WATER MUSIC

In Peck’s coming-of-age novel set in 1956, a New Jersey girl struggles with family relationships while on vacation in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Every year, Weston and Lydia Grainger take their two daughters, Lily and Dodie, to Cape Cod for a long vacation from a blistering New Jersey summer. Weston, a mild-mannered graduate student, is the opposite of his wife, Lydia, who was born the only child to a wealthy, well-established New England family that valued tradition and etiquette over family ties. This long history of excessive concern about propriety and appearances has turned Lydia into a humorless and often insensitive mother. In contrast, Weston is bright, engaged, and eager to pass on his scholarly enthusiasm to his daughters. Weston’s efforts are successful with Dodie, who’s studious and high-achieving but proud and somewhat cold like her mother. Lily, the story’s 11-year-old narrator, shares her father’s rambunctious spirit but her musical talents likely come from her mother, a born pianist. Readers first encounter the Graingers as they make their regular summer trip, but there’s one noted difference: Despite their modest means, they’re building a house across the lake from Weston’s overbearing brother George’s sprawling home. George is intent on discrediting and lording his privilege over his brother, and on embarrassing his meek wife, Fanny. The couple’s children, Nicole and Digory, each take turns bullying their cousins, with Lily getting the brunt of the abuse. This sometimes folksy, other times stressful coming-of-age story shows how personalities can clash within a family. Peck creates a lively, compelling narrative by deftly choosing to track the story’s progress as one would track an impending storm. As the summer wears on, so does a sense of impending doom surrounding Hurricane Carolyn, which provides nature’s response to the growing tension between and among the various family members, bringing the story to a fever pitch in the last few chapters: “Everyone hoped the storm would miss the Cape and blow itself out to sea. But just when we began to think we could relax, Carolyn veered.”

Readers will enjoy this tense, atmospheric family drama.