The Drowning House by Elizabeth Black.

In her youth, Clare spent all her time with Patrick Carraday, the son of one of richest men in Galveston. Patrick who lives in the large historical home adjacent to her own is wild and reckless. Drawn to each other, they become confidantes and co-conspirators. After a shocking and horrifying incident that alarms both of their families, the two of them are sent away--to opposite corners of the world.

Clare is sent to Ohio where she marries and establishes herself as a successful photographer. After her daughter's death, though, and with her own marriage crumbling, Clare returns to the island that relentlessly calls out to her.  Though Eleanor, her mother, and Faline, the cook, try to dissuade her from seeing him, she persists in searching for Patrick who eludes her. 

Clare ostensibly returns to Galveston to create a photographic exhibit. Clare has an even more urgent need, however,  to excavate her past. She wants to understand her mother and father's coldness towards her. Most of all, she wants to know what happened after she and Patrick were sent away. 

Many stories swirl around the Carraday family, including the one about Stella who had become part of the island's lore. Clare identifies with Stella, who died while trying to escape the hurricane of 1900 with her architect boyfriend, Henry Durand, because Stella is also a rebel. 

As Clare sifts through ancient photographs, Clare tries to comprehend Stella's story. She planned on including Stella's story at her own photography exhibit. She is unprepared, however, for what she finds--a photograph of a woman that may be Stella.  If it is Stella, then the photo could prove the island's legend wrong. Stella may have survived the storm and she may have been forced to return to the Carraday house. 

Clare uncovers many more secrets--a secret relationship between Will Carraday and her own mother. As memories flood in, Clare begins to understand her difficult, complicated relationship with her father and sister. Clare pieces together the real reason she and Patrick were forcibly separated.

This novel captures the Galveston atmosphere perfectly as well as the isolation and the pride of its inhabitants. Inhabitants are proud to point out if they were BOI or born on the island. Black also depicts the island's rich history and its vulnerability. 

Clare mirrors the island's qualities. She feels isolated and vulnerable because certain facts have been kept from her. The truth, however, will set Clare free to be the artist that she was always meant to be. Black includes just enough mystery to keep readers hooked. 

The Last Summer of Our Youth | Tin House

Early that June, some new neighbors moved in just up the road and built a house around their trailer. We spied on the old couple until their house was done. We watched them start to collect things like tires and rusty chairs in their yard. When the swampy area behind our own house dried out, we took our adventures out back and combed the still-soft ground for arrowheads and any other evidence that the Cherokee had lived on our land. Once, Jamie found a sharp rock that we all agreed was not flat enough to qualify as a real weapon. Michael collected antique rusted bottle caps that had really been tossed aside by folks at one of our parents’ own parties. I kept a tally of the crawdad burrows, which looked like mud chimneys or tiny volcanoes. The muskrat dens were worse because they made the ground collapse, but they were harder to see.

http://tinhouse.com/the-last-summer-of-our-youth/
February 24, 2017


I really like the voice of this flash piece by Erin Harte. So electric! So alive!