Last Resorts - Hardcover

Boylan, Clare

3.25

16 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671549987 ISBN 13: 9780671549985

Publisher: Summit Books, 1986

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Harriet's yearly family vacation on the Greek island of Keptos is disrupted by her twins' desire to get drunk with the locals, her thirteen-year-old daughter's suddenly ripe sexuality, and the abrupt departure of her married lover

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From Publishers Weekly:

Harriet is an affection-starved English woman who has raised her three childrennow teenagersalone. When she learned years before that her ex-husband took his new family to Greece on holiday, she pinched pennies even more determinedly in order to give her kids the same advantage. Set on the Greek island where Harriet and brood have vacationed for years, this novel spans a summer that brings plenty of changes and traumas. For the first time, Harriet has invited a lover, Joe, to visit. Roger, a friend of Harriet's oldest daughter, also arrives, and with time becomes a less-than-welcome guest. Joe manages to exert some discipline on the household, which often resembles a free-for-all. But he cuts short his stay and rushes back to his wife, leaving Harriet lonelier than ever. At novel's end, she abandons her family (her long-lost husband has appeared out of the blue) and goes off to a neighboring island, at which she has been gazing through a telescope for years. Boylan (Holy Pictures) is a writer of talent, though readers may lose patience with Harriet's eccentricities and vagaries, which seem forced. One must agree with Joe, who at his departure says: "Please, Harriet. None of your profound confusions." First serial to New Woman. January 15
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

It's summer and 40-year-old Harriet again brings her three children from London to the not very romantic or luxurious Greek isle of Keptos as she has done, at great financial sacrifice, for the many years since her husband walked out. But this year, the children are unruly teenagers, bored with the rustic life and interested only in drinking and cavorting with the locals. What's more, Harriet has invited her married lover to share their holidaymuch to the surprise of the children, who've never heard of him. The true strength of the novel lies in Boylan's sympathetic portrait of a complex woman who, in her struggle to raise a family alone, overprotects them by hiding her feelings and desires, and nearly loses the children and her own identity in the process. Highly recommended. Marion Hanscom, SUNY at Binghamton Lib.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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