Beachcombing for a Shipwrecked God

by Joe Coomer

Book Overview

Nine weeks after losing her husband, Charlotte escapes to a wooden motor yacht in New Hampshire, where her shipmates are an aging blue-haired widow, an emotional seventeen-year-old, and the ugliest dog in literature. A genuine bond develops among the three women, as their distinct personalities and paths cross and converge against the backdrop of emotional secrets, abuse, and the wages of old age.
Off the boat, Charlotte, an archaeologist, joins...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 068482440X
• ISBN13: 9780684824406
• Release Date: May 1997
• Publisher: Touchstone Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

no title

Best book I've read since "The Island of the Mighty" and "The Stone Diaries". One of the best books I've read in current fiction (1995). One of those books I don't want to finish. Like good food. So much about memory - how it makes a person. I love the analogy between an archaelogical artifact and a piece of our past, suddenly arising in our brain. Coomer brought all sorts of knowledge in to this book - Portsmouth, N. H., water and boats, archaeology. He has done this. Some of his phraseology is breathtaking. And the secrets two women held onto til the end - Wow! An absorbing story with convincing characters. It was a Great Read. Three women - 75, 28, and 17. And most of the time Chloe at 17 is the wisest. A great movie here with the right actresses. Why hasn't it been done?

three women, one boat

If someone had handed me this book and said, it's about three women, each representing a different generation, and they come together to make a nice little family, I would have rolled my eyes. How sitcom. Fortunately, it's a lovely piece of writing and while three women of different backgrounds come to appreciate each other and eventually live together, it's not forced saccharine or knee-jerk comedy. Each character is vulnerable in a believable way. Charlotte has recently lost her husband, who died after admitting he was ambivalent about their marriage. She tries to keep it together and escape the questions of her in-laws by involving herself in what might be a pointless archeological dig in a small eastcoast town. There she meets artist, Grace, an older woman, followed by Chloe, a young but wise pregnant teenager. Coomer keeps things from getting maudlin by avoiding tidy relationships. The characters don't instantly see each other as salvation and there are always tics to contend with. Charlotte's pain felt very real. Admittedly, Chloe was a bit overly wise, but with the Coomer's touch, it's easy to overlook.

One of the best reads!

I picked this book up on a fluke and I am not sorry! This is just a great book, I tell everyone I meet about it. For me, now only was it neat that it was local...I could close me eyes and see where she was walking, but I still can't get over the author being a man. Coomer was able to get into the lives of these women and bring them to such wonderful realness, it's amazing. If you read nothing else this summer, Beachcombing is a Must -- put it on your list!!!

loved every minute I spent in the world created by the autho

I love stories about interesting women. This book is at the top of my list. Definitely the best book I've read this year. My only regret was that it was so short, I would have enjoyed a few more days curled up with this book.

I'm in love with this book.

Since my bookstore's 'must reads' have never let me down before, I started this novel with little knowledge about the subject or the author. I was two-thirds finished before I realized that the author of this emotionally clear, touching, heart-felt novel was written by a man. I was shocked! It's the same jolt I felt after reading Roddy Doyle's "The Woman Who Walked into Doors" and sat for hours, not believing this man could know so much about what it is to be a woman. Some female must have been whispering into his ear at the typewriter, I mused. "Beachcombing for a Shipwrecked God" is a slice of heaven. This is a spiritual, mystical story that takes less than a year chronologically, and although the actual time is short, you walk away feeling you've been friends with these incredible women for years - watching them learn to embrace life. It's an amazing journey.