The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand

The Castaways by Elin Hilderbrand

Copyright 2009

Hatchette - Fiction/Women's

357 pages

Elin Hilderbrand's Nantucket

Last night, when I finished reading The Castaways and put away my tissues (because, to be honest, this book was a total sobfest for me, although the tweets I've seen indicate that I'm just a sap), I had this terrific opening line in my head, sat down to write, and my 17-year-old said, "Would you stop with the tap-tap-tapping? I need rest!" So much for perfect first lines; now that I've had a few hours of sleep, the idea bubble has popped and we'll just have to go straight on to synopsis.

The Castaways is about the lives of 4 couples: Tess and Greg, the Chief and Andrea, Addison and Phoebe, Jeffrey and Delilah -- a tight-knit circle of friends who have vacationed together many times and call themselves "The Castaways" because they all somehow "washed up" in Nantucket and made it their home.

When Tess and Greg go for a sail to celebrate their 12th anniversary, everyone knows it's a bad idea. Tess nearly drowned as a child and is terrified of water. Jeff is not a very good sailor. Nobody stops them from going, though. The past year has been a rough one for them.

Tess and Greg die in an accident on that trip to Martha's Vineyard and the rest of the Castaways are devastated. This is how the book opens, with the news breaking and knees giving out, people crumpling as they find out two of their best friends are dead, their young twins orphaned. Since I've felt that kind of grief -- the kind that makes every part of your body ache and sucks the life out of you -- I could relate just a little too well and I had to set the book aside, walk away and calm down. But, I figured the heavy grieving scenes wouldn't last too long, and I was right. After the grieving, each of the people in their little circle of friends begins to question what happened, what they could have done to stop Tess and Greg, and whether their deaths were really an accident or worse. Addison is certain that Greg murdered Tess, the Chief is baffled by toxicology reports, Andrea wonders if it's her fault because she didn't become a nun . . . each has some "what if?" that gnaws at his or her soul.

The book isn't written in a linear fashion and it goes from the point of view of one character to another. The Castaways isn't even divided into chapters. Instead, it's divided by viewpoint and moves with surprisingly even flow from character to character. First, the Chief finds out his friends have died and has to identify their bodies. Then, it switches to Addison's viewpoint as he ponders how much he loved Tess -- and you realize that he and Tess were having an affair. As the story segues from one viewpoint to another, the reader gradually gets to know each of the 8 people involved in this little group, where they came from, who they were, what they went through to have children (or why they had none), how they ended up in Nantucket, how they found each other and became friends or lovers. And, gradually, their secrets are revealed.

I had so much trouble distinguishing the characters, at first, that I ended up drawing a little chart to sort them out. Jeffrey was married to Delilah but he used to date Andrea, for example, so I had Jeffrey and Delilah together as a couple, an arrow from Jeffrey to Andrea that said "former love" and an arrow from Delilah to Greg that reminded me that they worked together and Delilah had a bit of an unrequited crush on Greg. In the end, there were quite a few arrows and little notes beneath names because The Castaways is very character driven and the relationships were complex.

I'm not even sure what exactly it is that worked about this book. I tend to like a more plot-driven novel, but I was totally blown away by the depth of dimension in Elin Hilderbrand's characters. The Castaways would probably be an excellent book for discussion, simply because the reader knows the characters so well by the end of the book that to talk about the story and its characters could easily feel like gossip.

4/5 - An excellent, character-driven novel with a hint of mystery, amazing depth of characterization and a genuinely satisfying ending.

I took off a point for the annoyance of all that drinking and puking -- something that also stood out when I read my first Hilderbrand, last week. Her characters tend to drink heavily. They get drunk and throw up. They get pregnant and throw up. Their kids get sick and throw up. Bad news usually makes at least one of them puke. I could do without all that heaving and there were times I thought the bad language (usually a thought, not necessarily uttered aloud) was just a bit much. Their sex lives are complex but I didn't find the sex scenes overly graphic. I just wouldn't hand this one to a youngster.

This photo reminded me of the characters -- two seagulls having an argument while a third tries to intervene.

The Castaways is definitely great for vacation reading. You really get sucked into the characters' lives and want to know how things will end up.

I read this book as part of the blog tour for Hatchette Books, but I'm a little late posting, this morning, so I'm going to skip the links to other blogs touring, today, at least for the moment.

Just walked in:

The Myrtles Plantation: The True Story of America's Most Haunted House by Frances Kermeen -- oooooh, ghosties! My friend Tammy sent this one. Thanks, Tammy!!!

Next up:

A sneak peek into Ransome's Honor by Kaye Dacus. I just started reading this one and I'm not a fast reader, so I'm not sure I'll have the review up by tomorrow, but I'll try my darndest.

Happy Reading!