Loss of Innocence
Library Journal :
Whitney Dane, an accomplished novelist at the age of 65, recalls her tumultuous summer of 1968. After graduating from a private all-girls college, she becomes happily engaged to the likable and very suitable Peter Brooks and retreats to the Dane family home on Martha's Vineyard to while away the summer with her best friend, Clarice, and to plan her September wedding. Life is uncomplicated and idyllically idle until one day while visiting her favorite secluded beach she is approached by a handsome young local man, Benjamin Blaine. She learns that Ben escaped a hardscrabble life through a Yale scholarship but then left college to serve as Robert Kennedy's personal aide on that fatal presidential campaign. Ben's fiery intelligence, deep sadness, and capable ways captivate Whitney and incite parental concern. Her continuing exchanges with him and their resulting consequences challenge her to question her goals and her life. VERDICT Patterson's (Fall from Grace; Degree of Guilt) latest novel is a coming-of-age story set amongst the privileged classes of Martha's Vineyard in the shadow of the turbulent political summer of 1968. A title that is dripping with summer diversions, youthful passion and ideals, class tensions, and familial disruptions makes for wonderful reading whatever the season. [Patterson was a panelist on the "Getting Reacquainted with Fiction" panel at LJ's Day of Dialog program.—Ed.]—Sheila M. Riley, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, DC