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Off Season

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
Acclaimed novelist Anne Rivers Siddons's new novel is a stunning tale of love and loss.
For as long as she can remember, they were Cam and Lilly—happily married, totally in love with each other, parents of a beautiful family, and partners in life. Then, after decades of marriage, it ended as every great love story does...in loss. After Cam's death, Lilly takes a lone road trip to her and Cam's favorite spot on the remote coast of Maine, the place where they fell in love over and over again, where their ghosts still dance. There, she looks hard to her past—to a first love that ended in tragedy; to falling in love with Cam; to a marriage filled with exuberance, sheer life, and safety— to try to figure out her future.
It is a journey begun with tender memories and culminating in a revelation that will make Lilly re-evaluate everything she thought was true about her husband and her marriage.
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    • AudioFile Magazine
      Upon the death of her husband, Lilly Constable McDowell returns to her summer home in Maine to scatter his ashes and reflect on her life. Jane Alexander gives a convincing performance as the 60-year-old Lilly. As the widow recalls her youth, Alexander lightens her voice enough for the listener to suspend disbelief, especially given her realistic variations in tone. However, Alexander's male characters, with their artificially deepened voices, sound forced and shallow. Further, peripheral females of all ages, except for Lilly's adored and unconventional mother, come across as exaggerated and acted, rather than felt. Alexander's occasional mispronunciations of Bangor (she intermittently calls it "Banger") will jar listeners familiar with that Maine city. So will the story's unrealistic ending. R.L.L. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      April 7, 2008
      No one does coastal melodrama like veteran Siddons (Homeplace
      ). Lilly Constable McCall, 53, has led an enviable life—marriage and children with a successful architect, her own success as a sculptor—but husband Cam's death sends her spiraling. She returns to the coastal family cottage in Edgewater, Maine, where she spent her childhood, and where Cam died. There, she recalls the summer of 1962, and the arrival in town of new girl Peaches Davenport, who envies all Lilly has. That includes the attentions of attractive older boy Jon Lowell, who awakens grown-up feelings in Lilly's 11-year-old heart. But it's Lilly's place as the daughter of a Washington, D.C., professor and the “sporadically successful†painter and activist Elizabeth Constable—that makes Lilly's childhood most attractive to Peaches, and to readers. Jon may have shared her first kiss, and Cam her home and children, but it's the changing relationship between Lilly and the elusive, enigmatic Elizabeth that makes this story fresh.

    • Library Journal

      November 1, 2008
      Returning to her beloved Maine home to scatter her husband's ashes, Lilly reconstructs her past and makes peace with her future. Four-time Oscar Award nominee Jane Alexander uses her acting chops to keep New York Times best-selling author Siddons's (Sweetwater Creek) sweetly sentimental story from toppling into sappiness. She imbues Lilly's childhood voice with self-absorbed innocence, gradually morphing it into that of an adult. When Lilly's husband arrives, her father's importance dwindlesa good thing, since their voices were indistinguishable. While this isn't Siddons's best, her descriptions will have listeners hearing the birds and smelling the ocean. Public libraries should purchase. [Also available from Books on Tape. 10 CDs. library ed. unabridged. 11' hrs. ISBN Jodi L. Israel, MLS, Salt Lake City

      Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from October 27, 2008
      In Siddons’s stirring novel, the recently widowed Lily Constable returns to her childhood summer home in Maine to sift through formative memories of her parents and her first love. It’s difficult to imagine a more marvelous performance than Jane Alexander’s. Alexander captures the strength and vulnerability of Lily from childhood to late middle age, and perfectly renders the physical weight of Lily’s grief at her losses. She skillfully navigates the novel’s cast of characters, from the slow, deep and thoughtful drawl of Lily’s father to the high-pitched, false charm of the vicious young neighbor whose poison darts put tragic events in motion. Alexander also brings to life the great unnamed character in the book—the natural world, giving voice to birds and even a talking cat, and intuitively understanding the life-giving power of the sea. This is an example of how a good novel can become magnificent when it is beautifully told. A Grand Central hardcover (reviewed online).

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Mix the lyricism of Siddons's prose; the intense, yet restrained voice of Oscar-winning actress Jane Alexander; and the mysteries of the untamed Maine coastline--and you have the makings of a magical voyage. Widow Lily returns to the Maine island home she and her husband, Cam, loved to unlock answers to dark questions about her past. Jane Alexander's narration, especially as Lily and as the voices of Cam and Lily's deceased wisecracking cat, is flawless. And when the heartbreaking truths about Lily's life emerge, Alexander keeps the pathos under control. There is one big flaw, however. The unexpected ending to the story is disappointing. M.T.B. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

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  • English

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