The Guest Book Book Review

As much as we wish it, families are far from perfect. There are secrets, scandals, and sins that have a way of passing down through the generations.

Sarah Blake’s new novel, The Guest Book, was published earlier this year. In the 1930s, Kitty and Ogden Milton have it all. A loving marriage, beautiful and thriving children and the status that comes with being one of America’s leading (and wealthiest) families. Then tragedy hits the family hard. To assuage his wife’s grief, Ogden buys a private island to use as a summer home. The island should be a place of refuge and relaxation for the Miltons. Instead, it becomes a symbol of the family’s secrets.

The secret starts with a refusal that could have saved the life of an innocent just before World War II. Twenty plus years later, the secret grows. Len Levy and Reg Paulding are not the usual guests invited to the island. Len is Jewish and secretly seeing one of the Milton daughters. Reg is African-American and the lone person of color in his world.

The secrets begin to unravel in the 2010s. Evie Milton, one of Kitty and Ogden’s granddaughters, comes to the realization with her cousins that the island is in dire financial straits. She also learns, with the help of her husband, that the family secrets are just below the surface. With a little digging, those secrets are revealed.

What I liked about this book was how Ms. Blake established the world that this novel is set in and the casual racism/antisemitism that is part of this world. I also liked the transition from the past to the present. It takes a skilled author to jump from different time periods and different points of view in a way that does not confuse the reader.

My problem with the book is that the ending is kind of expected. The big bombshell that is supposed to be the “long-buried” secret is not really a bombshell. I saw part of it coming nearly a mile away.

Do I recommend it? Maybe.

Two Men Entered Starbucks Last Week. They Were Arrested For No Reason.

Last Thursday, two men entered a Starbucks location in Philadelphia. They were waiting for a third man to discuss a business deal. They sit down at a couple of benches and kill time by looking a their phones. They are bothering no one.

The next thing they know, they are arrested for trespassing.

This happened to two black men last weekend.

This story makes me sick to my stomach. These men were not making trouble. They were merely waiting for the person who they were going to discuss the business deal with. While one could argue that they did not buy anything, I find that argument ridiculous. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve stopped in Starbucks without buying anything. I’ve also used the bathroom without buying anything. I was not harassed nor was I arrested.

I don’t blame the police, they were merely doing their job. Even though, one could argue that the arresting officers could have been not so quick to put the handcuffs on the men and do a little more digging. I blame the manager who called the police.

I’d like to hope that in 2018, we live in a post racial world. We judge others, especially minorities, as Martin Luther King Jr. said “not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character”.  But hope often springs eternal, so unfortunately does racism.