Jane Green's 10th novel, "The Beach House" (newly reissued in softcover) is an entertaining account of the direct and peripheral effects of human frailties -- addiction, infidelity, eccentricity, wealth and its loss -- on three generations of a family that slowly shifts from Nantucket gentry to boarding house operators, like the dunes along the island's sandy shore.
Armed with some wit and sensitivity, Green (who will be at a reception Thursday evening at Vigilucci's La Jolla, sponsored by Warwick's bookstore), tells the nicely entwined tales of the remaining matriarch-by-marriage, her family, and the boarders she welcomes with open arms and empty wallet into the family's ancestral summer estate. The novel is as colorful in character as it is in setting.
Although a significant plot twist is less convincingly written than the rest of the book, Green thoughtfully addresses her characters' transitions, in particular the plot line of one character's excruciating but inevitable acknowledgement of his homosexuality and the results of his coming out to his loved ones. The character's torment is palpable and realistically handled.
However, Green's book has some challenging gender stereotypes and editing failures that dampen enthusiasm for her obvious ability to tell a good story.
Green writes of one of her female characters, "Like all women, Jordana is something of a chameleon, able to adapt to whatever her man wants her to be." This and similar comments might have been less startling had they been in characters' voices rather than in the narration. The opinion inherent in the description distracts the reader from the book to a one-sided debate over the female author's perception of her own gender -- or to the thought that he or she might have picked up a romance novel by mistake.
As for the editing, sadly, "The Beach House" is yet another addition to the dismaying number of books by seasoned and often best-selling authors in desperate need of an editor. Do publishers think any writer can get to the point that his or her manuscript doesn't require at least one good review by a competent copy editor? Or is it the author's fault?
Whatever the cause, the results are distracting.
A grammatical error graces the first page of "The Beach House." Although it could be an idiomatic choice, it is jarring to launch into a new book and have to suspend the rules of grammar with the very first sentence -- when it isn't even dialogue.
The 65-year-old protagonist's hair color changes from white on Page 2 to blond on page 5, with nary a visit to the local salon in between.
While her hair is miraculously changing color, the matriarch stops to buy some "delicious sweetmeats, designer candles" at a village shop, and in the very next sentence, the narration reveals that the store sells -- guess what? -- "delicious sweetmeats" and "designer candles."
Green also succumbs on occasion to her British roots, inserting such idioms as "fancy" for "want" into what is otherwise a U.S. English narrative.
And the list goes on.
Green's publisher, or the author herself, has done a disservice to readers in failing to provide some much-needed scrutiny of the book. At the least, corrections could have been made before going to print with the paperback edition of a previously published hardcover.
Or -- horror, the thought! -- has the publishing industry determined that an investment in editing is unnecessary, when an author's books sell without it?
Green's 11th novel, "Dune Road," was released Tuesday. If readers are lucky, it will reflect an author who has acquired a little less stereotyped sense of the female character and a gentle but firm editor.
Kit-Bacon Gressitt is a writer and editor and the host of Fallbrook's monthly Writers Read open mic readings of poetry and prose. E-mail kbgressitt@aol.com.
*** (out of four)
"The Beach House"
Author: Jane Green
Publisher: Plume
Binding: Softcover
Pages: 341
Price: $15
