A Place We Knew Well: A Novel

by Susan Carol McCarthy

“Susan Carol McCarthy blends fact, memory, imagination and truth with admirable grace,” said The Washington Post of the author’s critically acclaimed debut novel, Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands. Now McCarthy returns with another enthralling story of a family—their longings, their fears, and their secrets—swept up in the chaos at the height of the Cold War, perfect for fans of Caroline Leavitt, Laura Moriarty, and Ellen Feldman.
 
Late October, 1962. Wes Avery, a one-time Air Force tail-gunner, is living his version of the American Dream as loving husband to Sarah, doting father to seventeen-year-old Charlotte, and owner of a successful Texaco station along central Florida’s busiest highway. But after President Kennedy announces that the Soviets have nuclear missiles in Cuba, Army convoys clog the highways and the sky fills with fighter planes. Within days, Wes’s carefully constructed life begins to unravel.
 
Sarah, nervous and watchful, spends more and more time in the family’s bomb shelter, slipping away into childhood memories and the dreams she once held for the future. Charlotte is wary but caught up in the excitement of high school—her nomination to homecoming court, the upcoming dance, and the thrill of first love. Wes, remembering his wartime experience, tries to keep his family’s days as normal as possible, hoping to restore a sense of calm. But as the panic over the Missile Crisis rises, a long-buried secret threatens to push the Averys over the edge.
 
With heartbreaking clarity and compassion, Susan Carol McCarthy captures the shock and innocence, anxiety and fear, in those thirteen historic days, and brings vividly to life one ordinary family trying to hold center while the world around them falls apart.
 
Praise for A Place We Knew Well
 
“Gripping . . . Even as those tense days of the Cuban Missile Crisis are depicted in unwavering detail and with inexorable dread, the intimate moments between human beings on the verge of the apocalypse stand out. This multilayered story will remain with you long after you turn the last page.”—Melanie Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Aviator’s Wife
 
“Susan Carol McCarthy makes a nightmarish moment in America’s recent past terrifyingly immediate and devastatingly personal. This was what it was like to live, and even more astonishingly, to go on loving—as a husband, as a wife, as a young girl on the cusp of womanhood—with the threat of nuclear annihilation hovering only miles offshore.”—Ellen Feldman, author of Next to Love
 
“Susan Carol McCarthy’s genius is in turning history over to muscle-and-blood human beings who variously hope, fear, lash out, hold steady, and tear at the seams. If you weren’t there, this is as close to living through the Cuban Missile Crisis as you will ever come.”—Tom McNeal, author of To Be Sung Underwater
 
“Riveting.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
“Powerful . . . McCarthy vividly evokes a turbulent time in her state’s recent past. . . . [She] memorably captures the impact of the intense military mobilization on residents. But the novel’s greatest strength is its seamless portrayal of what this international chess game means for one man on the brink of losing everything.”—Booklist

• ISBN10: 080417654X
• ISBN13: 9780804176545
• Publish Date: 29 September 2015
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Bantam Dell Publishing Group, Div of Random House, Inc
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 272
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780804176545

Reviews

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

A Place We Knew Well has two stories, one is the Cuban Missile Crisis and the other is a story of paternity, both could have been a novel all their own and kept me reading on to the next chapter. It was a heart-pounding plot and the frightening time in history was reflected on every page.


Truthfully, I am a bit ignorant on the Cuban Missle Crisis, I'll blame my history teacher. Although, even without knowledge of that period in time Susan Carol McCarthy creates a vivid image, through the surge of need for gas, evacuation and bomb shelters the fearfulness created by the event is reflected on every page.

As for the paternity, this is the Avery's personal drama that plays out before our eyes and was like a train wreck. I felt as if I should avert my eyes to the fertility in the family, but like As the World Turns it was too juicy to do so. It brought a dramatic soap box to an already dramatic story and worked an even balance.

Wes, of course, was my favorite character, he was the glue that held the family and the novel together. Just going through his everyday routine was a pleasure as the author was meticulous about every detail and learned the most through his eyes. Wes was likable, and the heart and soul of the story.


Charlotte was our reality check with her innocence being chipped away at a rapid speed. Despite her world crashing down in more ways than one she stayed somewhat wholesome but liked seeing her come into her own.


I really did not like Sarah at all and had a hard time sympathizing with her. I realize she was having a breakdown but from the beginning, she was judgemental and a bit too prissy for my taste. I was rubbed the wrong way.


I surprisingly preferred her sister Kitty, she was a character that had more meat on her bones and a story to tell. She brought scandal to the story and flavor to divert our attention in a way a school dance never could.


I did feel like the novel ended abruptly, almost as if a chapter was missing or a phone call was disconnected. Just as we are learning of Sarah's improvement Porky the Pig enters with "That's All Folks!" I just wanted more. Overall, it was a great read with A Place We Knew Well holding my complete attention.

*I received an adance copy through Netgalley