The Center of Everything by Jamie Harrison
Every summer there is one new novel in hardcover that becomes the one I will recommend to customers before any other, and this summer I think it may well be The Center of Everything by Jamie Harrison.
The novel takes place, mostly, in 2002 with some chapters moving back to the 1960s to fill in the past. The main character is Polly, wife of Ned, and mother of Sam and Helen. Polly’s mother, Jane, has come to help with preparations for the 90th birthday celebration of Maude, aunt and great aunt to Polly and Jane.
I have to say I loved Polly, especially during the chapters about her childhood – those magic pre-adolescence years – and the observances of an imaginative and intelligent child. Polly is now an optimistic woman, mostly taking her recent brain injury and its consequences in stride. “Polly’s overriding theory was that shit happened, and you molded the mess into the next best option”. Polly was raised, at times, in a multi-generational home with her maternal grandparents. A home full of various friends and relatives and memorable parties, where children were loved and cared for but also allowed to run free, spending their days in play and exploration. What they witnessed of adult life was sometimes tragic, and not always understood – but it was remembered. Polly’s grandmother, Dee, advising her to “put your memories in a box, good and bad, and pull them out when you need them, or can bear them. Or keep them hidden away, but know that it’s up to you”.
In the present day, it is the beginning of summer. In the week leading up to Maude’s birthday celebration a drowning occurs on the Yellowstone River, popular for rafting and water sports. The death of a popular local girl, Ariel, is devastating to those who knew her in this close-knit small town. Ariel was close to Polly’s family, a babysitter to her children. Polly and her husband and their friends are part of search teams looking for the girl, or her body. It is an all-consuming search and rescue, and then search and recovery, effort.
Throughout the novel we learn more and more about both the present day characters and their lives, and about the past and the truth about Polly’s memories. The Center of Everything had it all – well written and observed – compassionate and intelligent. This is fiction at its best, reflecting reality, with insight and wisdom. Loved it!