More Than You Know

Having read all of Beth Gutcheon's books, I wasn't prepared for the personal impact of her latest novel, MORE THAN YOU KNOW. This book has been on my shelf for quite some time, waiting for me to delve into it. I never should have waited so long. Hannah, elderly now, tells us about a summer long ago when she was just a girl and fell in love with Conary Crocker. It was the summer her stepmother rented the old schoolhouse in Dundee, Maine, the schoolhouse which had been on the island where a murder had taken place 50 years before. Artfully woven into a tapestry of intrigue, the stories become one as the tales unfold. Although I am a constant reader, I seldom stay up past my bedtime to read, but this book was the exception. Ms. Gutcheon has not only changed her style from previous novels, she has proven herself to be a master story teller. I've always enjoyed her work, but this was the first time I finished one of her books, closed it carefully, and sat quietly to contemplate what I'd read.

Hannah Gray, an elderly woman, returns to the house she summered in as a young woman and decides to tell us the story of the summer she spent falling in love and being terrorized by a ghost. Her story is separated by the story of a family who lived on the island across from Hannah's old summer house over 100 years prior to that fatefull summer. The love story is intense and unforgettable, the ghost story is scary as hell (the scene with the ghost in the rocking chair kept me awake the night after I read it!), and the connection between Hannah's ghost and the old island family that slowly emerges as the stories progress will totally surprise you. I could not put this down once I picked it up. It's FANTASTIC.

I have just finished this book and have to congragulate the author Beth Gutcheon. A longtime reader of this author, I found More Than You Know totally different from her other books and applaud her ability to change both tone and style of this title. Paralleling two tragic stories, Ms.Guthecon allows her readers to glimpse life in small town Maine almost 100 years apart with an equally paralleling story. The reader not only comes to know the characters well but also the landscape of the island and town. The story, while sad, has wondrous moments of first love and devotion. Finally, I found the book fairly reminiscent of The Weight of Water by Anita Shreve, another very compelling and different read.

Beth Gutcheon's latest book is wonderfully insightful and delightful to read. Her descriptions of Hannah's childhood, of Claris's first romance are full of detail that rings true to my own experience. Her description of a small town on the Maine coast also rings true - as if you could visit Dundee this summer and be right at home there. The story is fast-moving, a real page-turner. I had to put it down deliberately so that it wouldn't be over too soon. I have read all of Ms. Gutcheon's books and enjoyed every one, but this one may be my favorite.

Gutcheon's latest novel is a departure from her previous "women's books" The New Girls and Five Fortunes, although More Than You Know is just as masterfully written.Chapters alternate from narrator Hannah Ober's recalling from the perspective of old age her own tragic first love to the ghost's own story of a century before, but until the book's end, the reader is kept guessing at the ghost's identity. However, what might have been simply a ghost story with a romantic element transcends that genre to delve into why some relationships simply cannot succeed no matter how much we may wish they would.Anyone who has never forgotten that totally unsuitable first love will find this sparely but powerfully written novel entrancing.