From Publishers Weekly
No one can accuse Gaffney of shying away from mortality. Against the genteel backdrop of Wake House, a Maryland home for the elderly, Caddie Winger, a music teacher, endures a string of losses the summer she turns 33. In a way, it comes as no surprise, since most of her friends are nearly half a century older than she is. Caddie has always lived with her determinedly wacky grandmother, Nana, who moves into Wake House after she breaks a leg while working on one of her embarrassing lawn sculptures. Soon, Caddie is spending all her time at the small convalescent home and growing especially close to Thea, a firecracker who convinces Caddie to smoke pot and dance in the rain. Despite the fun they have together, the sober realities of old age are never far off, and Caddie's affair with a man her own age-disappearing slick-o Christopher-doesn't do much to cheer her up. The novel has its larkier moments, especially in the spirited, pitch-perfect conversations between Caddie and Nana and the sniping among Nana's fellow Wake House residents. But mostly Caddie suffers and struggles as Nana's ditziness looks more like dementia, money grows scarce, and she is plagued by crippling self-doubt. The redemptive romance, with 30-something Wake House resident Henry Magill, convalescing from a sky-diving accident that killed his fiancée, echoes the core love story in Gaffney's last novel, Flight Lessons Here, too, a damaged hero offers a profound attractiveness the reader recognizes ages ahead of the heroine. Caddie is endearing, and while some fans will cherish her fealty to her sorrows, others may feel more bummed than uplifted. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From AudioFile
Jan Maxwell gives a pleasant reading as Gaffney's novel explores intergenerational relationships and life lessons shared by young and old. Maxwell gives an appropriately sweet tone to protagonist Caddie Winger, a young music teacher who cares for her eccentric grandmother, whom Maxwell characterizes with a gravelly smoker's voice. When "Nana" moves into an assisted living center, Caddie encounters residents who change her life. Through her relationships with a young engineer, an angel-voiced second mother, and a sharp-toned, cynical elderly man, Caddie experiences the deepest emotions, loves, and losses of her life. Maxwell approaches Caddie's highs and lows with vocalizations that ring true. J.J.B. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine


From Booklist
Gaffney, author of The Saving Graces (1999), offers a tale about a woman facing changes in her quiet life. At 32, Caddie Winger is perfectly happy to be living with her grandmother, Frances, who raised her, and giving music lessons. But after Frances takes a fall and breaks her leg, she insists on moving to Wake House, a convalescent home. There, Frances meets a diverse group of older folks: a pair of sisters, two women who used to be married to the same man (at different times), and a cranky but lovable curmudgeon. She also meets Magill, a young man whose sense of balance has been thrown off by a tragic skydiving accident. Meanwhile, Caddie gradually adjusts to living alone, then, when she meets sexy Christopher, the director of the Creative Animal Therapy School, she is genuinely surprised by his interest in her. Slightly predictable and somewhat slow at first, Gaffney's novel picks up the pace once Caddie gets involved with Christopher, and by the end, the reader is thoroughly drawn into Caddie's world. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The New York Times bestselling author of the much-beloved The Saving Graces is back with a warm, winning new novel about daring to love, braving a loss, and learning to live a little.

How much change can one summer bring?

If you're Caddie Winger — thirty-two years old, still living with her grandmother and giving piano lessons to neighborhood children — one summer can make the whole world look different. Caddie's mother died when she was nine, and her grandmother raised her. Now their roles are reversed, and it's Caddie who takes care of Nana. When her grandmother breaks a leg and insists on going into a convalescent home, Caddie finds herself being pulled out of her comfy, self-made nest. Living alone for the first time since college, she uncovers some startling truths from her past.

Jolted, she looks at the world with new eyes and begins to take charge of her future. As she makes a new best friend, takes risks she never dreamed she could, and navigates the depths and shallows of true love and devastating heartbreak, Caddie learns how to trust other people and, ultimately, how to trust herself. Wise, moving and reassuringly real, The Goodbye Summer offers us a deeper understanding of the perplexing and invigorating magic that is life itself.

Performed by Jan Maxwell

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

No one can accuse Gaffney of shying away from mortality. Against the genteel backdrop of Wake House, a Maryland home for the elderly, Caddie Winger, a music teacher, endures a string of losses the summer she turns 33. In a way, it comes as no surprise, since most of her friends are nearly half a century older than she is. Caddie has always lived with her determinedly wacky grandmother, Nana, who moves into Wake House after she breaks a leg while working on one of her embarrassing lawn sculptures. Soon, Caddie is spending all her time at the small convalescent home and growing especially close to Thea, a firecracker who convinces Caddie to smoke pot and dance in the rain. Despite the fun they have together, the sober realities of old age are never far off, and Caddie's affair with a man her own age disappearing slick-o Christopher doesn't do much to cheer her up. The novel has its larkier moments, especially in the spirited, pitch-perfect conversations between Caddie and Nana and the sniping among Nana's fellow Wake House residents. But mostly Caddie suffers and struggles as Nana's ditziness looks more like dementia, money grows scarce, and she is plagued by crippling self-doubt. The redemptive romance, with 30-something Wake House resident Henry Magill, convalescing from a sky-diving accident that killed his fianc e, echoes the core love story in Gaffney's last novel, Flight Lessons. Here, too, a damaged hero offers a profound attractiveness the reader recognizes ages ahead of the heroine. Caddie is endearing, and while some fans will cherish her fealty to her sorrows, others may feel more bummed than uplifted. Agent, Amy Berkower. (May) Forecast: Fans who like a good weepie will appreciate this best, but look for Gaffney to match her usual numbers with the added help of a 10-city tour. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Caddie must make some hard decisions when her grandmother goes into a convalescent home. With a ten-city author tour. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

AudioFile