SUMMER READING

Anyone who’s ever lived in the New York area knows only too well the hoity-toity world of women who summer in the Hamptons. In this memorable little tour de force, Wolitzer fleshes them out, and Isabel Keating gives each one a distinctive voice, almost, but not quite, ironic. The story focuses on three women whose paths cross one summer—Lissy, a trophy second wife; Michelle, Lissy’s summer maid; and Angela, a retired college professor who agrees to lead a book group. The setting is peopled with tony summer ladies, husbands who show up on Friday nights, blue-collar locals, and rich, bored children. As Angela tries to inspire the book group to embrace the benefits of reading “great books” and Lissy struggles with her dyslexia as she tries to read them, the lives of the main characters take on the very crises and high emotion dramatized in literature. What a delight! R.R. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 07/ JAN 08]