Shining Sea
The tumultuous years between 1962 and 2015 challenged families historically, culturally and socially. Some families were hit harder than others, and the Gannon-McCloskey family certainly had their fair (or unfair) share of tragedy. The novel opens with Michael Gannon having a heart attack, a condition linked to his experience in Bataan (the notorious Bataan Death March) as a POW during WWII. That cardiac weakness grew slowly enough that he had time to marry Barbara and have several children. This couple’s deep love is so beautifully depicted, and so are the difficulties that follow after Michael dies, an event that all the children witness. One son eventually joins the military to fight in the Vietnam War, another son disappears for years while he wanders the world and finds himself in a stormy sea debacle, a daughter has two disastrous relationships but beautiful children, and a grandson dedicates his life as a physician to AIDS research. Barbara has married a good man as her second husband and doesn’t discover his secret until near the time of his death.
Anne Korkeakivi deserves an award for the realistic yet sensitive way she depicts this family’s lives. While the suggestion is made that characters would have turned out differently if not for Michael Gannon’s death, the real issue so poignantly and beautifully presented is: how does one live with history’s traumatic events? Barbara is the rock for this family, who love one another and trust that all will work out as long as they’re together in mind and spirit, if not always physically. Memorable, lovely, and highly recommended historical fiction.
