Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Cape Cod is, in Robert Finch s poetic phrase, a cherished face deteriorating in the rain of time. Nowhere is this truth more vivid and dramatic than along its forty miles of Atlantic coast, which Finch has always known as the Outer Beach. The stories here are the rich harvest of over fifty years and a thousand miles walking along it. They include encounters with shipwrecks and beached whales, two nights trapped by a blizzard in a sand-dune shack, and a simple evening with friends around a bonfire. Finch pays tribute to the Outer Beach s impressive literary legacy, meditates on its often tragic history, and explores the curious, mutable nature of time near the sea. Above all, Finch presents the beach with thoughtfulness, humor, and humility as a powerful symbol of mortality that begs us to consider: how do we accept our situation here, caught between gratuitous beauty and merciless indifference?"
Synopsis
Those who have encountered Cape Cod or merely dipped into an account of its rich history know that it is a singular place. Robert Finch writes of its beaches: No other place I know sears the heart with such a constant juxtaposition of pleasure and pain, of beauty being born and destroyed in the same moment. And nowhere within its borders is this truth more vivid and dramatic than along the forty miles of Atlantic coast what Finch has always known as the Outer Beach. The essays here represent nearly fifty years and a cumulative thousand miles of walking along the storied edge of the Cape s legendary arm.
Finch considers evidence of nature s fury: shipwrecks, beached whales, towering natural edifices, ferocious seaside blizzards. And he ponders everyday human interactions conducted in its environment with equal curiosity, wit, and insight: taking a weeks-old puppy for his first beach walk; engaging in a nocturnal dance with one of the Cape s fabled lighthouses; stumbling, unexpectedly, upon nude sunbathers; or even encountering out-of-towners hoping an Uber will fetch them from the other side of a remote dune field.
Throughout these essays, Finch pays tribute to the Outer Beach s impressive literary legacy, meditates on its often-tragic history, and explores the strange, mutable nature of time near the ocean. But lurking behind every experience and observation both pivotal and quotidian is the essential question that the beach beckons every one of its pilgrims to confront: How do we accept our brief existence here, caught between overwhelming beauty and merciless indifference?
Finch s affable voice, attentive eye, and stirring prose will be cherished by the Cape s staunch lifers and erstwhile visitors alike, and strike a resounding chord with anyone who has been left breathless by the majestic, unrelenting beauty of the shore.
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