Synopses & Reviews
"There is emotional heft in Ms. Rockcastle's careful portraits of the pensive narrator and her disappointed, hard-drinking parents, and of Billy, who goes 'down the tracks' with the local girls but falls in love with 15-year-old Danielle."--
The New York Times Book Review"Rockcastle has painted a vivid, flesh-and-bone portrayal of a family and their lakeside summers."--The Hungry Mind Review
In this evocative, heart-grabbing novel, author Mary Rockcastle invites the reader to savor the sights, sounds, and smells of summer at her parents' lopsided lakefront cabin during the 1960s. From the landscape of her memory, Danielle Fillian paints a sensitive and wise family portrait of summers filled with fly-fishing, swimming, water-skiing, new friendships, and a deepening first love. But with the intrusion of the Vietnam War and the rumblings of the civil rights movement growing steadily nearer, this sheltered vacation community is forced to acknowledge the harsh realities of the wider world.
"To leave Rainy Lake is to be left with 'the lingering smell of lake water,' the haunting memory of a real girl struggling to come of age against the backdrop of the '60's, racism and Vietnam."--Sandra Benitez
Review
"There is emotional heft in Ms. Rockcastle's careful portraits of the pensive narrator and her disappointed, hard-drinking parents, and of Billy, who goes 'down the tracks' with the local girls but falls in love with 15-year-old Danielle."--
The New York Times Book Review"Rockcastle has painted a vivid, flesh-and-bone portrayal of a family and their lakeside summers."--The Hungry Mind Review
"To leave Rainy Lake is to be left with 'the lingering smell of lake water,' the haunting memory of a real girl struggling to come of age against the backdrop of the '60's, racism and Vietnam."--Sandra Benitez
Synopsis
In this evocative, heart-grabbing novel, author Mary Rockcastle invites the reader to savor the sights, sounds, and smells of summer at her parents' lopsided lakefront cabin during the 1960s. From the landscape of her memory, Danielle Fillian paints a sensitive and wise family portrait of summers filled with fly-fishing, swimming, water-skiing, new friendships, and a deepening first love. But with the intrusion of the Vietnam War and the rumblings of the civil rights movement growing steadily nearer, this sheltered vacation community is forced to acknowledge the harsh realities of the wider world.