Beach Trip: A Novel [Hardcover]

Cathy Holton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 12, 2009

A reunion of four friends becomes a cathartic journey into the past in Cathy Holton’ s luminous new novel.

Mel, Sara, Annie, and Lola have traveled distinct and diverse paths since their years together at a small Southern liberal arts college during the early 1980s. Mel, a mystery writer living in New York, is grappling with the aftermath of two failed marriages and a stalled writing career. Sara, an Atlanta attorney, struggles with guilt over her son’s illness and her own slowly unraveling marriage. Annie, a successful Nashville businesswoman married to her childhood sweetheart, can’t seem to leave behind the regrets of her youth. And Lola, sweet-tempered and absentminded, whiles away her hours–and her husband’s money–on little pills that keep her happy.

Now the friends, all in their forties, converge on Lola’s lavish North Carolina beach house in an attempt to relive the carefree days of their college years. But as the week wears on and each woman’s hidden story is gradually revealed, these four friends learn that they must inevitably confront their shared past: a failed love affair, a discarded suitor, a betrayal, and a secret that threatens to change their bond, and their lives, forever.

Darkly comic and deeply poignant, Beach Trip is an unforgettable tale of lifelong friendship, heartbreak, and happiness.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Break out the tissues, sunblock and margarita mix as four old friends reunite after 23 years for a beach party in Holton's feast of Southern friendship (after The Secret Lives of the Kudzu Debutantes). Mel, Sara, Annie and Lola head out to Wild Dunes, a beachfront palace owned by Lola's super-rich husband on exclusive Whale Head Island in North Carolina's Outer Banks. Spacy Lola is miserably married and leans heavily on medication to deal with her husband's manipulations. Obsessive-compulsive Annie still broods over a college fling with a married professor even though she's got a great husband. Social worker Sara still envies glamorous Mel, a witty crime novelist (I'll Sleep When You're Dead is her latest) living in New York who's unlucky in marriage. At 45, each stands at a familiar crossroads covered by many novels of the midlife-empowerment genre, but Holton refreshes the action with winning humor, especially with Mel, whose take-no-prisoners attitude inspires everyone to embrace their present and let the past go. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

 
“A brilliant, bubbly, bracing novel . . . packed with hilarity and heartache.”
—Wichita Falls Times Record News 
 
“Break out the tissues, sunblock, and margarita mix as four friends reunite after twenty-three years for a beach party in [this] feast of Southern friendship. . . . [Cathy] Holton refreshes the action with winning humor.”
—Publishers Weekly
 
“The novel’s wistful tone and serious revelations will set it apart from summer’s lighter fare, while the characters’ witty barbs and beachy setting keep it entertaining.”
—Booklist
 
“A poignant tale of heartbreak and happiness that celebrates the resiliency of women.”
—Chattanooga Times Free Press
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; First Edition edition (May 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345505999
• ISBN-13: 978-0345505996
• Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.4 x 9.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #344,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The daughter of a college professor, Cathy Holton grew up in college towns in the American South and Midwest. She has worked as a dude ranch hand, a university seminar coordinator, a paralegal, and an assistant in a fire investigation firm. She lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee with her husband, three brilliant children, and a wall-eyed dog named Yoshi. She is the author of "Revenge of the Kudzu Debutantes", "Secret Lives of the Kudzu Debutantes", and "Beach Trip", all published through Random House/Ballantine Books. Her fourth novel, "Summer in the South", about a Chicago writer who stumbles upon love, redemption, and a sixty-year-old murder mystery in a small Southern town, is due out in the spring of 2011.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One that caused me to lose sleep ..., May 27, 2009

By 

Holly Kincaid "Book addict" (Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beach Trip: A Novel (Hardcover)

This is the story of four women who graduated from the same small, liberal arts college in North Carolina in the early 1980s. The women are all very different and yet have a bond that seems to hold them together even when circumstances should tear them apart. The book moves between their college years and 2005 when they all get together for the first time after college at the luxurious beach-front cottage owned by one of the women's husbands.

