Gail Godwin (Evensong; A Mother and Two Daughters) has created another atmospheric novel of place, character and time in Flora, narrated by a woman in her 70s recounting the summer of 1945.
Helen is a precocious 10-year-old living in North Carolina with her beloved grandmother Nonie. Her mother died when she was three, and her father is working on a secret project in Oak Ridge, Tenn., allowing him to come home only occasionally. Then Nonie dies, Helen's best friend Brian comes down with polio and another friend moves away. These losses leave the child bereft and grieving, and then Helen's father invites his late wife's cousin to move in for the summer.
Flora is 22, a "simple-hearted girl," a chatterbox, is waiting for a teaching appointment for the next school year. Helen can barely stand Flora. To make matters worse, Helen's father is convinced Brian's polio is the sign of an epidemic, so he forbids them to go visiting, swimming or even into town. Mrs. Jones comes to clean and Finn delivers groceries.
In this hermetically sealed world, Helen develops a crush on Finn. Helen and Flora learn a great deal from each other and by summer's end might even have become friends--until Helen catches Flora and Finn in an embrace. She bolts from the house and sets in motion a series of events that ends in tragedy.
Having Helen tell her story so many years after the fact is a brilliant strategy on Godwin's part--the novel is filled with sadness and regret, but also illuminated by the wisdom and understanding that distance lends. --Valerie Ryan, Cannon Beach Book Company, Ore.