The California Dreamers: A Novel
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A group of siblings captured in an iconic beach photo reunite on a sunny California island, where they're forced to face the fallout of their unconventional upbringing—and the golden secret that has been simmering ever since...
“A thoroughly enjoyable, tender story about the heartbreak of long-kept family secrets. You will cheer for the Merricks!” —Tracey Lange, New York Times bestselling author ofWe Are the Brennans
It’s 1980s California, and everyone’s dreaming of the endless summer: sun-drenched beaches, infinite waves, and most of all, beautiful, beautiful freedom. For the Merrick siblings, this idyllic vision is their reality, as they travel up and down the coast with their parents in a van year-round, surfing and swimming their days away. But when a photographer secretly snaps a stunning photo of the family with their boards in the sand, and the image ripples across the country, the only life they’ve ever known is put at risk.
Decades after, the now-distant siblings gather on a gorgeous, wild island to honor their late father. But their reunion is complicated when a journalist, eager for the truth behind the famous photo, discovers their identity and tracks them down. As the siblings reckon with the possibility that more of their lives could be shared, a revelation about their past forces them to confront long-held heartaches. Together, they’ll have to decide whether to let the same tensions rip them apart again—or if telling their story on their own terms might just be the way to recapture the family magic.
“Magical and atmospheric. I promise, you will devour this enchanting story and think of the Merricks long after the final page.” —Julie Clark, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Flight
Also by Amy Mason Doan:
Lady Sunshine
Summer Hours
The Summer List
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Doan Does It Again. I titled my review of Doan's LADY SUNSHINE "Cinematic" and my review of her THE SUMMER LIST "The Boys Of Summer", and I can tell you that despite the few years away, Doan has not lost a single step in her storytelling. This tale is just as cinematic and just as evocative as either of those prior books, and does a phenomenal job of showing one particularly extreme lifestyle... and the repercussions it can have as kids raised within it grow up and begin making decisions of their own.
As with much other fiction - and particularly as I write this review on the day that news breaks that, yet again, Augusta, Ga has arrested a parent trying to make a better life for his kids because he placed them in a safe area for a few minutes while going to a nearby spot for a job interview - yes, there are absolutely elements of this story that would not play in the real world of the 2020s. Yet this book also isn't set in the real world of the 2020s, instead being set decades earlier, in a period where I myself lived at least very certain specific elements of this life both in and out of the trailer park. Identifying which elements goes into spoiler territory, but suffice it to say that it involves what was truly a common practice among working class families of prior eras - even if it may be criminalized by Karens and bureaucrats today.
Still, even with these elements taken as the fiction they are, the story they work to show is itself quite powerful indeed, and Doan truly does an excellent job of showing how halcyon days may not have been as perfect as were remembered... and perhaps we didn't know all that we thought we did in those days either. Doan just has a way with coming of age stories, clearly, and yet again it truly shines through here in so very many ways.
Come for the beautiful, evocative prose that captures the best of (what I imagine to be, having never actually experienced it) the California summers, both back in the 80s and again in the early 2000s. Stay for the all too relatable story of children confronting what they think they know about their own childhoods and all the family dynamics this brings forth in adult children dealing with their parents.
Very much recommended.
Originally posted at bookanon.com.