On Folly Beach

Summary (from the publisher): Folly Beach, South Carolina, has survived despite hurricanes and war. But it's the personal battles of Folly Beach's residents that have left the most scars, and why a young widow has been beckoned there to heal her own...

To most people, Folly Beach is simply the last barrier island before reaching the great Atlantic. To some, it's a sanctuary for lost souls, which is why Emmy Hamilton's mother encourages her to buy the local book store, Folly's Finds, hoping it will distract Emmy from the loss of her husband.

Emmy is at first resistant. So much has already changed. But after finding love letters and an image of a beautiful bottle tree in a box of used books from Folly's Finds, she decides to take the plunge. But the seller insists on one condition: Emmy must allow Lulu, the late owner's difficult sister, to continue selling her bottle trees from its back yard.

For the most part Emmy ignores Lulu as she sifts through the love letters, wanting to learn more. But the more she discovers about the letters, the more she understands Lulu. As details of a possible murder and a mysterious disappearance during WWII are revealed, the two women discover that circumstances beyond their control, sixty years apart, have brought them together, here on Folly Beach. And it is here that their war-ravaged hearts can find hope for a second chance.

 

Review: This dual narrative novel follows the lives of Emmy in 2009 and Maggie in 1942, whose lives converge on Folly Beach in South Carolina and through the bookstore where both work. In 1942, Maggie owns and operates her bookstore Folly's Finds to support her young sister and her cousin Cat. Cat, beautiful and impulsive, manages to permanently damage Maggie's blossoming love interests and alter her cousin's plans in a tragic way. However, her story was never known to anyone other than her younger sister Lulu. In alternating chapters set in 2009, Emmy, grieving from her husband's death in the war, moves to Folly Beach to take over the bookstore - and becomes intrigued by the mystery of love letters she finds in old books. Slowly, with the help of Lulu and Maggie's family, Emmy reveals the tragedy of Maggie's life, and in so doing realizes how desperately she wants to move on and make the same mistake Maggie did of waiting too long for her life to begin.

 

Although this looks like it's going to be your typical beach read, I love that this is actually a historical fiction novel based on true events during World War II, when Germans sank 360 merchant ships and oil tankers in 1942 off the Atlantic coast. The threat Maggie and her family feels from out at sea is very real. Also, I have been to Folly Beach so it was fun to see it through a historical lens, and also from Emmy's perspective in present day. The title of this book is a play both on the actual name of the beach town and the character's mistakes and foolish actions - which moving past and overcoming become the focus of this novel. As a book lover, the many literary references were also appreciated. In addition to the bookstore featured throughout, several of the main characters are named after literary characters.

 

There was an odd supernatural element to the book. Emmy seems to have an almost sixth sense and frequently awakens to the "sound of diminishing footsteps" that she believes are her dead husband's (30). She also constantly feels her "skin prick" when she's on to something or when some other force is pulling her in the right direction (32). The book also has the repeated imagery of the bottle tree throughout, meant to trap evil spirits and used between characters to convey secret messages and hidden longings.

 

Overall I truly enjoyed this largely historical tale. This is a novel of healing and forgiveness and moving on from the life you had originally planned. I appreciated that it wasn't a love story in the traditional sense, but focused more on the individual forging a life path. My one disappointment was with lack of characterization in some cases. For instance, Emmy constantly refers to her grief for her dead husband Ben, yet shares no details about him other than that he died in Afghanistan. Literally the only detail was found near the end of the book when Emmy reveals that Ben was exceedingly tidy: "His neatness had been a quirk she'd grown to love about him" (254). Fleshing Ben (and other characters) out would have lent itself greatly to understanding Emmy's grief and made the novel more realistic.

 

Stars: 3.5