The Tumble Inn

by William Loizeaux

published by Syracuse University Press

2014

I received this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

My Review

I admit it- I chose this book TOTALLY based on the cover.  Look at it- so peaceful, adirondack chair right on the lake, a little sepia tone.  The summary intrigued me too- pretty much turning in your boring life to do something so different and challenging- so exciting.  I loved journeying through the first few years at the Tumble Inn with Mark and Fran.  This was the fasted and lightest part of the book.  When their child, Nat, becomes a teenager, the story slows down and becomes a little deeper.  Then tragedy strikes this small family and the pain and sadness seeps through to the reader.  I finished this book quickly, as the story moves fast at first, and the writing is very smooth.  Though not exactly what I was expecting- something a little lighter, like an early Tom Hanks movie?-I would definitely recommend this.  Have you read this book?  What were your thoughts?

Summary

Tired of their high school teaching jobs and discouraged by their failed attempts at conceiving a child, Mark and Fran Finley decide they need a change in their lives. Abruptly, they leave their friends and family in suburban New Jersey to begin anew as innkeepers on a secluded lake in the Adirondack Mountains. There they muddle through their first season at the inn, serving barely edible dinners to guests, stranding themselves in chest-deep snowdrifts, and somehow, miraculously, amid swarms of ravenous black flies, conceiving a child, a girl they name Nat. Years later, when Mark and Fran are nearing middle age and Nat is a troubled teenager, Mark’s life is ripped apart, forever changed, and he must choose between returning to his old home in New Jersey or trying to rebuild what is left of his life and family in the place of his greatest joy and deepest sorrow.

The Tumble Inn is a moving drama about home and about the fragility and resilience of love