Letter from Point Clear: A Novel [Paperback]

Dennis McFarland (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 27, 2008

The older Owen siblings--Ellen and Morris--long ago left behind their gracious family home in Alabama in favor of the northeast. But when they learn that their wayward baby sister Bonnie has moved back into the old place with her new husband, a local evangelical preacher, they head home to perform a rescue. Upon their arrival, they find Bonnie reformed, and pregnant. But she hasn't yet broken the news to her husband that her brother Morris is gay, and the preacher soon begins a campaign to rescue him.

With tremendous insight and empathy, Dennis McFarland "turns a comic showdown between New England skeptics and Bible Belt fundamentalists into an eloquent mediation on the many meanings of faith" (The Washington Post).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An absorbing, resonant domestic drama, McFarland's latest follows the dysfunctional Owen family's reunion in Point Clear, Ala., 10 months after the death of the family's alcoholic patriarch, Roy. Of the three adult children, Ellen, a published poet, is separated from her husband for the summer and caring for their young son, Willie. With her high-strung, opinionated brother, Morris, and Richard, Morris's partner of 14 years, Ellen and Willie travel to the family's Point Clear estate, where the youngest, Bonnie, has been living since abandoning a floundering Manhattan theatrical career to care for ailing Roy. The occasion is Bonnie's quickie marriage to a young, dashing evangelical preacher named Pastor Vandorpe, who credits himself with having saved Bonnie. Bonnie is pregnant and, she tells an incredulous Ellen, happy. The addition of Pastor's pious parents powers a destructive tension, with everyone locking horns over homosexuality, gay marriage, religion and property ownership. A strained family dinner denouement ignites a clash pitting Ellen and Morris against an ex-gay minister invited to save Morris. Can a crisis of faith be far behind? Though McFarland (Prince Edward, etc.) imparts a religious message that feels heavy-handed in spots, his ability to tap the hearts and minds of his carefully considered characters adds up to an evocative novel. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

In his latest novel, McFarland returns to a favored theme of a family ravaged by tragedy, only in this case it would seem the tragedy is one of their own making. Safely ensconced in their respective New England homes, siblings Ellen and Morris Owen learn of their younger sister's impetuous marriage to an evangelical minister actually named Pastor Vandorpe, and that the couple are now residing in the family mansion along the Alabama coast. Assuming that, like her drug abuse and failed acting career, this is yet another one of Bonnie's reckless forays into self-destruction, Ellen and Morris rush home to assess the situation for themselves. They find Bonnie calm, happy, and several months pregnant, but as the pastor spends more time with the brother-in-law he just found out is gay, his ministerial duty to correct the error of Morris' ways threatens to unravel his marriage, if not his psyche. Portraying each conversation and every encounter as an emotional minefield, McFarland is at the peak of his psychological prowess. Haggas, Carol --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Picador; 1st edition (May 27, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312427913
• ISBN-13: 978-0312427917
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,572,166 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dennis McFarland is the author of LETTER FROM POINT CLEAR, PRINCE EDWARD, SINGING BOY, A FACE AT THE WINDOW, SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND, and THE MUSIC ROOM. His short fiction has appeared in THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR, THE NEW YORKER, PRIZE STORIES: THE O'HENRY AWARDS, BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES, and elsewhere. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts and Stanford University. He lives in Vermont with his wife, writer Michelle Blake. In the author photo above, he is chagrinned and concerned about the future of literary fiction.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Simple, Sweet., August 4, 2008

By 

Brett Benner (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Letter from Point Clear: A Novel (Hardcover)

A lovely character piece that won't reinvent the novel, but does charm with it's simplicity. When Morris and Ellen receive a letter from their estranged sister Bonnie, they are moved into action. It seems the theatrical sibling has gotten married to a young minister and they are now living in the house the children have grown up in. With both parents being dead, Morris and Ellen head off to Alabama with the intent of meeting this man they're sure is going to take advantage of their sisters financial means, while also finally addressing whether they're ready to let their childhood home go.Morris has his own issues with his sister marrying a minister since he's been married to a man for the past fifteen years. McFarland's writing is fluid and beautiful, and many times it feesl like you're watching a play. I confess I kept waiting for something momentous to happen, but didn't feel disappointed in any way that something didn't. Ultimately reading this felt like peering through a keyhole into some other people's lives.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Characters Deserved Better, February 24, 2008

By 

Big D (Auburn, AL. USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Letter from Point Clear: A Novel (Hardcover)

Discriptions are accurate and vivid, characters are well-developed, well created and well drawn, but the story was lacking, sometimes predictable, sometimes a stretch. The characters, so well drawn, so real and so alluring, deserved a better, more believable, less predictable, story.

Went into this book with high hopes, but mostly felt disappointment. The characters clunked along in a predictable story with an attempt at a surprising ending. The whole thing fell kind of flat.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thanks, Dennis, October 10, 2007

By 

susan s. kelly - See all my reviews

This review is from: Letter from Point Clear: A Novel (Hardcover)

If you, as I do, adore domestic realism spiced with dry wit, oblique cultural references, exchanges that don't require authorial intrusion as to meaning, all taking place within marriage and/or four walls of a house, look no further. This is literary fiction at its best: a story based on the characters, not on their actions. Morris is petualant and petty, Ellen is distant and unnecessarily unfulfilled, and Bonnie is rash and probably spoiled, but I'd like to hang out with all of them. You can have your circus stories and your chick lit, I'll take Letter From Point Clear. And check out Tessa Hadley's The Master Bedroom or Accidents In The Home.