Summer Point

Chris Knight is managing editor of the Canadian HR Reporter.

In her first novel, Linda McNutt uses sparse, beautiful language to
suggest the emotional underpinnings and dendritic connections that make
cottages a part of the psyche of anyone who has spent even a single
childhood summer at one.

Sarah, the narrator, has inherited the family cottage from her Aunt
Maud. The story opens with a closing, as Sarah returns to the cottage to
close it for the winter. But there are also beginnings: it is the first
time her lover, James, has been there, and it is her first time as its
owner.

As Sarah shuts the cottage down, her memories of the place open up. We
are told of the differences between the locals and the summer people,
and introduced to characters from both worlds. Sarah remembers The Aunts
(so proper that if they were upset “they could revolve in their graves
long before they attained them”); the strange adult world of her
parents and their siblings; and the combative, hierarchic world of young
children.

In this story, a sense of place is as real and as well developed as the
characters are, and as fascinating to meet.