With "so many books and so little time," few beg to be re-read. The Center of Everything, Jamie Harrison's sixth novel, is one of those few.
It's July 2002, and Polly and Ned are preparing to host a multi-generational party for her great-aunt Maude's 90th birthday in their Livingston, Mont., home. Still recovering from hitting her head in a bike accident, Polly carries on, knowing she easily crosses "the line between memory and the here and now," moments Ned lovingly calls "déjà you." Polly is stoic, even as the family mourns the mysterious loss of a young friend in the turbulent Yellowstone River.
These characters--balancing party planning with grief--shape a rich story when Harrison (The Widow Nash) backs up to 1968. Polly was eight, living on Long Island Sound with her parents, great-grandparents and the wife of a family friend serving in Vietnam. Polly heard the woman was "not well," and puzzles over the volatile Rita, but Rita's son, Edmund, also eight, proves to be a kindred spirit. This second story, of Polly's childhood, alternates with the 2002 chapters and is just as gripping, the links between them gradually surfacing: "every story was an echo, an inherited memory."
While The Center of Everything isn't a mystery, events do resonate. Long-ago drownings are the eeriest; sweeter are the generations' recurring affections, including passions for art and cooking. A family saga teeming with drama and no shortage of conflicts, detailed nature references ("the alley rabbit--clear-eyed, dusty gravel-gray fur," a "gyre of birds," a "quiver of bats") and family love and loyalty lend a gentle tone. Re-reading reveals "a-ha" moments cleverly tucked into this exquisitely crafted novel. --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany, N.Y.