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shelleyrae
Posted May 18, 2012
The Shell Keeper is a heartwarming novel by first time author Robin Nolet, exploring the themes of friendship and self discovery.
The protagonists of Shell Keeper are three very different women. Gwen, partnered with a college age son, owns and runs a popular bakery in River Bend, Claire is single but helps to support her sister and nephew with her work in high pressure realty, while Del is in the midst of a divorce instigated by her adulterous husband. Their lives intersect one winters morning and they form a tentative connection that slowly develops into a close friendship that they come to rely on.
Developing new friendships can be difficult later in life and I really like that Nolet explores this issue in The Shell Keeper. Gwen, Claire and Del are women who are each lonely in their own way and find strength in the relationship they form. Del appreciates the support the women provide as she rebuilds her life after divorce, Claire, who values her independence as a successful single woman, discovers that she can let down her guard a little and let love in, while Gwen revels in sharing her life, as she struggles with a touch of Empty Nest Syndrome and financial stress. Nolet shows how these women's lives are enriched by the bond that grows between them, they offer each other support and care when needed and in turn are braced by knowing someone has their back, so to speak. Their friendship allows Gwen, Del and Claire to make decisions to benefit their own lives knowing that both emotional and practical support is available if needed. This is particularly clear when each woman faces their own crises and are buoyed by the faith and reassurance of their friendship.
It is the issues each woman faces that provide the plot of The Shell Keeper, but mainly this is a character driven novel. There are some nice touches of humour which offsets the more serious emotions dealt with. I did feel it got off to a bit of a slow start and could have done with some drama midway through the story as it tends to be clustered at the beginning and end of the novel. The writing is of a high standard with natural dialogue and clear description.
An uplifting and enjoyable read, The Shell Keeper celebrates the value of friendship between women. This lovely novel is sure to have you reaching out to the special friends in your life who support and nurture you.
Marvcorp
Posted January 28, 2012
Robin Nolet’s book starts out with a very applicable quote from Anne Morrow Lindbergh. "Out of the welter of life, a few people are selected for us by the accident of temporary confinement in the same circle. We never would have chosen these neighbors; life chose them for us. But thrown together on this island of living, we stretch to understand each other, and are invigorated by the stretching." In 'The Shell Keeper', the island is the Colorado skiing town of Blue River and the shells tossed on the beach are Gwen, Claire, and Del. Thrown together by tides they cannot fathom, the women find a common thread that brings them together as friends despite their best intentions to remain strangers. The book lets us spend time with each of them alone, and as a group. Like most people who have spent any time at all in the sea of humanity, all three have the bumps and bruises from being caught in the surf of relationships. Del’s emotions are the most raw, her marriage is crumbling and the whole town seemed to know of her husband’s infidelity except her. While Del struggles openly with the collapse of her marriage, Claire internalizes her feelings of betrayal from a long-ago cheating husband and an inconsiderate friend. Gwen is the rock of the group, but also not without a philandering ex and some baggage that occasionally boils to the surface. The scene is set mostly in the bakery that Gwen attempts to keep in the black with the help of her new husband and college-age son. The walls of the bakery are adorned with her water-color paintings, not of the town’s inhabitants, but of the town’s inhabitants - if they were seashells. Her one brush with the sea when she was 12 has given Gwen a perspective of humanity as hermit crabs, trying on this shell or that, trying to make one work as a permanent identity. Nolet’s writing is direct and to the point, but it doesn’t lack for charm. In this paragraph, Del has taken a new job at a women’s shop and I enjoyed the detail of this description: "Del wrapped the cardigan in Imagine’s trademark powder blue tissue, sealed the tissue with a white sticker embossed with a pearlescent “I” and tucked the package into a beautiful, powder-blue lacquer-finished bag with powder blue ribbons for handles. Across the front of the bag was another pearlescent “I”. She inserted the customer’s receipt into a small, matching envelope and added it to the bag." The women aren’t as well sketched as the shopping bag. We get some clues to their physical appearance, but not a full picture. Nonetheless, we can picture them; the somewhat matronly Gwen, the pretty but slightly severe Claire, the tussled Del who is stronger than she thinks. We may even know them, or people very similar to them. The book explores love, betrayal, redemption, friendship, and family in a way that is very relatable. By the end, you can’t help but think about the shells you’ve tried on yourself, the ones that never quite felt right, the ones that looked good but didn’t fit, and the ones that ultimately felt like home. In 'The Shell Keeper', Robin Nolet paints three compelling portraits of realistic women leaning on each other to get through a rough patch in their lives.
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Overview
The hood of Del’s van is littered with the remains of a lovely autumn display of orange pansies. She’s about to become a divorced, unemployed, single mother and, like the flowerpot she’s just demolished, her life is a wreck. But this ditzy, flustered Pollyanna is tougher than her first impression belies.Gwen is empty-nesting, her bakery’s bottom-line won’t rise, and her husband is working overtime and out-of-town to save up for an impending strike. But she’s a caretaker and she’s confident she can do it all--that is until she meets her biggest challenge and comes front and center ...