Lake Effect: A Novel from a New York Times Bestselling Author
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Nest and Good Company comes a wry and tender portrait of two families forever changed by one lovestruck decision that will reverberate for decades.
It’s 1977 and an air of restlessness has settled on the residents of Cambridge Road in Rochester, New York, a place long fueled by the booming fortunes of Kodak and Xerox and, for some, the mores of the Catholic church. When Nina Larkin is given a copy of The Joy of Sex by her newly divorced friend, she can no longer dismiss the nearly nonexistent intimacy of her marriage. Just as her oldest child, Clara, is falling in love for the first time, Nina finds herself longing for the forbidden: a midlife awakening. An intoxicating fling with a prominent neighbor brings Nina a freedom she never thought possible—but also risks the reputations of both families and unravels Clara’s world, just as she stands on the threshold of adulthood.
Years later, Clara, now a successful food stylist in New York City, has never been able to move past the long-ago scandal. Drawn back home by the pull of a family wedding and wrestling with her own demons, she makes a pivotal decision that turns her life upside down. Written with Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s signature humor and insight, Lake Effect is a wise and probing look at love and desire, mothers and daughters, loss and grief, and what we owe the people we love most.
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Community Reviews
What a great story! The plot intertwines the lives of neighbors and friends living in the late 70's in Rochester New York. The families were headed by Nina and Sam Larkin, and Finn and Honey Finnegan. Nina's and Sam's girls were Clara and Bridie (not birdie, as I kept wanting to read it). Finn and Honey's kids were Dune and Fern. Rochester was quite the hub of major corporate America, including Eastman Kodak and Xerox. Sam worked at Xerox as a Marketing Director. In his private life, he's been hiding a big secret. Nina, his wife, is a dutiful sometimes food columnist mom and dinner party hostess, raising her teenage and pre-teen girls. Finn and Honey live across the street, with Finn the scion of the largest hometown grocery chain, started by his dad and uncle. He's had a heart attack, and is now a big runner and work-out fan. Honey is a bit of a cold-fish, albeit a beautiful cold-fish, who had a hard time warming-up to anyone, and vice-versa. She is pious and critical of her daughter's weight, badgering her constantly. Amid this dynamic, a fling turns into a 'can't live without you' affair between two members of the foursome - which happens fairly early in the plot. And the story unfolds with the telling of the repercussions among each of the members of both families - adults as well as the kids - as it is dealt with from each person's point-of-view, and in their gossipy community. Since I lived as a teen and attended college in the 70's, Sweeney totally got the details of the era right. I grow nostalgic for those simpler times. Masterfully done on re-visiting a time and place. And for realistically exploring how relationships are impacted, grow, and change. Sometimes, for the better.