Jun 24, 2011 ARCHIVES | Entertainment | COLUMNS David Baldacci
Grand Central
ISBN 978-0446583145
333 pages
$25.99
Reviewed by Sarah Pekkanen
This isn't the typical fare from the writer of blockbuster thrillers, but David Baldacci's "One Summer" is a story the Virginia native felt compelled to tell. Its scenes unfolded in his mind while he sat in church, awaiting his son's confirmation. The book should come with a complimentary handkerchief tucked inside. Jack Armstrong, a happily married father of three, is given a diagnosis of an unnamed disease that a doctor warns is always fatal. And on Christmas Eve, Jack's wife, Lizzie, goes out to pick up his medicine and dies when her van is struck by a snowplow.
Jack miraculously recovers and, after rebuilding his strength, moves with his kids to an old family beach house in South Carolina, where Lizzie spent summers as a child. Here Jack's true healing takes place as he mourns his wife and tries to bridge the distance between himself and his children. "I missed a lot of things I shouldn't have," he confesses to his teenage daughter, Mikki.
Although the writing is flat in a few places and one or two plot twists strain credulity -- including a teenage prank that seems straight out of a horror movie -- Baldacci more than makes up for these lapses with his sympathetic characterization of Jack. Like most parents, Jack makes resolutions and promptly breaks them, struggles with his choices and navigates a treacherous relationship with his daughter, who, in the time-honored tradition of teens everywhere, doesn't hesitate to point out her dad's flaws. "You don't have a clue what to do with us," Mikki tells him. "Admit it. You're not Mom."
The last few chapters are packed with enough action to rival Baldacci's thrillers: fistfights! courtroom drama! a dramatic rescue! Fans of Nicholas Sparks in search of summer diversion will find in these pages a good message and a big heart.
Sarah Pekkanen is the author of "Skipping a Beat" and "The Opposite of Me."
Copyright 2011 Washington Post Writers Group
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