MAKE NICE

Invasive snails, stolen drugs, a gay husband, romance, and long-held secrets color the Pickford family’s return to their old holiday island in Lake Michigan for one last get-together.

Effgen’s likable novel ticks several of the boxes for a summer read—waterside resort location, diverse assembly of personalities, not-too-ponderous discussion of midlife issues, and a wry comic touch. His subject is a family’s psychologies and dynamics as the three adult siblings, their father, and one teenage daughter gather at the Grand Hotel in tribute to their recently deceased mother. Viv is coming to terms with her husband’s revelation of his homosexuality, a fact that her daughter, Ash, has long known. Pete, a dorky child grown into a respected expert on gastropods, remains “polite and thoughtful and childless.” And ne’er-do-well Corey, smooth-tongued but penniless, is quietly trying to find a buyer for the block of cocaine he happens to have just stolen. The island holds memories for all the adults and is a background for who they have become. Pete indulged his passion for biology here, Viv lost her virginity in a rowboat one July Fourth, and Corey, at 12, found opportunities to develop his morally dubious career. In addition, there’s the lingering question of why their summer cottage was sold so suddenly, the arrival of a creepy man in pursuit of Corey’s drugs, and the attractive woman and child Pete encounters living in the new house built on the site of the Pickfords’ old cottage. Effgen stirs this busy pot with a capable hand. His characters are persuasive and his plot strands, even if they range between predictable and inappropriately violent, are deftly woven. Compared to, say, Catherine Newman’s Sandwich (2024), this novel offers less crackling wit but greater narrative breadth. And the author lands the story successfully, in a positive place for most concerned.

Family problems are not exactly solved but are entertainingly re-engineered in an appealing escapist read.