Crystal Beach Sunset

Tom Nolan

jul 2009 · Dog Ear Publishing

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A talented writer could craft a short paragraph about his first novel in such a way as to demand further attention. I'm not that good. However, Crystal Beach Sunset is set in an interesting place and time and the interplay among the four principal characters will have universal appeal. What's not to like about a self-proclaimed devout atheist who does charitable work in several area churches? The day-to-day narrative begins when Jim and Rebecca Thornton, corporate banker and English teacher, opt for a two-week vacation on the shores of Lake Erie across from Buffalo. They expect some quiet time away from the heat of Manhattan and not the four-week, life-changing adventure that ensues. But then, they did not imagine that they would spend so much time with their landlord, a middle-aged, self employed, non-tax paying eccentric and his live-in twenty-eight year old girlfriend, a part time stripper and part time exercise rider at the local racetrack.
The story takes place in Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, NewYork, its crossborder neighbor, during the late summer of 1989. It ends on Labor Day that year, the last day of operation of Crystal Beach, a popular amusement park on the lake. The four principal characters occupy a lakefront property one bay over, the fifty year old Jack Mahoney and Linda McCollum in the main house and the young couple from New York City in the rental cottage. A cancellation provides an offer of a free extension of their stay if they "assist with some projects." The characters connect by gender and prim is influenced by the bawdier side of life and proper by the unconventional. The area backdrop provides a second sharp contrast, current and historical, between the Canadian and American sides of the Niagara River.

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