Customer Reviews

This Must Be the Place: A Novel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"This Must Be The Place," Kate Racculia's debut novel, is tricky to classify. Part coming-of-age story, part romance, and part mystery -- but all entertaining.

Racculia's main characters are widower Arthur Rook, boarding house owner Mona Jones and Mona's daughter Oneida. Rook comes to stay at the Darby-Jones boarding house, operated by Mona, after his wife's death. Throw into the mix that Rook's wife was Mona's beat friend in high school for the first in a series of complications. Add a cast of entertaining boarders, Oneida's high school anxieties and issues -- and you've got the basis for the story.

It's hard to review this story without revealing spoilers, so suffice it to say that Rook is trying to understand his late wife better through a shoebox full of small belongings -- including a postcard addressed to Mona -- while Oneida tries to figure out why her mother is the way she is, and why high school is so horrible. Mona, in the mean while, is the guardian of the biggest mystery of all. The way the stories intertwine and ultimately come to their conclusion is packaged in delightful prose and entertaining characters.

Highly recommended.

(Review based on uncorrected advance proof.)

Some improbable books are magical realism, but there's none of that here, there's another kind of magic, that of quirky and likable characters. These characters have flaws but these flaws make for a good story. Arthur Rook had left Boston for L.A., met Amy who saves him in a burger joint, they marry, Amy dies in a freak accident, Arthur is devastated and leaves abruptly for Amy's home town of Ruby Falls to try to find out Amy's past. And what a past it was. Mona, Amy's former best friend, runs an inn and bakes wedding cakes while raising her daughter Oneida (oh, the spoon jokes). Oneida, a teen, is going through plenty of teenage angst and this is exacerbated by Arthur's arrival and her mother's interest in him. Oneida's fellow students, particularly Wendy (Eugene) add to the cast of entertaining characters that is rounded out by the inhabitants of the inn. From art forgery to the Beatles to movie monsters to mystery to romance, this book has it all and tells it in a very easily readable and enjoyable way.

This novel just felt right from the word go: the offbeat, yet totally plausible characters and situations, the way there was a plot, but not a melodramatic one in the least--a great vacation read. Just as in life, situations arise, coalesce or come to crisis, and then dissolve or shatter or synthesize, and another situation arises. There is a central mystery, but there is so much more--and read the book before it gets condensed into a movie---you won't want to miss a beat.

For a first time novel, I thought this was pretty good. IMHO some of the back and forth got confused as to the time line towards the end. But it certainly didn't effect enjoying the story. I just went with it. I like that it wasn't just a cookie cutter finish. It actually was a little different from what you thought you had figured out from the beginning.

I was intrigued by the summary of this book and so glad I took a chance on it. This was a refreshing read that was hard to put down. There are several main characters in the book and all of them are accessible and fascinating in their own right (which is not an easy feat, mind you). Even though I didn't love all of the characters immediately, the more I read, the more endeared I became. Racculia jumps from character to character advancing the story from different points of view and each character's recollections, but not once did it feel disjointed or choppy. It left me craving more of each person's story and Racculia doesn't disappoint on that front either.

I loved the entire concept of the plot ~the rippling effect one unsent postcard could have on the lives of so many. So unfold the secrets of the past, and possibly the key to the future, with twists and turns I never imagined. By the end of the book the characters seemed like old friends with whom I didn't want to loose touch.

Racculia's writing style is smooth and unhindered. It seems so honest. I found it to be a stunning debut novel and I can't wait to see what else she has in store for us.

The story begins with a boardwalk scene, a young girl, and a postcard.

We then leap ahead sixteen years to a couple living an ordinary life in LA; he, Arthur Rook, is a photographer, and she, Amy Henderson Rook, creates special effects in movies. They are just living day to day.

Then it all changes with a freak accident that leaves Amy dead and Arthur blindsided. Armed with a pink shoebox containing Amy's collection of objects he sees as "clues," and with a postcard and an address in Ruby Falls, NY, Arthur takes off on a journey toward answers.

His search leads him to the Darby-Jones boarding house and the proprietor Desdemona (Mona) Jones, whose life is anything but ordinary, surrounded as she is by a cast of intriguing characters who are the residents. Her daughter Oneida, awkward and friendless, is the part of her life that is important and real. And the past--the part of her life that was connected to Amy Henderson--is not something she talks about.

Arthur's residency in the house begins mysteriously; he says nothing about Amy or her box. Instead, he tries to sort through clues he finds here and there. Then an accident and an injury creates a shift between Arthur and Mona, as she sees him in a new light; someone who needs her. She nurses him back to health, they go out on jobs together (she is a wedding cake baker, he does the photography), and in this process of a developing alliance, they begin to share bits and pieces of their past.

Told from the perspective of the primary characters--Arthur, Amy, Mona, and Oneida--this story unfolds gradually into a multi-layered tale of human connections.

I liked the author's way of slowly revealing the secrets, so that when the bits and pieces were brought to light, I was stunned, but at the same time, I thought "oh, yes, of course!" There was something quirky and endearing about each of the characters that made me care greatly about what would happen to them.

From the "before" until the "after," which was like an epilogue eight years later, the reader was gifted with a wonderfully satisfying feeling of fulfillment.

