Jan 3

Jan 3 The Center of Everything

Author: Jamie Harrison
Publisher: Counterpoint Press
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

Set against the wild beauty of Montana as a woman attempts to heal from a devastating accident, this generational saga from the award-winning author of The Widow Nash is a heartfelt examination of how the deep bonds of family echo throughout our lives.

For Polly, the small town of Livingston, Montana, is a land charmed by raw, natural beauty and a close network of family that extends back generations. But the summer of 2002 finds Polly at a crossroads: a recent head injury has scattered her perception of the present, bringing to the surface long-forgotten events. As Polly's many relatives arrive for a family reunion during the Fourth of July holiday, a beloved friend goes missing on the Yellowstone River. Search parties comb the river as carefully as Polly combs her mind, and over the course of one fateful week, Polly arrives at a deeper understanding of herself and her larger-than-life relatives.

Weaving together the past and the present, from the shores of Long Island Sound to the landscape of Montana, The Center of Everything examines with profound insight the memories and touchstones that make up a life and what we must endure along the way.

TL;DR Review

The Center of Everything is a beautiful family saga with an intriguing mystery (or two) thrown in. I enjoyed it and I’m glad I read it.

For you if: You like books with family trees printed in the front.

Full Review

First, thank you to Counterpoint Press for sending me a finished copy of this book. The cover is stunning and I really enjoyed it.

The Center of Everything is part family saga, part literary mystery that takes place in a small town beside a raging river in Montana. The protagonist is a woman named Polly, who is still recovering from a recent head injury and finds her attention span altered. When a beloved young woman disappears on the river after kayaking with friends, the whole town jumps in to search for her. Meanwhile, we jump back in the time of Polly’s childhood, living with her grandparents and the young son of family friends, leading up to her discovery of a different drowned body.

There’s a lot this book does. It examines family, memory, community, love, parenthood, and more. The characters are beautiful and round and compelling. There are also a lot of them — in fact, there’s a family tree printed in the front — and I was pleasantly surprised that they were easier to keep track of than I’d expected.

I did find myself a little frustrated by the pacing and less engaged than I’d expected to be, but that definitely could have been a me-and-my-mindset-at-the-time problem, not a book problem. In fact, the book’s central mysteries were subtly compelling, one feeling inevitable and one pulsing in the background. Also, there was a heartwarming little twist at the end that I was kicking myself for not anticipating.

If you’re a sucker for contemporary family sagas, pick this one up. I think you’ll like it a lot.