Commuters by Emily Gray Tedrowe

For the first time, I am participating in a book tour.  Having heard really wonderful things about TLC Book Tours, I was happy to say yes when asked whether I would be interested in reading Commuters by Emily Gray Tedrowe.  This is the author's debut novel, although she has published fiction in Crab Orchard Review, Other Voices, and Sycamore Review, among other journals.

Commuters takes the reader on a journey of about a year with a blended family, come together originally when two elderly individuals marry.  Winnie Easton is 78 when she becomes the bride of a wealthy Chicago businessman, Jerry Trevis.  He moves to the small town of Hartfield, New York, so that the newlyweds can begin their life together.  Winnie's family has long ties in Hartfield and she and Jerry buy a massive old house, secure in the knowledge that they love each other and that their families will come to accept their relationship.  However, Jerry's daughter, Annette, is most displeased and feels that something has been stolen from her.  She is insecure in her future financial stability and so sets in motion a chain of events that will have repercussions for not only Jerry's family, but Winnie's as well.  Many things change over the course of a year.  Family members come together in unexpected ways and by the next summer, the landscape of the Trevis family has quite a different look.

Commuters is told from the rotating viewpoints of three individuals.  Winnie provides the first narrative.  Her daughter Rachel, a mother of two teens and wife of Bob, a lawyer who is still recovering from a tragic accident. is the second viewpoint.  Lastly, Avery, Annette's son and Jerry's grandson, a 20-year-old aspiring chef, ready to take his first steps into the New York restaurant scene, is the third.  This device works well as the author switches easily between individuals at different stages of life.  However, there were times that I wished for more connection to the narrator.  Even though I probably had more in common with Rachel, she did not evoke much sympathy from me.  My heart went out to Winnie and, surprisingly, Avery as the story progressed.

I felt that Commuters was a well written book, and it was quite a fast read for me.  The storyline was not terribly intense, but rather was filled with small slices of life for the various characters.  Even so, I was compelled to pick up the book over and over to see what would transpire.  Sometimes, I felt almost like an observer outside the window of the family depicted on the cover, seeing and hearing what the author wanted to share with me, but perhaps not getting to know the characters and their motivations quite as fully as I might have wished.  However, when I turned the last page, I was satisfied with where we left each of the narrators.  I think this author shows a great deal of promise, and I'll definitely be looking for the next book by Emily Gray Tedrowe.

I'll leave you with a series of quotes about Winnie, the first right before her wedding:

Not yet,  she thought, and then said it aloud.  She wouldn't be given this kind of moment again, Winnie knew.  Her life had arrayed itself before her, in offspring and friendships assembled below--in the surrounding hills and houses she'd known since childhood--and now it waited politely for her to reappear and change everything.

 The second quote was taken later in Winnie and Jerry's marriage:

Confined to this small upstairs room, Winnie's line of sight expanded.  Her heart widened, painfully so at first, but she got used to it.  Our marriage is like a station stop, she thought once, resting her elbows on the bed and her forehead against his unmoving shoulder.  An essential station stop, to be sure, and much loved--her eyes filled at this--but not the final destination, or the train itself, or a rail route's long stretch of miles.

This last quote sums up Commuters for me:

"Can you believe it?" Rachel said, but her voice was warm, "I mean...to commute...at first I thought it was a reference to the train station, with your father and all that--but apparently it's literary.  What do I know."

"Commute," Winnie echoed, eyes on the computer screen.  The dictionary impulse was as ingrained as ever.  "To change, or exchange.  To give one thing in exchange for another."

 Check out the other tour stops here.

I received a copy of this book from TLC Book Tours and Harper Perennial.  Thank you so much!