This was another random library find, one that caught my attention because of the cover and because I vaguely remembered hearing about The Last Romantics when it came out years ago (but never read). It’s an interesting concept. Darcy Clipper is dealing with some personal issues in the form of a cheating ex-husband and career hiccups. So she decides that it’s time for her to take a time out, and what better way to do that than to return home to stay with her parents? So she heads to her small town of Murbridge expecting to find it comfortingly the same as the last time she was there.
But that’s not quite how things unfold. When she arrives, she discovers that her parents are not, in fact, waiting to welcome her home with open arms. In fact, they’re not there at all. They’ve run off to check out a retirement community in a warmer climate because – surprise! – they are considering moving. This is not at all what Darcy expected, but the absence of her parents means she can fully remove herself from the world, which she proceeds to do in spectacular fashion.
She holes up in her old room, eats whatever she can find in the house or have delivered, and stops making pretty much any effort to do the basics of life like laundry and dishes. This can’t last forever, though, because she eventually starts to run low on money. To find work, she turns to the Murbridge community message board, and starts looking for odd jobs. But what she finds when she starts to venture out is a community that, while different from the one she remembers, has space for her in it. She starts meeting people and learning about their lives and struggles, and (surprising no one more than herself), she starts to care about them.
While not a life-changing book, this one did give me things to think about. What does community mean in this day and age? What happens when a community isn’t able to welcome new additions? How can we connect with our neighbours? Do we have a responsibility to those around us despite the individualism of today’s social structure – or should we? What good does it do us to help others? What do our parents owe us when we’re grown? What do we owe them? How can we cope with change?
All of these questions are brought up, though not all answered. I enjoyed the tangents my mind went on to explore these ideas and questions as I was reading, perhaps even more than I enjoyed the book as a whole. I didn’t connect very strongly with Darcy – sometimes I found her annoying, others a bit off putting – but I did enjoy the exploration of community and social responsibility, and I liked some of the side characters that were introduced. It’s not going to be a book that sticks with me for the rest of my life, or one that I’ll come back to (if I’m honest some of the details are already fuzzy), but it was an enjoyable few hours spent in Murbridge.
The New York Times bestselling author of The Last Romantics delivers a wise, timely, big-hearted novel of unplanned isolation and newly forged community.
Where does one go, you might ask, when the world falls apart? When the immutable facts of your life—the mundane, the trivial, the take-for-granted minutiae that once filled every second of every day—suddenly disappear? Where does one go in such dire and unexpected circumstances?
I went home, of course.
MURBRIDGE COMMUNITY MESSAGE BOARD
FREE: 500 cans of corn. Accidentally ordered them online. I really hate corn. Happy to help load.
REMINDER: use your own goddamn garbage can for your own goddamn pet waste. I’m looking at you Peter Luflin.
REMINDER: monthly Select Board meeting this Friday. Agenda items: 1) sludge removal; 2) upkeep of chime tower; 3) ice rink monitor thank you gift. Questions? Contact Hildegard Hyman.
Darcy Clipper, prodigal daughter, nearly thirty, has returned home to Murbridge, Massachusetts, after her life takes an unwelcome left turn. Murbridge, Darcy is convinced, will welcome her home and provide a safe space in which she can nurse her wounds and harbor grudges, both real and imagined.
But Murbridge, like so much else Darcy thought to be fixed and immutable, has changed. And while Darcy’s first instinct might be to hole herself up in her childhood bedroom, subsisting on Chef Boy-R-Dee and canned chickpeas, it is human nature to do two things: seek out meaningful human connection and respond to anonymous internet postings. As Murbridge begins to take shape around Darcy, both online and in person, Darcy will consider the most fundamental of American questions: What can she ask of her community? And what does she owe it in return? – Goodreads
Book Title: Community Board
Author: Tara Conklin
Series: No
Edition: Audiobook
Published By: Mariner Books
Released: March 28, 2023
Genre: Fiction, Relationships, Mental Health, Recovering from Adversity, Community
Pages: 272
Date Read: May 19-24, 2023
Rating: 5/10
Average Goodreads Rating: 3.34/5 (3,607 ratings)