In the 1970s, The Joy of Sex opened many women’s eyes to what they might be missing. After Nina Larkin receives a copy from a friend, she realizes she wants more from her 20-plus year marriage to Sam. She decides to have an affair. The obvious partner is Finn, the across the street neighbor who heads up Finnegan’s, a family-run chain of grocery stores in upstate Rochester, New York. Finn is married to Honey, who is certainly sweet, but not interested in sex. Going into the relationship, Nina is careful. Her two daughters, Clara and Bridie, are friends with Finn’s children, Dune and Fern. If they were to find out about the affair the lives of four young people would be shaken to the core.
What begins as a fling, evolves into something more. Especially for Finn. He loves Nina and doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life being married to cold fish Honey. He comes up with a plan. He and Nina will travel to Santo Domingo for a quickie divorce and then marry the next day. By the time they return to Rochester, they will be man and wife, embarking on a new life.
If only it were that simple.
On a cold winter morning, Sam, Clara, and Bridie find a letter from Nina, while Honey, Dune, and Fern, have one from Finn. Actually, Fern is the first to know because she sees her father drive away with Nina. She shouts and waves, but Nina, stricken when she sees the girl’s face, doesn’t wave back or tell Finn to stop. That is just the tip of the iceberg of what the newlyweds will find when they come back.
Although Finn trusts Helen, the second in charge at Finnegan’s, she fails to call him about an outbreak of spoiled food that ends up sickening many residents, sending some to the hospital and resulting in the death of an elderly woman. In Finn’s absence, his uncle, Dennis, once pushed out of the company, reasserts his authority. Finn’s given a choice: he can retire with a generous compensation package or take a reduced role as the director of Finnegan’s charitable arm. He decides to take the position at the Finnegan Community Foundation.
Handling the fallout on the business side is easier than the human backlash. Clara and Dune, high school students, were on the verge of forming a romantic relationship, even starring in a production of Godspell. Dune, whose drinking has already become a problem, begins to indulge even more. And, needing someone to blame, he focuses on Clara. Since he has the lead in Godspell, he tells the drama teacher he won’t be in the cast if Clara remains. Hurt and confused, Clara bows out.
For her part, Clara adapts by cooking, enough to fill the freezer many times over. Worried about Bridie, she defers her acceptance to Cornell, staying home to take care of her younger sister. Bridie is the one who visits Nina, trying to understand her mother’s motivations. One thing both girls learn is that Sam has been a closeted homosexual for a long time. Even that revelation, however, does not move Clara to forgive Nina.
Across the street, Honey continues to run classes for Weight Watchers, encouraging Fern to join. Eager to please her mother, Fern agrees, but when the scale doesn’t seem to change, she begins taking medicine given to her by another girl in the program. She doesn’t realize it’s speed and could be harmful.
Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s novel shows three families struggling to find a new normal. Character development is excellent. Enough is learned about the backgrounds of the adults – Nina, Sam, Finn, and Honey – to understand how their early experiences as adolescents and young adults affected their feelings towards relationships and marriage. It’s easy to see Nina and Finn as selfish, disrupting their families for their own happiness. But were Sam, refusing to be honest about his sexuality, and Honey, denying Finn intimacy, any better? Over time any of those feelings might have chipped away at the marriages.
Divorce is never easy on families and certainly many readers will relate to one or more of the characters in this novel. An excellent choice for a book club.
Lake Effect
Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
Top Bigstock photo by digitalista
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