Hawkes Harbor

Rating:
Summary: A Bizarre Tale of Coercion, Terror and Resignation
Review: For more than fifteen years S.E. Hinton's pen has been silent. The author of THE OUTSIDERS, RUMBLE FISH, TEX and THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW has now published her first novel for an adult audience. HAWKES HARBOR is set in a tiny seaside community in Delaware, where Jamie Sommers, a mental patient, is treated at Terrace View Asylum. Dr. Phillip McDevitt tries desperately to break into Jamie's amnesia and blurred memories of the past.

Hawkes Harbor becomes the key to opening Jamie's closed mind. The action begins in the past, in 1950, and then speeds forward to Jamie's present in the asylum, in 1968. A bastard and orphaned, Jamie grows up street-smart and willing to take on the entire human race. He's a likeable young man, with a slight chip on his shoulder. He becomes a sailor, serves a stint in the navy, and then embarks on a series of seafaring adventures with his friend and mentor Kell Quinn, an Irishman. Together, they set out to gather treasure from the deep and seek fortune in daring schemes. Kell is the architect and Jamie the workhorse.

After having been nearly eaten alive by sharks, captured by rogue pirates and thrown in foreign prisons, Jamie and Kell attempt one final scheme --- that of gun-running. But Kell's agenda involves the IRA and Jamie is none the wiser. The ruse fails and they land in a tiny waterfront community, Hawkes Harbor. Kell has come from an educated and mannerly background and can fit in with the town's gentry. Jamie's rough edges land him in small troubles in the town and the two part ways.

Jamie finds work doing odd jobs for a rich family, the Hawkes, for whom the town is named. He's fascinated by tales of treasure on the island across from the estate where he lives. His curiosity finally bests him. On the night Jamie ventures to the island to find and open a large treasure chest, his life is changed forever.

Soon thereafter, he becomes the handyman and manservant for the wealthy but mysterious Grenville Hawke, a loner who resides in the bleak manor that overlooks the island. Subsequent chapters are a rollercoaster ride for the reader. Jamie falls from grace into a depressed, suicidal mental patient who is terrified of the dark, especially at the first twilight. Years of psychotherapy do little in breaking into Jamie's mind to calm his terrors.

Hawkes Harbor gives one hope that Jamie will break through the curtain of darkness he has entered and tell all. But at every opportunity, McDevitt bumps into yet another closed door. The story is about relationships, however absurd. By the final chapter, there was no resolution. HAWKES HARBOR is compelling because one seeks closure to a young man's problem. I discovered none. A bizarre tale of coercion, terror, dependence and resignation, HAWKES HARBOR will certainly be an unusual pick for 2004.

[...]

Rating:
Summary: disappointing
Review: I asked for this book for Christmas because I was a fan of Hinton's as a child and I am sadly disappointed! I finished the book only because I kept thinking it would have to get better. I would love to ask Hinton what she was thinking, to wait so long to deliver such a weak story. The main character is totally not believeable, first he is a tough guy, a troubled orphan, then he becomes someone who is "sobbing" all the time because of what happens to him which is again, totally unbelieveable. vampires? please. Toward the end, the story begins to flow more smoothly but are we really expected to believe that the vampire has become a good guy and now everyone is friends? I am sorry to have wasted my time on this book.

Rating:
Summary: The Best By Far
Review: I have grown up reading S.E Hinton and this book is by far the best she has written. I love that it seems to be a book for adults, rather than for adolescents. The main character is real and I was quite surprised by the turn of events in the cave. I didn't see that coming. The ending was a surprise as well, and I am not one who is surprised by much.

Rating:
Summary: A departure from the norm
Review: I was extremely excited when I found out about Hawkes Harbor being released! I have always been an SE HINTON fan...and have read all of her books.

I came into Hawkes Harbor with an open mind- and was pleasantly surprised. The book is the story of Jamie Sommers, an orphan who was conceived in adultery. The nuns at the orphanage were brutal and mean to Jamie and told him constantly that he would end up no good-- and they were right. Jamie became something of a pirate, smuggler, and arms dealer- fulfilling the prophesy the nuns bestowed upon him. But Jamie viewed his rough life on the high seas the adventure of a lifetime- surviving shark attacks, foreign prison terms, among other things. It wouldn't be until Jamie settled down in a small Delaware town called Hawkes Harbor that Jamie would find something evil enough to break his wild spirit, eventually driving him insane.

The story is a gripping one. A story that I thoroughly enjoyed despite the disjointed style in which it is written, which I noticed many other reviews found a fault with. I believe that the disjointed style the author used showed readers just how badly Jamie had been broken by the ultimate evil that he ran into, an evil named Grenville Hawkes.

