Review: Montauk by Nicola Harrison

Title: Montauk

Author: Nicola Harrison

Published: June 2019, St. Martin’s Press

Format: ARC E-copy, 394 pages

Source: Netgalley via Publisher

Summary:

An epic and cinematic novel by debut author Nicola Harrison, Montauk
captures the glamour and extravagance of a summer by the sea with the
story of a woman torn between the life she chose and the life she
desires.

Montauk, Long Island, 1938.

For three months, this humble fishing village will serve as
the playground for New York City’s wealthy elite. Beatrice Bordeaux was
looking forward to a summer of reigniting the passion between her and
her husband, Harry. Instead, tasked with furthering his investment
interest in Montauk as a resort destination, she learns she’ll be
spending twelve weeks sequestered with the high society wives at The
Montauk Manor—a two-hundred room seaside hotel—while Harry pursues other
interests in the city.

College educated, but raised a modest
country girl in Pennsylvania, Bea has never felt fully comfortable among
these privileged women, whose days are devoted not to their children
but to leisure activities and charities that seemingly benefit no one
but themselves. She longs to be a mother herself, as well as a loving
wife, but after five years of marriage she remains childless while Harry
is increasingly remote and distracted. Despite lavish parties at the
Manor and the Yacht Club, Bea is lost and lonely and befriends the
manor’s laundress whose work ethic and family life stir memories of who
she once was.

As she drifts further from the society women and
their preoccupations and closer toward Montauk’s natural beauty and
community spirit, Bea finds herself drawn to a man nothing like her
husband –stoic, plain spoken and enigmatic. Inspiring a strength and
courage she had almost forgotten, his presence forces her to face a
haunting tragedy of her past and question her future.

Desperate
to embrace moments of happiness, no matter how fleeting, she soon
discovers that such moments may be all she has, when fates conspire to
tear her world apart…

My thoughts: Having grown up on Long Island and recently moved back,  I always love when I find books set in towns here. So of course, I was excited to have been sent this debut novel by Nicola Harrison…and let’s just take a moment to admire this beautiful cover…isn’t it so striking? I’m such a fan of a good cover and this one is so stunning, yet so simple!

I loved that this whole novel was set in 1938. Yes, I’ve really come to enjoy dual narratives, but it was so refreshing to have a historical novel all told in one timeframe, from one point of view. It really has such a great sense of time and place – Montauk in the late 1930s really comes alive as a fishing village and you really felt the divide of class between the haves and the have-nots. 

This is such a great character study of a woman who is really struggling to find her place. I loved the main character, Beatrice. She is such a strong woman who is held back by the standards of her time. She is supposed to be a “good wife” and do as she is told, which according to her husband, Harry, is to hang out with the high society women at the manor, while he is spending his time in NYC, drinking and cavorting with other women. As Beatrice feels she doesn’t fit in with these women, she ends up making friends with the locals. 

I really enjoyed this book. I enjoyed seeing Montauk as it was in 1938 and am desperate to find local history books to see just how it looked back then. And of course, I will definitely be heading out there to visit one day soon – it’s been ages since I last took a trip to Montauk! I definitely recommend picking this book up – the writing is beautiful and you will find yourself completely immersed in the story. I will certainly be keeping an eye out for what comes next from this author for sure!