Fellowship Point
Ratings5
Average rating4
15
Ratings5
Average rating4
NATIONAL BESTSELLER “Engrossing...studded with wisdom about long-held bonds.” —People, Book of the Week “Enthralling, masterfully written...rich with social and psychological insights.” —The New York Times Book Review “A magnificent storytelling feat.” —The Boston Globe The “utterly engrossing, sweeping” (Time) story of a lifelong friendship between two very different “superbly depicted” (The Wall Street Journal) women with shared histories, divisive loyalties, hidden sorrows, and eighty years of summers on a pristine point of land on the coast of Maine, set across the arc of the 20th century. Celebrated children’s book author Agnes Lee is determined to secure her legacy—to complete what she knows will be the final volume of her pseudonymously written Franklin Square novels; and even more consuming, to permanently protect the peninsula of majestic coast in Maine known as Fellowship Point. To donate the land to a trust, Agnes must convince shareholders to dissolve a generations-old partnership. And one of those shareholders is her best friend, Polly. Polly Wister has led a different kind of life than Agnes: that of a well-off married woman with children, defined by her devotion to her husband, a philosophy professor with an inflated sense of stature. She strives to create beauty and harmony in her home, in her friendships, and in her family. Polly soon finds her loyalties torn between the wishes of her best friend and the wishes of her three sons—but what is it that Polly wants herself? Agnes’s designs are further muddied when an enterprising young book editor named Maud Silver sets out to convince Agnes to write her memoirs. Agnes’s resistance cannot prevent long-buried memories and secrets from coming to light with far-reaching repercussions for all. “An ambitious and satisfying tale” (The Washington Post), Fellowship Point reads like a 19th-century epic, but it is entirely contemporary in its “reflections on aging, writing, stewardship, legacies, independence, and responsibility. At its heart, Fellowship Point is about caring for the places and people we love...This magnificent novel affirms that change and growth are possible at any age” (The Christian Science Monitor).
Reviews with the most likes.
Tremendous exploration of love (platonic and romantic), loyalty, aging, and ownership. I found some parts a bit tedious but overall it was compelling.
While certainly not unreadable, Fellowship Point had a few different story threads going and my final impression is one of a disjointed, vague, and overly-long novel.
Some of the plots don't have much of a conclusion. The one thread that is fully developed, the tragic tale of how Agnes developed her When Nan series, resolved with an unbelievable coincidence that was more annoying than satisfying.
There are also some chapters that are pointless, such as the one showing the characters reacting to 9/11. It really had nothing to do with plot or character, just a vague nod to the time in which it's set.
It could have used some sharpening up and a better editor.
Fellowship Point is the story of respected children's author Agnes Lee and her best friend Polly Wister. The two women are in their eighties and Agnes desperately wants to protect Fellowship Point from developers. The long and complicated history of Agnes and Polly is gradually revealed as book editor Maud Silver tries to talk Agnes into writing her memoirs.
This book was very, very slow, and the plodding felt tiresome at times. I'd consider giving up and then the author would throw in a beautiful and wise thought (both Agnes and Polly are exceptionally wise eighty-year-olds) and I'd renew the desire to clomp on to the end.
One beautiful little quote:
“The world through the looking glass, the parallel universe where life is as it should be, so close to us yet impenetrable except when we accept the graces and the love offered to us. What I have learned is that grace and love are offered all the time, in every new moment, at every glimpse of the sky, or dawn of a day that has never before existed, or squirrel skittering along a branch, or conversation with a sister or a friend, or the sense of time suspended when reading a good book. We are free, always, to accept what is offered; it is we who don't recognize this.”