My only complaint about this book that is is too short and some areas could have been expounded upon. Like Jamie's life before he was orphaned- demonstrating the life he had before he was brought to live with the nuns. Other than that I give this book four stars- for an excellent story that moves well and is gripping in both suspense and timeline.


Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I was looking forward to a new book from S.E. Hinton, until I read part of the book. I could not believe all the profanity and explict sexual content in Hawkes Harbor. The story line was additonaly weak and unrealistic. I wish I had never purchased the book. I love her other books and used them in a classroom setting for reading remediation and the students never had to be be reminded to read. Hawkes Harbor has tainted my feelings for the author and her works. I will think twice before recommending her books for fear the student would do as I and think Hawkes Harbor was of the same caliber as her earlier works.

Rating:
Summary: Surprised but not in a good way
Review: I was so swept into the story, and the first hundred pages were fantastic. The character of Jaime Sommers is wonderful but as soon as I realized the Vampire thing was inteded to be "real" and not in Jaime's mind, I lost faith. I guess I was hoping for a "serious" adult book but this rapidly turned into a farce. The writing was excellent throughout, but in the end I wound up thinking it was still a book for a younger, less sophisticated reader. Could not recommend except as a novelty.

Rating:
Summary: There's a story buried here---maybe
Review: Let me say this about S. E. Hinton and Hawkes Harbor. I want to be kind. I want to be fair. I want to give the author the benefit of the doubt.

So:
It fell flat on its face.

The first scene in the psych hospital is the only one in the book that's "alive." The rest is dead info-dump, and the plot and characters straight out of a certain cult soap opera of the 1960s.

Some of the story is lifted straight out of Dark Shadows, dialogue included. A "relative from England," buying an old dump of a house? Jamie/Willie Loomis, explaining: "His car broke down on the road---he hired me when I fixed it." I would list all the other coincidences but they'd contain too many spoilers. Add to that Hinton's choppy, disjointed prose and plot, and you get a misfire of a book.

Then there is the anachronism of Stockholm Syndrome, not known until years after the book's timeline. And the inevitable PC nonsense, straight out of the guilt-ridden 90s, like the relentless comments about "homeless people." They were called bums back then.

There's a story in here, maybe. But characterization and events are just skimmed over in favor of gratuitous sex scenes and vile language. Jamie's doctor is simply a plot device to unreel his backstory. The novel doesn't "play." And the cruise and its aftermath are so astoundingly inappropriate that you have to laugh out loud. Not to mention the maudlin, needless ending.

Conclusion? Hawkes Harbor is clearly a Dark Shadows novel. Not only is it plagarism in the first degree, it's also actionable. Someone really ought to have taken out that troublesome reference to Roger Collins.

"Objection, your honor! Plagarism, pure and simple!"

(Bangs gavel) "Objection sustained." -- "Fan" abas


Rating:
Summary: A terrible read...
Review: Review of Hawkes Harbor

I reviewed the book, finally, after putting off the task, and cannot say I can recommend it. In fact, I would say instead: stay well away and save your money for something else.

It took me two hours to read the book, so it's not very long. Certainly not long enough to deal with the subject matter, which is the life of a young man from the age of 8 to the age of 40. It barely skims the surface of most of Jamie Summer's life, leaving out the development that would tell us why and how he came to be as he is.

The writing itself is inconsistent and poor. There are sentences and thoughts ending in ellipses on almost every page. Ellipses typically indicate information that has been removed from a quote. Here, Hinton uses them, as some writers do, to indicate unfinished thoughts on the part of the protagonist, the antagonist, and everyone in between. It might be said, however, that the ellipses mostly seem to indicate unfinished thoughts on the part of Hinton in writing her story. It's almost as if she's not sure what her characters think. For example, on page 21: "Dr. McDevitt sighed. There had been no mention in his record of these fantasies...." Pardon me? Either there was a mention in his record of these fantasies or there wasn't. Either the doctor knows or he doesn't. Why the ellipses? Is there some dramatic statement that Hinton feels she is making? I know a great many gothic novels from the 1970's that use this technique to far more effect than this.

