Down by the Ocean

World War II is over, prosperity reigns, and it's summer in Rhode Island. Four brothers in law are on the porch of David's beach cottage. Their wives, children and grandchildren are on the beach and the fetching eighteen year old from next door who likes older men, especially David, appears

Summers later, she is a Korean war widow who continues to disrupt and bewilder the men on the porch. Dan is willing, Peter is concerned with sin, Wally just wants to hear the ball game, and David finally succumbs to her charms

Everyone grows older, heartburn flares into a heart attack, someone dies, the tide goes in and out, lives move on. By 1960 Peter owns the summer house but not much changes. Again, the men on the porch welcome the women and children back from the annual outing on the beach

"Offers honest laughter ... [and] characters who recall faces in your family scrapbooks" ~ Newark Star Ledger

"Charming and punchy" ~ New Yorker