Montauk

Starred review from March 1, 2019

DEBUT Harrison's historical fiction debut transports readers to a Long Island resort in 1938, where high-society ladies, occasionally joined by their husbands, spend summer days socializing and gossiping, and main character Beatrice Bordeaux longs for more. While Bea deals with infertility, the untimely death of her brother, and her husband's aloofness, she and the wealthy women around her swan through the tail end of the Great Depression in glittering dresses and fancy hats. The rich New Yorkers play tennis and sip cocktails at their posh resort, but Bea explores the nearby fishing village and befriends several year-round residents who barely make ends meet as laundresses and lobster fishermen. As she ventures further from the beau monde, she falls in love and works to find her place in the world around her. VERDICT Full of substance and delightful characters with intriguing and intricate lives, Harrison's first novel will be a strong pick for fans of historical fiction featuring strong female leads, such as Kate Alcott's A Touch of Stardust and Jacqueline Winspear's popular "Maisie Dobbs" series.--Elizabeth McArthur, Bexar Cty. Digital Lib., BiblioTech, San Antonio

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2019
Harrison's debut explores class privilege and true love in 1938 Montauk. When financier Carl Fisher, who made and lost a fortune developing Miami Beach, took an ill-advised gamble on the rockbound sand spits of Montauk, Long Island, he paved the way for future development--and this novel. Harrison's protagonist, Beatrice, and her banker husband, Harry, check into Montauk Manor--the luxury resort built by Fisher, which still stands today--with plans that she will summer there while he works in the city. Locals from Montauk's seaside fishing village comprise the servant underclass at the manor, among them Elizabeth, who collects the guests' laundry to wash in her humble cottage. Bored with the manor's indolent coterie of wealthy wives, Beatrice, whose own background is middle-class, befriends Elizabeth. Although ostensibly sharing Beatrice's longing for a child, Harry has been neglecting his husbandly duties, because, as Beatrice learns, his business in the city is monkey business. But Harry's protracted absences permit Beatrice to pursue an affair with her true soul mate, lighthouse keeper Thomas. The dialogue is exposition-heavy, and the characterizations seem rote, as does the plot. For example, Beatrice's only ally at the manor, Dolly, seems drawn from the Rosalind Russell character in the movie The Women, complete with flamboyant hats. Dutiful but brief attention is paid to American isolationism and FDR's reluctance, then, to engage Hitler. The destabilizing force of gentrification is decried at times, but through Beatrice, Harrison concedes that "Fisher had developed Montauk without ruining its beauty." Beatrice, writing anonymously for a Manhattan paper, exposes the foibles of the moneyed but mindless summer people, including their habit of sending soiled diapers home through the mail, overburdening the local post office. Harrison fails to mine the rich vein of conflict that a mole in the manor's midst might have generated. The novel's central question is typical of movies of that era: Is it better to have true love but no money? Or loveless riches? It is a controversy (among many others) that this book handily dodges. An underdeveloped fictional landscape.

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April 15, 2019
Harrison’s satisfactory debut follows a woman’s life as it’s turned upside down during a summer spent on Long Island. In 1938, Beatrice Bordeaux and her banker husband, Harry, arrive in Montauk, Long Island, where Beatrice will spend the summer while Harry works in New York City during the week, returning for weekends. All of the wealthy socialites have routines and expectations of their peers, planning parties and indulging themselves with fancy foods and expensive clothes. But Beatrice, a country girl, takes solitary bike rides and becomes enamored of the small, beautiful fishing village. Its kindhearted residents serve the elites staying at the Montauk Manor hotel, and the handsome, down-to-earth Thomas Brown, who tends the lighthouse, is especially intriguing to Beatrice. She’s determined to stay faithful to her husband, despite a coolness that has arisen in their marriage, until she learns he has been busy with more than his work back in the city. More details of the era would’ve added much-needed texture to the story; instead, the novel feels like it could be set at any time (with the language often sounding contemporary). Still, readers looking for a story with a strong lead will find one here.

May 1, 2019
Nicola Harrison brings us to the rich beaches of 1930s high society with this perfect summer read. Beatrice Bordeaux is sent to Montauk Manor for the summer, away from the busy professional city life?and dalliances?of her husband. Harry will come on the weekends, but during the week it is just Beatrice and the well-heeled ladies of New York. Not quite fitting in with the other women, Beatrice finds herself bonding with the locals. She finds a friend in a local washerwoman and her family and the handsome young lighthouse keeper. Scandals abound in this leisurely paced read, from affairs to backstabbing and even a little underhanded news reporting. Fashion and social class are the most important things to the guests at the manor, but for Beatrice, it is finding herself and being loved that is most enticing, no matter how high the social stakes. A great beach read with just the right amount of suspense to keep the reader rooting for Beatrice and all she holds dear.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)