The point of view (pov) skips trippingly from character to character, never staying long enough in one place for the reader to be able to get a very good idea of what motivates that character. On any given page, we get the points of view of at least two people. For example, on page 62 we get the pov of both Jamie Summers and Dr. Louisa Kahne. It starts with Kahne looking at Jamie, and then Jamie looking at Kahne. The objective of this, one assumes, is so that Hinton doesn't have to develop the point of view of one character too much. It's easier that way. The last time I read a book with that many points of view on a single page was a romance novel, where this technique is used so that not only the beauty of the heroine is described from the pov of the hero, the reader gets an eyeful of the handsomeness of the hero from the heroine's perspective. But truly, the worst part about the jumping pov is that the main character, Jamie Summers, is never fully fleshed out and can never be fully understood by the reader.

The structure of the book muddies the waters even further. For the first half of the book, the story is told in flashback and flash-forward mode, during McDevitt's question and answer sessions with Jamie while he's in the mental institution. The last half of the book mostly moves forward, but there are inexplicable flashbacks there, as well, moving over as much time as a year, or as little as a month. For example, on page 237, it's 1978, and we flash forward to January 2, 1979, to a scene between two characters, Lydia and Richard Hawkes. We've never really seen these characters before, just heard about them from afar. Half a page is devoted to them discussing an odd delivery man that has come to their door. The second half of the page jumps back to December 26, 1978, barely two weeks earlier, where we find Jamie and Grenville in Washington, D.C. together. How does the flash-forward move the plot forward? Moreover, when did Grenville get an office in Washington, D.C?

Since the story was originally a Dark Shadows novel, most of the work is based on the original plots developed by the writers of that show, though they are never given credit. Since the story was not to be published as a Dark Shadows novel, Hinton apparently was willing to change it enough for mainstream publication. That's all very well and good, but to me it appears that too much of the Dark Shadows elements still remain, and the rest of the story was not developed enough to hide the fact that the it is based on very badly written personal fan fiction. For fan fiction it is, a story based on a television series to further develop characters or plots as the writer sees fit. On page 189, an original character from the series mentioned, Roger Collins; Hinton obviously used search and replace for all the other names, why did this particular name slip through? As a nod to DS? Or as a written version of the finger?

Other plot and character elements, as well, remain, intact. Grenville Hawkes is Barnabas Collins, the reluctant vampire. Kell Quinn is the jaunty Irishman, Jason McGuire, who takes Jamie Summers around the world with schemes and dreams. Maggie Evans, as kidnap victim, is found in Katie Roddendem. And Jamie Summers, himself, is based on Willie Loomis, the caretaker of the vampire's residence. Jamie receives three bullets in the back, the original character receives five. Both end up in horrible mental institutions. Both are left there until their masters come to get them. Both are afraid of the dark. The only original part of the novel is the background to Jamie Summers life, and then, what comes after the part where Grenville is cured of his vampirism.

The book, after all, has a vampire in it, and vampires must be cured! Somewhere, between the pages of 142 and 179, Grenville has a miraculous recovery from his curse. How? When? Where? We don't know and we never will. Just all of a sudden, BAM, he's well. Well enough to take Jamie Summers on a cruise around the islands, Jamie, who is suddenly well enough to enjoy himself. There, the two bond with incredible speed and intensity. Yes, sure, they've been through a lot, and it's possible that the two of them could become friends, but excuse me, Grenville tortured Jamie for a long, long time. If Jamie is in denial, that's fine. I can use the Stockholm Syndrome to explain that, as well as the next person can. What I can't understand is how in the world the two men got to the point where they can exchange stories about having sex? I never see Grenville develop the guilt he supposedly feels about what harm he's done to Jamie. I see Jamie, one minute, addicted to a great many drugs, then suddenly, he's cured, with no sign of having gone through withdrawal. I never see how or why anyone changes. They just suddenly have, and with great speed, too.

Speaking of the Stockholm Syndrome. It's a condition that has been around, one supposes, for years. It's a condition whereby the victim in someone else's power comes to view their captor in a kinder, gentler light. This enables the victim to survive. It's coping mechanism, and easy enough to apply to Jamie Summers. The term is mentioned in the book on page 189. (The same page, incidentally, where Roger Collins is mentioned by name.) {Did the editor of the work (was there one?) skip this page altogether?} On page 189, the year is 1968, as clearly indicated at the beginning of the chapter on page 179. In 1968 there was no term "Stockholm Syndrome" that had been coined. We'd have to wait till 1973, when bank robbers in Stockholm, Sweden (hence the name), kept hostages captive in a bank they were robbing. The hostages bonded very quickly in various ways with their captors and the whole thing was caught by the 10 o'clock news. World wide. It was then, in 1973, that the term existed. Yet, Louisa Kahne uses it in 1968. Why? Perhaps Hinton was flash-forwarding and flash-backwarding so often she lost track. Or, perhaps, she didn't care that there was this inaccuracy. I can't call it poetic license, because this isn't an alternate universe. The fact that the term Stockholm Syndrom was coined in 1973 is a fact, and a badly used one. Certainly not a well-researched one.

