June Baby by Shannon Garvey is a story that tugs at your heart strings and reminds you that love and grief are individual. The story takes place on Block Island mostly during the same summer. The main character is Ruth. It is clear that she is struggling and has been struggling for a while.
Ruth spent summers with Diana Beckett, a friend of her mothers. Block Island became a safe place, a sanctuary for Ruth. She helps Diana with the text to her newest book of photographs at first and eventually starts waitressing every summer. The island with the dunes, beaches and water hold her heart. During the winter (after graduation) she spends the winters at a bar in Maine.
Ruth returns to the island after Diana dies and struggles to find her way. Diana’s death brings up her mother’s death. She has stopped writing. The man she loved Charlie comes with his fiance. Things get worse. No one’s grief acts the same way or has it in the same manner. For some it is an immoveable force that is insidious.
This is Shannon Garvey’s first novel. I recently read she lives out on the NH coast after graduating from UNH. June Baby by Shannon Garvey is an emotional coming of age with love and grief novel. It is well written, needing tissues at times.
