The End of the Point

The End of the Point

By Elizabeth Graver (335 pages)

Published by Harper

Bookish rating: 5

Earlier this year, I read Elizabeth Graver’s fantastic Unravelling, and I was excited to try another Graver novel.

I just freaking love her writing.

The End of the Point is, I think, even better than Unravelling. It’s more complex, gets into the heads of more characters, covers more time.

Like many, many coastal novels, this one follows a blue-blooded family as they summer at their beach house(s), having Complex Lives, possibly because they have entire summers to ponder their Complex Lives without, like, work. Even the nannies and household help tag along.

Ah, but don’t chalk this novel up to a bunch of spoiled rich people in polo shirts or lounging on fainting couches. Graver treats each character like a prism, showing utterly different sides of a person from different points of view. It’s incredible, the way she juxtaposes (I hate that word, juxtapose—it’s so English Lit 101) how one person sees himself or herself vs. how others see him or her.

Anyway, we start in the 1940s and end in 1999, and the minute dramas of family life play out, wills go against each other, but everyone pretty much loves everyone else—deeply. 

As time has passed since I finished this book--a few days, not THAT much time--I find myself nostalgic for the reading joy this novel brought, which is unfortunate for everything else I'm currently reading. 

Thus, The End of the Point earns a 5 from this girl.

Graver gives us top-notch writing, story, complicated characters, and a beach. What’s not to love?