny Butler is the director of a Charleston children's welfare agency. While bringing a child to the clinic she meets her future husband. The author in introducing Lewis Aiken, described him as a womanizer. Anny and Lewis start dating and eventually get married. After they are married Anny becomes part of "the Scrubs." The Scrubs consist of four couples. Four of them work in the medical field, and thus the name. The Scrubs spend every weekend together at a beach house on Sullivan's Island. The Scrubs pledge to move in together and take care of each other when they get older. Islands definitely lacked a lot of credibility as all the members own multiple homes and beach houses, take large blocks of time off from their jobs and have mostly abandoned their families, children and grandchildren for the sake of the group. After a couple of deaths, and the beach houses that are destroyed by hurricane and a fire they end up with a group of homes that they plan to move to and live together community-like. Camilla and Anny are both widows and Henry whose wife was killed in a tragic fire are living in the houses at the beach. Henry and Anny decide to hire someone to come in and help with the care taking of Camilla. The readers are introduced to a new character, a librarian and avid book reader who comes in to care for Camilla. She all but abandons her daughter to take care of Camilla and befriends Henry and Anny.I found myself skipping whole sections as the author just went on and on..... Then all of a sudden Anny comes to in the hospital not knowing how she got there and the story took a freakish turn.I am not sure if I will be picking up any other books by this author. If my local library has copies of her books maybe I might try another. I just know that I will not be on the buying end.
What do You think about Islands (2004)?
It's been years since I read one of Siddons books. I liked the beginning and the main characters. But it involves so many characters that it took me a while to keep everyone straight. Maybe that would not be a problem with a print edition. I enjoyed the book along with the twists and turns that come along. It looks as though this is the first of a series and I'm not sure that I will read the others. However, I was in the Charleston area last year; so I have a good picture in my mind of the area--I like that. And Siddons writes about the landscape, heat and humidity so well that you are there.
—Judy
I listened to this on audio in the car and wonder if I'd have felt differently about it if I'd simply read it on my own. Kate Flemming with her southern drawl and inflections brings the scenes and characters of Charleston and its nearby islands to life in a way that might be missing if I myself were reading it. I very much enjoyed just being read to with this one.That being said...this was my first experience with Anne Siddons and so I didn't know what to expect. I enjoyed her descriptions of the beaches, marshes, rivers, and skies of Charleston. Her prose grabbed me by the hand and pulled me into the oyster bars and biker escapades of Folly Beach - I could feel the sweat and smell the salt and taste the suds. I was thankful that I got to visit Charleston in real life not long ago, and this story captured something of its spirit. As for the characters, I never expected to fall in love with a type like Louis, but I did. The others, however, it took me some time to figure out who they all were. *Spoiler Warning* It wasn't until they were dying off that I connected all the couples.And Camilla...I saw through her pretty early on, but did not expect that she was so thoroughly bad to the bone. There were a couple things in the story that were a stretch, but I suppose it's creative license. Why would an unexperienced boater like Louis want to "try out" a brand new vessel at night? What could possibly be gained from that? It seemed an uncharacteristic risk from steadfast Louis. And it seemed odd that someone like Anny, who worked as a social worker and was trained to discern malevolent characters, wouldn't sniff out Camilla sooner. She seemed to be pretty naive about people for someone in that line of work. The disconnect between the couples and their children and grandchildren also seemed peculiar...that none of them would be close with their children or grandchildren was a little unnatural. All in all, however, I thought this was good storytelling, and I enjoyed her work.
—Emily
ARS has ever been a favorite author of mine. This book did not disappoint. I have to say, though, that I was not enthralled at first, but kept at it until there came a point when I couldn't put it down. The characters came to life slowly, but deliciously, with me savoring every word. I didn't want it to end. I wanted it to go on and on, to imagine living on a creek near Charleston, listening to the sounds of nature, reading, eating and drinking wine with forever friends. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
—Shelley
