This is the story of a family on a beach vacation and their relationships. There is the main character, Rocky, and her husband, Nick. Their grown children, a son who brings his girlfriend of many years and a daughter who is gay and in college. They are joined by Rocky's parents as well halfway through the week.
Rocky is in menopause and angry all the time. She constantly rails at Nick and then wants him to comfort her. She has hidden a huge secret in their marriage for decades and resents him for not 'seeing' her in her totality although she has created the distance with her secret. She is also suffering from empty nest syndrome.
During the week, secrets are revealed. The son and his girlfriend are pregnant and haven't yet decided what to do. Rocky guesses and then causes a fight between the two by being the first to know, even before the boyfriend. Rocky's parents reveal family secrets such as the fact that many members of her father's family were killed in WW II by the Nazis. Her mother reveals that she has a heart condition and passes out on the beach necessitating a trip to the hospital. And Rocky finally reveals her big secret, although not directly to Nick. She tells her daughter and he overhears her.
Catherine Newman started as a children's book author but lately has written several adult novels, this being one of them. The book has gotten a lot of praise but I had a hard time with it as I couldn't relate to Rocky at all. This is a woman who has everything, a husband who continues to love and desire her, two grown children who are successful and still close to her and loving parents. Yet she whines and rages and is one of the most narcissistic individuals I've encountered in print. Her ideas of parenting are far from mine. I was thrilled as my children grew up and moved into their own lives as I raised them to be independent. My role as a parent of adult children is to support them when they ask for it but not to intrude and make everything about me. I was turned off as Rocky reminisces about giving her son sexual advice about specific techniques when he was a teenager. I can't imagine how Nick endured her constant ranting and blaming him for everything that has ever gone wrong in her life. This book is recommended for readers of women's fiction but beware.