Geographies of the Heart

by Caitlin Hamilton Summie

Overview

Sarah Macmillan always puts family first, but she can't quite stretch her arms wide enough to hold on to everyone as they all age: her career-minded, inattentive younger sister, Glennie; their grandparents, who are slowly fading; or a pregnancy Sarah desperately wanted. But it's her tumultuous relationship with Glennie that makes Sarah feel the loneliest. She'd always believed that their relationship was foundational, even unbreakable. Though blessed with a happy marriage to Al, whose compassion and humor she admires, Sarah shoulders both caregiving and loss largely alone and grows bitter about Glennie's absences, until one decision forces them all to decide what family means-and who is family. Narrated by the chorus of their three voices, this elegantly told and deeply moving novel examines the pull of tradition, the power of legacies, the importance of forgiveness, and the fertile but fragile ground that is family, the first geography to shape our hearts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781953236395
Publisher:	Fomite
Publication date:	01/18/2022
Pages:	314
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)

Editorial Reviews

11/08/2021

In Summie’s uneven debut novel (after the collection To Lay to Rest Our Ghosts) set in Minneapolis, the members of a family pursue meaning. At the center is Sarah MacMillan, who, as she prepares to graduate from college in the early 1990s, weighs her plans for the future. What she wants is a career in marketing, but instead she marries early and takes on the responsibility of caregiving for her grandparents. She becomes the self-appointed keeper of traditions, “hold family history like a whip,” and declares what others should be doing. By contrast, her sister, Glennie, a doctor, pursues her career at the risk of her relationships and health. Al, Sarah’s affable husband with “the heart of a puppy in the body of a bear,” whose humor and good grace adds solidity and charm to the story, takes up the role as mediator between the sisters. As the family contracts and expands with births and deaths, Sarah must decide if she can accept people for who they are, including herself. While the episodic narrative doesn’t have much in the way of momentum, Summie does a solid job of exploring the characters’ attempts to find their place in life. There’s not much of a story, but Summie writes with admirable nuance. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

04/02/2022

DEBUT Summie follows her award-winning story collection To Lay To Rest Our Ghosts with the story of Sarah, to whom family is everything. She's the older sister, the steady one, willing but also expected to be the caregiver for multiple generations. Sarah stays close to home, marrying young and letting go of plans for a career in the corporate world while younger sister Glennie stays singularly focused on becoming a doctor. Glennie is present for college, exams, medical school, and residency but painfully absent from holidays, birthdays, grandparents' bedsides, and the everyday moments so important to Sarah. As Sarah experiences multiples losses and grief, she begins to feel that her relationship with Glennie is adrift and perhaps beyond repair. Patient and loving, Sarah's husband, Al, is her anchor, but the sibling relationship takes center stage. When Sarah and Al make a decision changing their family forever, the tension with Glennie must be confronted. VERDICT Narrated in turns by Sarah, Al, and Glennie, this lovely novel is tender, moving, and oh so relatable to anyone dealing with the challenges of raising a family, caring for aging parents or grandparents, or both.—Shaunna E. Hunter

Library Journal