From Publishers Weekly
The fate of a young woman mirrors the fortunes of the town where she lives in Chace's deft third novel (after Capture the Flag). Shortly before the United States enters WWI, 15-year-old Frankie Ross and her parents move from Poughkeepsie to the booming mill town of Rock Harbor, Mass., where Frankie's father hopes for a fresh start, and Frankie is drawn into intense relationships with two young men: Joe Barros, a mill worker and part of the town's sizable Portuguese community; and Joe's best friend, Winslow Curtis, the son of a state senator. As the three mature and world events intensify, Frankie's young adulthood is spent torn between privilege and passion, and as the love triangle develops, Frankie, her family, and her lovers live through world war, influenza, and, eventually, an economic depression. Chace writes evocatively of early 20th-century mill town life, and even if the interjections by an adult Frankie looking back seem heavy-handed, the grounding of Frankie's romances in historical events is adeptly handled, giving this coming-ofage story some serious weight.
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Review
"A New England mill town circa World War I is the setting for this moody novel, whose heroine struggles with painful memories and divided loyalties." --
New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice
"An irresistible read in part because its protagonist, Frankie Ross, seduces us on the first page and never surrenders our affection, but also because fictional Rock Harbor feels as real as she does.
-- Richard Russo, author of That Old Cape Magic and Empire Falls
"Rebecca Chace’s eye is sharp, whether she’s writing about New England cotton mills in the years surrounding the first World War, bathing in the Atlantic -- wearing a corset or wearing almost nothing -- or eating lobster and drinking champagne in a fading but grand seaside hotel. Frankie Ross, the narrator of Leaving Rock Harbor, doesn’t manage her life sensibly, but she’s lovable because she can love, and it was a great pleasure to read her story."
-- Alice Mattison, author of Nothing is Quite Forgotten in Brooklyn
"Chace has deftly and seamlessly interwoven a love story, an elegy for a vanished way of life, and an account of a crucial and neglected period in America's social history. Nobody who reads this moving, evocative and sure-handed novel will ever forget Frankie and her world."
-- David Gates, author of Jernigan
"Rebecca Chace’s Leaving Rock Harbor is beautifully constructed, tender, and irresistibly readable. It signals the coming of age of a great talent."
-- Louis Begley, author of Matters of Honor
"Leaving Rock Harbor brings to life the world of an early twentieth century mill town with rich detail and simple grace. Chace writes movingly about what is both gained and lost in the name of progress, not only for her characters, but for us all."
-- Marisa Silver, author of The God of War
"Frankie’s personal story neatly parallels the larger history of the town and the country." --The Boston Globe
"This graceful novel, set in a coastal Massachusetts mill town in the early decades of the 20th century, traces upheaval from several vantage points... Chace’s story is dramatic; her characters, well defined by class and personality, are vivid and true; but most evocative are her details of this particular time and place, from the smell of the mill’s dye room to the feel of a corset." --The Atlantic
"Like the offspring of some Anne Tyler/John Updike union, Chace writescrisply and poetically and imbues Frankie with just enough flaws to make herboth lovable and entirely believable." --Baltimore Magazine
