The Last September: A Novel (Review II)
Here is the scenario: one gal, two guys. Which one will she choose?
In college in Colorado Brett Mercier befriends Eli Moss. Though not a romantic relationship, they realize they can count on each other for anything.
Eli loves parties and hosts one after his brother Charlie arrives in town. At once Brett gives her heart and her virginity to him, believing they share something special, but after Charlie leaves, Brett never hears from him. Asking Eli about him does no good for Eli informs her Charlie is a womanizer and not one to commit.
Not long after Charlie's departure Brett attends another party when Eli begs her to join him on the roof of the frat house. She finds this strange because of the cold weather, but trusting her friend, she joins him only to be traumatized when he plunges to the pavement below. Eli does not perish, yet is diagnosed with schizophrenia and shipped off to a clinic in Boston.
Years pass and Brett becomes engaged to Ladd Williams, a young man who happens to know Eli and Charlie, having shared summers together at their homes on Cape Cod. They are to announce their engagement at a 4th of July celebration at Ladd's uncle's home; however, Brett wants to tell her mother first.
It is at this time Charlie reappears in her life leaving Brett torn. Ladd loves her unconditionally and can offer her anything she desires, yet she yearns for Charlie, the man who desperately hurt her years before.
Eli, released again from another hospital stay and allegedly well as long as he is on his meds, begs Brett to come to their house where his mother is dying. She complies due to old loyalties to him as well as her curiosity about Charlie. This is when she realizes she must leave Ladd.
Charlie marries Brett when he recognizes he can depend on her. Brett is working tirelessly toward her Ph.D. focusing her thesis on the life of Emily Dickinson and caring for their toddler Sarah. Laid-back Charlie takes on occasional jobs, and after Brett's mother dies, she uses her inheritance so Charlie can open a restaurant. Not only does the eatery bomb, but Brett learns Charlie is having an affair with the hostess.
One night Eli calls Charlie wanting to come to their father's Cape Cod home where Brett and Charlie are now living. Brett, fearing for Sarah's safety goes to stay with a friend. Later, Charlie does not call about Eli's status, making her anxious, so the next morning she returns home and finds Charlie bludgeoned to death on the deck with a frantic Eli covered in blood.
Filled with shock, Brett heads back to her friend's home to phone the police. In her heart she believes Eli did not murder Charlie, but who is the culprit?
Brett states her pain and heartache as such:
"My anger with Charlie would fill to capacity and then burst, its remnants floating away on the ocean air, leaving me with the simple fact that I adored him. My husband was an elusive, inscrutable will-o'-the-wisp, which was why he drove me crazy and why I never could manage to walk away. I blinked back tears, thinking that the secret to marriage did not lie in compatibility, or even commitment, but the willingness to endure heartbreak."
Many times in this story one would want to shake Brett telling her to wake up and face reality, although one cannot help but empathize with her. How can someone dictate what another should feel in her heart? The conclusion, though somewhat predictable, will have the reader speculating what will happen to Brett. Will there will be a sequel to this substance driven tale?
The Last September, a highly emotional, character-driven novel reflects on unrequited love and mental illness. The author's comparison to Dickinson's tragic life offers a compelling analogy to that of the protagonist.