A very unique story that I will not forget, This Must Be the Place: A Novel resonated with me in the way that satisfying stories often do, which is why I decided on a 4 starred review. The only reason I didn't grant 5 stars was that the back and forth progression of the story (from the adult characters, the past, the present, and the teenage characters) left me occasionally disconnected from the flow of the tale. Nevertheless, the story was fascinating and memorable.

As a whole, "This Must Be the Place" is a charming and intriguing novel. The characters are interesting, the threads that tie them together develop nicely over the span of the book, and the shifts in narrative (the story shifts focus between four characters- Arthur, Mona, Wendell, and Oneida).

Desdemona "Mona" runs a wedding-cake business in upstate NY, surrounded by a cast of colorful characters who reside in her giant home, which she opens to boarders. Alongside her is her daughter Oneida, a teenager who is coming into her own and very conflicted about her place in the world and who, outside her home, she can truly trust.

One day a young window named Arthur stumbles through the door of the boardinghouse, completely numb with grief and searching for answers about his beloved wife, Amy, who died from a fatal electrical shock. He believes Amy "led" him to the boardinghouse by leaving a pink shoebox full of clues (ephemera from her life) that he believes are instructing him on a specific journey. Mona turns out to be Amy closest friend from childhood, and the two of them begin to reminisce about Amy, share memories, and try and puzzle out exactly who Amy was.

And here is the problem with the book- who the heck IS Amy? "This Must be the Place" is truly focused on this question, but never quite resolved. Amy's the first character the reader is introduced to (so an attachment is formed, no matter how brief it is), and then is quickly killed off within the first pages of the book. Mona and Arthur have VERY different experiences and beliefs about Amy, and while the two of them work to hash it all out, Amy *never* comes into clear focus. And because the characters are so fixed on puzzling out and reacting to Amy's decisions in life, their own personalities never quite come to the surface and the reader can't really strongly identify or fall in with either of them, because we're left with the ghost of Amy.

While I never felt connected to either Mona or Arthur, I did very much enjoy the concurrent story of Oneida and Wendell. The two teenagers go through their own crisis of identity and connection and there were some *very* compelling aspects to their stories. The book switches narrative a bit to go from character to character, but it's all very seamless and enjoyable to read.

Kate Racculia is a gifted writer. She weaves a beautiful, charming story and the paragraphs often read like little, beautiful descriptive poems. The narrative flows, the questions are compelling, the ideas behind the book are captivating, but Amy's ghost is just too strong and she doesn't allow either Mona or Arthur to connect with the reader in a way they should.

I did enjoy this book and don't regret reading it. I'll remember the story, but my residual irritation at Amy will probably prevent me from re-reading it (which is what I do with books I REALLY enjoy). I recommend it as a library check out, but not a book you'll want on your shelves forever.

We know that growing up can be difficult. Coming of age isn't easy, but it was especially onerous for Oneida Jones. And, no, as she'll be the first to tell you - she was not named after a spoon.)

In this imaginative, entertaining debut novel Oneida's home is a boarding house, the Darby-Jones in Ruby Falls, New York, run by her mother, Mona. (There is not a father in the picture as Mona had returned to Ruby Falls years earlier unwed but with baby Oneida in her arms) As if cooking and cleaning for her tenants were not enough Mona also bakes cakes, gorgeous tall wedding cakes to supplement her income. Among the boarders are Roberta Draper known as Bert, an 87-year-old curmudgeon who occupies the top floor. "She had never married, kept herself cloistered in her rooms, and made no secret of her disapproval of everything." Also in residence are Anna, the town veterinarian and Sherman, a high school shop teacher with whom Anna was having an off again on again affair.

This was the milieu in which Oneida lived and grew, which might be a challenge for any young one but especially so for Oneida as she had no friends and she was a freak. "It was nonnegotiable. It was absolute.....but it wasn't until after her twelfth birthday that she ever considered the possibility that it was something to be embraced rathr than raged against." Why did her fellow sixth graders consider her to be a freak? Because she had "huge frizzy hair and dark eyebrows that touched in the middle of her forehead, and she demanded that Mr. Buckley teach them about Japanese internment camps." Obviously, Oneida was unique, and a few steps ahead of her contemporaries.

Life changes for everyone at the Darby-Jones with the arrival of Arthur Rook, a mysterious sad young man bearing little luggage and most importantly to him a pink shoe box. He recently lost his wife, Amy, in a tragic accident and he came to the Darby-Jones because of an unsent postcard to Mona which he found in the shoe box. He feels there is something to learn here, that he can better come to know Amy who had been Mona's best friend from childhood through high school.

As the story progresses it becomes evident that there are secrets at the Darby-Jones, especially one guarded by Mona. Kate Racculia, a wise author, drops bits of information along the way that keeps us turning pages.

For this reader the novel should have ended when the final secret is revealed rather than an extended explorati0on of what the future held which did seem a bit contrived as if attempting to tie up every loose end. What ever the case, THIS MUST BE THE PLACE is a meritorious first novel, and we look forward to more from Kate Racculia.

Gail Cooke

You read this and it comes as a normal story about a single mom and a man who just appears out of no wear, but the BAM! total twist in story and it ends so nicely you aren't aching for another book!

The book has a well developed interesting plot. What I didn't like was sometimes reading it felt like driving a stick shift car for the first time, stopping and starting rather abruptly. When I finished the book I went to look at what other books this author had written and was surprised to see that this was her first book.