At the Breakers

At the Breakers is a wonderfully well-written novel. It is full of unexpected life experiences , self-doubt, emotional turmoil and hard-earned times of happiness and painful self-discovery by the main character, Jo, and her four children. I was completely absorbed by Jo's story, and I felt great empathy for her as a mother who had to begin caring for her first child while still a teenager. Jo unwittingly carries over a lack of engagement with her third daughter, Wendy, due most likely to her own experiences as a child, and then as a teen parent. It was a potent and convincing reminder of how generations of families can be affected by such events in their own lives. Jo's resilience, and that of all her children, in the living of a transient and relationally chaotic life with a series of surrogate fathers was the powerful introductory grounding of the story for me. The support of some women friends, the camaraderie that she develops as she works with the owner and the residents of The Breakers Hotel, and the relationship that she eventually allows herself to have evolves the story of Jo's life, and those of her children into one of trust and hope. I recommend it highly.

I did enjoy a lot of it. This book was definitely worth the time to read and I found myself picking it up again very easily each time. It's not complex but I don't think it falls into the chick-lit category either. Glad I read it but I don't feel a great need to recommend it to friends. The main character is a forty-two year old woman who has 4 children, giving birth to the first child when she was 15 years old. That event is the defining moment in the book that sets everything else into motion. Married young to the father and giving birth to a second child, the marriage predictably falls apart and she moves on to other marraiges and other children continually making bad choices and struggling with the enormous task of raising four children on her own with minimal family support and trying to finish her own education. Part of me felt very sympathetic with the character and part of me kept thinking that she was making one bad decision after the next and largely causing her own continuing problems. While an interesting a quick read, there are some very real problems with the book that keep it from being as good as it could have been. 1) the cast of characters is just too large -- even major characters seemed to be left too two-dimensional 2) there were some very unrealistic situations -- how many parents are going to really send their 14-year-old, pregnant daughter across the country with her equally young husband to live and have a baby with no financial support? They couldn't legally even sign the contract on their apartment, couldn't drive, would even have difficulty getting jobs due to child labor laws but none of this ever is addressed. 3) some events that appear to have deep meaning are never explained. There is an entire sequence where one of the daughters shows up unexpectedly for Christmas and a whole collection of Christmas gifts are retreived from Jo's (the main character) room for her including a painting. The painting mysteriously appears, is described as so significant in her life (even though we have never heard of it before), is given to the daughter who immediately grasps the emotional support being bestowed upon her throught the giving of the gift. After that the painting disappears never to be referenced again. This happens multiple times where things just show up and then the story-line is dropped. The bottom line on this is that it's good, but not great. As the author continues to develop (and the quality of the editing improves) this author has a lot of potential to write really outstanding books -- this one just isn't quite there yet.

In "At The Breakers" by Mary Ann Taylor-Hall, Jo Sinclair becomes manager of The Breakers at Sea Cove, a newly renovated old hotel at the Jersey Shore. Jo had originally been hired by the owner to repaint and decorate the hotel's thirty rooms and lobby. Jo, 42 years old, with three divorces behind her, wants her four children to remain part of her life. At fourteen, Jo had had Lottie, who married quickly right after high school and was now age 28, with a 5-year-old girl and a new second husband. Jo and her second daughter Erica share very good looks. On a full scholarship, Erica had just graduated from Rutgers. At the same time, Jo herself -- after a stretched-out nine years -- had graduated with high honors from a smaller local liberal college. Jo's third daughter, Wendy, a free spirit, had also just graduated -- but not with honors -- from high school, and had taken off to live in Manhattan, to work, so she says, as an au pair. Wendy's face is pretty but hardened looking, her hair is chopped and wildly dyed, and she has so many body piercings as to be unemployable, Jo thinks. Would any parent hire her to take care of children? Nicky, Jo's fourth, a 13-year-old boy living with her, was an oblivious child, burly, friendly, and happy with life and school. With such a history and baggage, how could Jo Sinclair break free and be the self that she, as a little girl, had dreamed of? Even before she was aware of her own sexuality, Jo had been eager to learn, and had continued with her reading and desire to write. Why, she wanted to know, had her body always been getting her into such troubles? Why was she always drawn to men who put her down -- neglecting and abusing her, deserting her, trying to control and make her subservient. What was the matter with this life that she believed could be and should be joyful, sensual, full, and expressive? Jo had escaped from New Brunswick to the Shore to get away from the threat from her latest live-in interest. He had developed in six months into an abusive, obsessive controller, who had beaten and raped her when she tried to leave. In fearful hiding at The Breakers, she had been working her tail off to get the place ready for a convention of accountants, already booked for shortly before Christmas. And she was getting up early every day to work on her writing. In Sea Cove she cautions herself when she feels herself tempted toward a type she has always liked but has always gotten her in trouble -- the protective, blue-collar muscles and personality of the much younger hot-looking owner of a gas station near the hotel. In a pause for Thanksgiving, Jo's parents, Lottie and her family, Erica with a beau, and Wendy with some guy or other had decided to come to the partly finished hotel to celebrate, all working together to prepare dinner. The new cook and staff were out for the holiday. As the book opens, Jo is taking a day trip by train up to Manhattan to visit daughter Wendy. There Jo hap

I loved this book and highly recommend it. It's a great story with great characters, and once I started it I couldn't put it down until I finished it. The main character has had a life full of problems, beginning with pregnancy and a shotgun wedding at age 15, but she never quits trying to make a better life for herself and her four children. Although many of her problems are of her own making, she is often the victim of circumstances beyond her control, but she eventually finds herself with a chance at a better life than she could possibly imagine, if she'll chance it. This is a story that gives its reader a good emotional workout, including anger, sadness and hope, but it's also good for a chuckle or two. I don't believe you're likely to find a funnier dysfunctional family Thanksgiving anywhere in literature than the one in this book.

I highly, highly recommend this book. The characters are incredibly rich and dynamic. I was concerned the subject matter would bore me, but it absolutely did not! Especially recommended for women--the exploration of the mother-daughter relationship is fantastic. A must-read for anyone interested in family relationships, the human psyche, or just escaping into an incredible read. I wish Victor Mangold were real!!! What a character!!!!