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Historical novels blend fact with fiction. Life as it really was intermingles with life as it might have been, or in some instances should have been. Events are enhanced. The mundane becomes memorable. Individuals gain immortality—at least on the pages of a book.
In this historical novel, Neuendorffer bestows a degree of immortality on numerous families and several generations who inhabited the small New England town of Northfield, Massachusetts from 1880 to 1980. Her tale encompasses not only the townies who lived there full-time, but also the many strangers and visitors who journeyed there for individual reasons but were united in their love for a community that kept them coming back again and again. We learn how this small farming town became a magnet for religious conferences, summer excursions, winter idylls and eventually second homes for families from cities like New York and Philadelphia. The bucolic allure is depicted as one might expect, but it’s Neuendorffer’s history of the people and their progeny that keeps this tale interesting. There is the dedicated clergyman, the mysterious immigrant, the boarding house matron who becomes a banker’s wife, the private detective, the nurse, the soldiers in both world wars, the humanists, the isolationists, the idealists, and more.
The prose style is direct. The author lets her tale unwind naturally, often via the dialogue of the participants. Though she never lapses into sentimentality, there is a heartfelt reverence for this place and these people that is evident throughout. Whether chronicling history or fashioning fiction, Neuendorffer paints a portrait of a place in time that lovingly reminds us—all towns have a story to tell.