SHELTERING ANGEL OF BELLEAU WOOD

Florence Cumings Swain is at the family summer retreat in York Harbor, Maine. Now in her late 60s, she is ready to part with the large house that holds so many memories. With her is her youngest and only remaining son, Thayer (aka Tax), who hands her a box of old letters written by her now-deceased sons Jack and Wells during the first World War. There is also a diary kept by Wells during his time on the front lines. Florence is not eager to relive the painful history of her traumatic losses—first, her husband, Bradley Cumings, went down with the Titanicas a terrified Florence watched from a lifeboat; next, Wells perished on the battlefield of Belleau Wood; finally, Jack died from a stroke when he was in his late 30s. Expecting to be alone for the week after Thayer’s departure, fortified with a glass of white wine, she reluctantly begins to read the letters. The ghostly presence of Bradley sits next to her whispering as she reads and reminisces (“I am here”). The next day, Jack’s widow and Florence’s 16-year-old granddaughter, Eva, arrive from New York, asking if Eva may spend the summer with her grandmother; Florence and Eva begin poring through the letters together. Bryant’s melancholy drama about profound loss and renewed forward-facing fortitude is a fictional portrait of the real Florence Cumings Swain. Florence narrates the story emotionally as she once again confronts each of the tragedies she has endured—Eva lightens the novel and reenergizes her grandmother with the buoyancy and hopefulness of youth. The letters and journal transport readers directly to the horrific battle in Belleau Wood, and the detailed and evocative prose, which carries a touch of mysticism, vividly captures the upper-class settings of both periods.