Gumbo Girls' Book Club: Bittersweet

I've never been part of a book club before, which seems surprising given my love of books and penchant for reading most anything and everything in sight.(I do sometimes skip the fine print, but pretty much read anything else with words.) It's not surprising, though, given that I'm not prone to filling my calendar with social gatherings. L, a book club veteran, told me that book clubs aren't about the books, they're about the food. N is currently the member of a book club and she shares the club's current book picks with me in case anything seems interesting. She recently hosted book club and I asked how it went. She said they really didn't talk about the books, but chatted about a variety of other topics. She actually wanted to talk about the books, and thus was birthed the Gumbo Girls' Book Club.

Natalie and I have a nearly 20-year tradition of making gumbo together and so the name was an easy decision. (I just made it up and she went with it.) This book club works for me because I like hanging out with N to begin with (social gathering - check), she is the quintessential hostess who always has yummy snacks (good food - check), and we often enjoy the same books (books, the supposed point of a book club - check). We don't see each other nearly often enough, so perhaps GGBC will give us added incentive to get together or perhaps just additional fodder for when we do.

That was a rather lengthy introduction to my synopsis (I'd hesitate to call it a review) of our first pick (hijacked from her real book club list): Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Wittemore. GGBC hasn't met yet, but I needed to return the book to the library and wanted to jot down a few thoughts while they were still relatively fresh in my mind. So, if the other member of GGBC is reading this in the midst of a blog-reading binge, let this serve as a bit of a spoiler alert.

The book's description sounded like a good summer read full of intrigue and drama:

On scholarship at a prestigious East Coast college, ordinary Mabel Dagmar is surprised to befriend her roommate, the beautiful, wild, blue-blooded Genevra Winslow. Ev invites Mabel to spend the summer at Bittersweet, her cottage on the Vermont estate where her family has been holding court for more than a century; it’s the kind of place where children twirl sparklers across the lawn during cocktail hour. Mabel falls in love with midnight skinny-dipping, the wet dog smell that lingers near the yachts, and the moneyed laughter that carries across the still lake while fireworks burst overhead. Before she knows it, she has everything she’s ever wanted:  friendship, a boyfriend, access to wealth, and, most of all, for the first time in her life, the sense that she belongs.

But as Mabel becomes an insider, a terrible discovery leads to shocking violence and reveals what the Winslows may have done to keep their power intact - and what they might do to anyone who threatens them. Mabel must choose: either expose the ugliness surrounding her and face expulsion from paradise, or keep the family’s dark secrets and make Ev's world her own.

The story started out strong and grabbed my interest, but it quickly began a steady descent into moral depravity. It reminded of the verses in Proverbs where Solomon lists six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension. Bittersweet had all seven (and many more) in spades. The seeming lack of conscience, or even a remote sense of right and wrong, was disturbingly pervasive in almost all of the lives of the Winslow family and even in Mabel's. With each consecutive chapter, the characters engaged in exceedingly appalling behavior and exhibited zero compunction about any of it.

Beverly-Wittemore is a strong and interesting writer. She uses strong vocabulary and deftly pulls the reader into the story. I think she missed the mark by focusing on the degenerate behavior of the Winslow family instead of structuring more of the story around the secret regarding the source of the family's wealth. That would have better showcased the author's clear talents and made for a more intriguing story. Mabel's back story also deserved more development, instead of the sporadic mentions and brief explanation it received.

I don't always expect - or want - a nice, tidy ending to a book, where everything is wrapped up with a pretty bow. In this book, I didn't get a tidy ending, but I got a disturbing one. I was disappointed with Mabel's choices and the family's somewhat lethargic attempt at penance.

A unsatisfying first pick for GGBC, but here's to a better selection next time.