The Stark Beauty Of Last Things by Celine Keating

 

When Clancy agreed to go to a party out on Montauk Island, he never expected that the decision would change his life.  Once he gets there, he realizes that this is where Otto, his Big Brother, would take him fishing as a child.  Clancy lost his parents when he was young and with no other family, grew up in foster homes and institutions.  He meets Julianne, a local innkeeper at the party and she tells him Otto is still alive and still living there.

Clancy goes the next day to look up Otto.  Otto is overjoyed to see Clancy but tells him that he is dying.  He asks Clancy if he would meet with his daughter, Therese, and see if Clancy can bring about a reconciliation.  Otto and Therese have been estranged since Otto's second marriage and not speaking.  Clancy tries but to no avail.

Clancy has come to Montauk at a critical time.  The island is changing from a blue collar fishing harbor to a rich person's playground and local residents are being priced out of the housing market.  Climate change and overbuilding is ruining the environment and for every environmentalist, there is another person who wants to cash in on their home and move elsewhere.  When Otto dies, he leaves Clancy as his executor of his estate and one of the biggest decisions is what to do with a several acre parcel of land Otto has held for decades with some other local families.  Some of them want to leave it as a natural area, others want to sell it to the highest offer.  What would Otto want?

This novel hits several themes.  It highlights the inevitability of change as new people discover undeveloped areas and want some of the untouched beauty for themselves.  It discusses the lives of the existing residents and how their livelihoods are being affected.  It also delves into family relationships and the need for a feeling of belonging that everyone has.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.