Book Reveiw: That Old Cape Magic

I really love reading Richard Russo's books.  They are both funny and thought provoking.  His most recent book is That Old Cape Magic and covers a year in the life of Jack Griffin, between the wedding of his daughter's best friend and the wedding of his daughter.  It is also the year between the death of his father and mother.

Jack was raised by two English professors who loved Cape Cod and spent almost every summer there.  They were not exactly what you would call child-oriented, and Jack had a less than happy childhood.  His wife, on the other hand, had a very happy childhood with two brothers and two sisters and parents who were involved in their children's lives.  Jack tried to keep his parents away from his family, while Joy enjoyed having her family involved.  Things come to a head at the wedding of their daughter's best friend, which takes place on the Cape.  Jack is also looking for the perfect place to scatter his father's ashes.  Jack and Joy's daughter announces she is engaged, while Jack and Joy have a fight which ends with their separation.  The next year is a year of reflection for Jack culminating in a hilarious rehearsal dinner before his daughter's wedding (which takes place in Maine instead of Cape Cod).  Definitely worth a read.





That Old Cape Magic
By Russo, Richard
2009-08 - Knopf Publishing Group
9780375414961 Check Our Catalog

In this follow-up to Bridge of Sighs, Russo delivers a novel of deep introspection and every family feeling imaginable, with a middle-aged man confronting his parents and their failed marriage, his own troubled one, his daughter's new life and, finally, what it is he thought he wanted and what in fact he has. …More