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Summary
Summary
In The Vineyard, New York Times bestselling author Barbara Delinsky (Lake News, Coast Road, Three Wishes) has written her most complex and emotionally rewarding novel -- a story of two women, a generation apart, each of whose dream becomes bound with the other's.When Natalie Seebring announces only months after the death of her husband of fifty-eight years that she plans to marry a vineyard employee, her children are stunned and upset. In an effort to help them to understand, she decides to write a memoir. To assist her, she hires Olivia Jones, a young woman who yearns for a family of her own.Hoping to find in Natalie an idealized surrogate mother for herself -- and a grandmother figure for her young daughter -- Olivia, an inveterate dreamers, is instead caught up in a Seebring family crisis while trying to come to terms with her own past.The lives of these two women of different generations, parallel in so many ways, provide, The Vineyard with a powerful and moving story as the fantasy of an idealized life, complete with perfect romance, crashes headlong into reality.
Author Notes
Barbara Delinsky was born on August 9, 1945 in suburban Boston. She received a B.A. in psychology from Tufts University and an M.A. in sociology from Boston College. After graduate school, she worked as a researcher with the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. After her first child was born, she worked as a photographer and reporter for the Belmont Herald.
She has written more than 60 novels including Shades of Grace, Coast Road, While My Sister Sleeps and Not My Daughter. Some of her novels have been made into television movies including Three Wishes starring Valerie Bertinelli and A Woman's Place starring Lorraine Bracco. She wrote the nonfiction book Uplift: Secrets from the Sisterhood of Breast Cancer Survivors. She has also written under the pen names Bonnie Drake and Billie Douglass.
Barbara's novels, Blueprints and Sweet Salt Air, made the New York Times bestseller list in 2015.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Wine makers call its meritage: the commingling of several varietal wines into a product that can be marketed as a brand name, year after year. With this novel, the latest of 60-plus, veteran writer Delinsky has once again done exactly that, producing a fan-pleasing blend. At 35, Olivia Jones is a restorer of old photographs, and the mother, via a brief relationship, of a dyslexic, unhappy and bratty 10-year-old named Tess. Herself the daughter of a single mother who checked out as soon as Olivia turned 18, Olivia fantasizes about being related to Natalie Seebring, a client who is the strong-willed and manipulative matriarch of a dysfunctional family of Rhode Island wine makers. When Natalie offers to hire Olivia to be her memoirist and "personal buffer" for a summer, she jumps at the chance. Soon she is embroiled in the turmoil caused when septuagenarian widow Natalie decides to marry former vineyard manager Carl Burke. Natalie's middle-aged children object loudly, and several family employees resign in protest. Meanwhile, Olivia is attracted to Carl's son (and successor as vineyard manager), Simon, who has become a solitary workaholic since the death of his entire family four years earlier in a sailing accident. The only suspense in the slow-moving plot comes at the end, when a hurricane threatens the wine crop, coinciding with the emotional storms produced by Natalie's easily anticipated revelations about her early life; the style is undistinguished, replete with clichs and italics. Readers who prefer full-bodied novels are likely to find this story bland, thin and cloying. Those fond of literary Beaujolais nouveau, however, to be gulped down on a summer's day without critique, will enjoy this practiced blend of pop psychology, wine-making lore, learning-disability theory and sensuality. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Delinsky is an expert at portraying strong women characters who come to realize how much can be learned from the older generation. Seventy-six-year-old Natalie Seebring, owner of a Rhode Island vineyard, is remarrying after being widowed for only six months. Her children are upset by her decision, so she decides to write a book about her life so they can understand what she has been unable to tell them directly. She hires Olivia Jones, the woman who has been restoring her photographs, as an assistant writer, even though the two women have never met. Olivia, it turns out, has been daydreaming about securing a place in this picture-perfect family for herself and her dyslexic daughter, and the women form an immediate rapport. As Natalie's life story unfolds, so does the seasonal battle between the land, stormy weather, and the vulnerable grapes, a struggle for survival that has always been a motivating force in Natalie's life. She even gave up her first love for the vineyard and now will not sacrifice their love again. Olivia is also battling demons from the past as she searches for her mother, who deserted her. High drama, beautiful scenery, and resilient yet sensitive characters make this a must for all Delinsky fans and a perfect introduction to her work for new readers. --Patty Engelmann
Library Journal Review
A dreamy single mother and photograph restorer, Olivia Jones is in need of help. She finds it in the Seebring family, owners of a Rhode Island vineyard. Through them, she finds a job (writing Mrs. Seebring's memoirs), a home (in the big house on their estate), and support for her dyslexic ten-year-old daughter. Olivia also finds a lover in the gruff yet oh-so-masculine vineyard manager, Simon. Readers will learn about vineyard management and hurricanes when the estate is threatened by severe weather. While the characters hole up in the big house for safety as the hurricane rages outside, a family secret finally spills out. Delinsky, popular author of modern romantic fiction (Lake News; Coast Road) has written another enjoyable novel. Suitable for collections where her other books are popular. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 2/15/00.]DCarol J. Bissett, New Braunfels P.L., TX (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.