I was expecting a light, fun summer read along the lines of a Debbie Macomber book but it is much, much more complex and much deeper than that. The characters are well developed and are dealing with the life choices they have made and where those have lead them. Unfortunately, I actually didn't get enough sleep a couple of nights because I couldn't put the book down and turn out the light. This author really knows how to tell a story ! Great writing and some very insightful portions. Each character is three-dimensional with flaws and strenghts exposed -- I came to care about them all.

I will definitely be seeking out other books by this author and will be recommending this book to friends.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Can you go home again?, May 24, 2009

By 

mellion108 (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Beach Trip: A Novel (Hardcover)

One of the challenges of friendship is if it can weather and survive the things life throws at it through the years. Mel, Sara, Annie and Lola became friends at their small, private, all girls' school in the early 80s. They've managed to at least stay in touch with one another and now find themselves in their 40s - the kids are growing up or have already left the nest, some men have come and gone, careers have waxed and waned, and each woman has significant questions about the next stage of her life.

Lola, the starry-eyed waif who married an ogre with more money and power than compassion and humanity, invites her friends to spend a week with her at her new beach "cottage" on Whale Head Island in North Carolina. Successful, single, more-mouth-than-sense Mel flies in from New York. She's between novels and trying to figure out where her life is going. Sensible, OCD, prudish Annie joins the group, knowing she's going to let them talk her into doing something she doesn't want to do. And Sara, smart and beautiful with what others think is the perfect family, relunctantly accepts the invitation even though she and Mel have, at best, had a rocky relationship over the last several years. Each woman has her own private pain, and there are secrets and guilt galore in this friendship.

What do women with too many responsibilities and too few chances to let their hair down do for a week at a beautiful, remote beach home? Why, they do what any sensible group of girlfriends would do in that situation - they fire up the blender, pour the drinks, let go of some inhibitions, and open up for some long overdue soul searching.

There's a slew of "southern sisterhood" novels out there. Some are quite good, and some leave a lot to be desired. On the surface, Beach Trip looks like a fluffy, these-strong-women-still-need-a-man type of book. Don't be taken in by the stereotype of what tends to be termed women's literature these days. Beach Trip is thoughtful and funny and manages to be entertaining while delivering some pretty good insights into the hearts and souls of its main characters. Given the title, it's inevitable that this book will be labeled as a beach or summer read, and I admit that I finished it on a sunny day, lounging on the deck with the wind rustling through the trees. But this is simply a darned good book. It was at times a bit too close to comfort to some of the same issues my close friends and I have gone through over the years (minus the expensive beach home and amenities!). I think most women will find something they can relate to in these pages, and I see this book becoming the hit of bookclubs in the next few months.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Beach Trip Fun, August 28, 2009

By 

S. Agusto-Cox "Savvy Verse & Wit" (Germantown, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beach Trip: A Novel (Hardcover)

Cathy Holton's Beach Trip: A Novel is Southern women's fiction with a twist. Mel, Annie, Sara, and Lola were college roommates and reunite in this novel two decades later. Like the heavy surf churned up by an offshore hurricane, their relationships are wrought with tension, love, jealousy, and forgiveness. Each chapter shifts between the past and the present--the mid-1980s to the early 2000s.

Each woman embarks upon their own path and makes her way in the world. Sara, Annie, and Lola each marry and have children, while Mel marries and divorces a few men and concentrates on her career as a novelist. Mel is the independent, strong-willed feminist, while Sara is a follower and tough attorney fighting for the rights of children caught in the middle of parental divorce. Lola is laid back and pushed around by her husband, friends, and mother, and Annie is obsessive compulsive and striving for perfection. Each of these characters juxtaposes the other, and these characteristics weigh heavily on their relationships in college and beyond.

Holton creates deep characters with simple flaws, placing them in situations of their own making. Readers just have to sit back and watch how they make their way out. The secrets revealed by these women as they reflect on the past are sometimes cliche, but the end of this novel will leave many readers agape. Overall, Beach Trip: A Novel examines the complicated relationships of women with a flare of wit, humor, and sarcasm.