The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach by Pam Jenoff, MIRA books, (c) 2015, ISBN 978-0-7783-1754-8; 374 pages
By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO–The last time we had the opportunity to review a novel by Pam Jenoff — The Winter Guest — it was about two struggling European sisters, who grew up prior to World War II believing they were Catholic, but were to learn that they were Jews. When an injured Allied soldier took shelter in their woods, they came to his aid at risk to themselves. And between the sisters, there was a bit of a competition for the affection of the soldier.
Now comes The Last Summer at Chelsea Beach in which Jenoff examines a family under emotional stress, as observed by the girl next door–a young teenager whose Jewish parents wisely shipped her out of wartime Italy, saving her from an unknown fate at the hands of Mussolini’s Fascists. The Irish-American family that lives next door in a summer cottage at Chelsea Beach is far more emotionally available to her than the elderly uncle and aunt with whom she resides. As a result, she spends every possible moment with the Connally family and its four boys–one of whom she develops a serious crush on, and another who is frustrated that she never seems to notice him.
A horrible accident breaks the Connally family apart, also ending a romance between the neighbor girl and the eldest of the boys. Protagonist Adelia Monteforte, able as a typist, photographer, and fluent in several languages, flees from the Jersey seashore to Washington D.C. where she becomes an assistant on the Washington Post. Espying the brother she thought had jilted her, she seeks and obtains a transfer to wartime London where she works for a columnist who becomes infatuated with her, and is befriended by the (fictional) niece of Winston Churchill.
But who should show up, but the elder Connally boy again, provoking another crisis, leading to Adelia’s return to Chelsea Beach and to the denouement of the love story. Adelia’s work experiences in Washington and in London are far more than devices to extend the plot; rather they provide author Jenoff with the opportunity to write knowledgeably about the ambiance of these two capital cities in the midst of World War II — the American safe, but cautious against German attack; the British reeling under the impact of incessant aerial bombings.
We see in Jenoff–who also has authored such titles as the Diplomat’s Wife and the Kommandant’s Girl–a strong preference for dramas set against the stressful backdrop of wartime. Love triangles sometimes pitting siblings are also an important element in her novels.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. You may comment to him at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com or post your comment on this website provided that the rules below are observed.
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