Fiction Fridays: Darn You Elin Hilderbrand (in the Nicest Way Possible)

I have been beckoned by Elin Hilderbrand's books the past few months. I felt like I was seeing them everywhere, and each time, I resisted. I just simply was not in a place where I needed to get obsessed with yet another writer (thanks, Emily Giffin, Marisa de Los Santos, Suzanne Collins, Sara Groen). I knew Hilderbrand had quite a few books published, and if I read one and fell in love with it, then I would want to read all her works.
Darn her.
I was visiting my family in Ohio when I glanced at my mom's bookcase and what do I see? The Island by Elin Hilderbrand. How in the world could I possibly pass up the chance to read her now? I know my mom had already finished it (night stand means in progress, bookcase means finished), and I had some time on my hands since I would be traveling. So, I opened the book and strangely hoped that it would just be fluffy chick lit that I could enjoy without getting too emotionally attached or jarred.
So much for hoping.
The Island has everything an "upmarket women's fiction" (read: intelligent yet accessible female-centered book) should have: appealing, strong female characters that are all dealing with tough, life-altering stuff. Hilderbrand's style is smart, sophisticated, and deeply emotionally--each character gets equal face time and all have a distinct personality that makes it impossible (at least, for me) to pick a favorite. You pull for all of the women at once, and you too wish you could escape to rustic Tuckernuck Island, off of Nantucket, where there is no grocery, cold water, and a generator that doesn't quite make the fridge cold enough.
Birdie is the motherly figure--literally a mother to her two adult daughters but also to her sister, India, who she convinces to come along for the month-long self-imposed isolation--but is still recovering from her divorce and first real stab into dating. Birdie's golden child, Chess, just called off her $200,000+ wedding to the perfect man--to devasting results. Chess's sister, Tate, is a happy-go-lucky gal who flits from city to city for her prestigious computer wiz job and just wishes she could hire her mother as her full-time personal assistant. And India is finally facing the demons that constantly remind her of her late husband who took his own life thirteen years earlier.
The peace and forced serenity of Tuckernuck initially provides the women with a place to escape and continue to avoid the problems that they came to the island to try to move on from. Each women mostly retreats within themselves instead of using each other to figure out their problems as you would expect. Instead, they all try to pretend that it's just like the annual vacations they used to take--but that tradition ended 13 years ago after India's husband committed suicide.
The calm, idyllic setting serves as the perfect unassuming backdrop to the violent turmoil stirring in each of the women. By removing the chaos, responsibilities, and daily grind from their lives, these women are able to allow their ignored feelings and thoughts surface and take center stage. The silent mantra for Chess becomes "get rid of the heavy stuff," courtesy of her therapist. Yet, the saying rings true for every woman's situation.
Each woman is dealing with issues revolving around love, but in such dramatically different ways that it almost feels wrong to use the same word to encompass the four different scenarios. Yet, that is part of the brilliance of this novel: love is everything and nothing, cruel and kind, unfair and just.
Beautifully written, with characters that you would want to learn from and truly befriend, all in a setting that seems like it could be the cure for anything. I am looking forward to reading every single novel from Hilderbrand now.