Other elements, as well, are ill-timed, ill-used, or badly done. For example, on page 62, Louisa Kahne asks Jamie if Grenville beats him. Jamie replies, to himself, "...Like It needed to do that..." Later, however, we learn that Grenville not only bites Jamie to keep him in line, he smacks him around. So...Grenville does beat Jamie. Right? Either Jamie is in denial, which is possible, or Hinton does not have the ability to be consistent within her own work.

Another scene that bothered me was the scene where Jamie meets Kell. This happens on page 32. It takes only half a page for Hinton to passively describe the meeting between two men who would travel around the world for years together. Who got into and out of as many scrapes as might be imagined. They meet, they drink, and Hinton sums it up by saying, "So Kell and Jamie shipped out together." The whole incident is told in the passive voice and we are left being told about the bond, but never shown it.

Throughout the book, paragraphs are one, maybe two sentences long, and characters are half-developed. Towards the end, when it's suddenly 1978, Grenville suddenly gives Jamie a warm quilt. He suddenly realizes that it's cold and drafty where Jamie sleeps. What happened to the bonding that happened on the ship ten years ago? Weren't Grenville and Jamie friends after that? Don't you think that Grenville would have noticed sooner? And then Hinton, obviously unable to figure out what else to do, kills off her main character. The ghost, ta-da, of Kell Quinn comes to take Jamie away, perhaps to a heaven where there are only schooners and warm breezes. What a disaster. And a disappointment.

But, the worst part about the book, I feel, is the fact that it must have been in Hinton's head for quite some time. A lot of fiction is, before the writer gets around to putting it down on paper. And like a lot of fiction, the idea in her head probably centered around a main scene or idea, which she ruminated over for hours on end. Unlike a lot of fiction, however, Hinton did not develop her story beyond this particular idea. This particular idea, I think, was developed in a chapter called The Last Scam, which starts on page 153. The entire scene is told

Rating:
Summary: a terrible read, continued...
Review: The worst part about the book, I feel, is the fact that it must have been in Hinton's head for quite some time. A lot of fiction is, before the writer gets around to putting it down on paper. And like a lot of fiction, the idea in her head probably centered around a main scene or idea, which she ruminated over for hours on end. Unlike a lot of fiction, however, Hinton did not develop her story beyond this particular idea. This particular idea, I think, was developed in a chapter called The Last Scam, which starts on page 153. The entire scene is told in past tense. The font is italicized, for some reason, perhaps to let us know that it happened long ago. Or something. Anyway, in this scene, Hinton sticks to a single point of view, that of Jamie Summers, which raises the intensity missing in the rest of the book. She tells the scene from beginning to end, with no flash forward or flash back. There are ellipses, but perhaps Hinton can't help those, at this point. But you know Hinton loved this scene. It's the one that took her to bed at night, helped her get through chores, and helped her relax when paying the bills. It's the scene. The one the story is based around. The one she takes her time with.

In it, Kell comes to say goodbye. His scheme has gone wrong and he's leaving town, wants to say goodbye to his pal, Jamie. Only it's sundown. Grenville awakens. Kills Kell. And Jamie, upon Grenville's instructions, is forced to stake Kell to keep Kell from turning into a vampire. The scene goes deep, and possibly develops why Jamie has nightmares. He makes himself pretend it's not Kell he's staking, and makes himself think of something else through the long ordeal. It's marvelous torture that Hinton performs on Jamie, and she takes her slow, sweet time with it, letting the reader know that she's savoring every last second. It's the scene she wanted to write originally. It's her little fantasy. Unfortunately for her, and for us, in order for the fantasy scene to be published, Hinton had to develop a story around it. And also, unfortunately for us, the rest of the story has all the craft of a below-average Harlequin novel, and even the intensity of six pages of The Last Scam cannot make up for the passively told remaining 144 or so pages of badly constructed framework.

The book jacket describes Hinton as an "honored storyteller," and an "international bestselling author." These accolades are the only reason I think that Hinton's private fantasy got into mainstream publication at all. Hawkes Harbor is a far cry from The Outsiders. Perhaps Hinton has forgotten what she once knew. Perhaps she's a closet DS fan out of touch with what works in fan fiction, let alone mainstream fiction. There are stories out there that have never seen the inside of a bookstore that outshine Hawkes Harbor with enough brilliance to blind. They are written not for profit or acclaim, but instead are written only for the pleasure of writing a well-crafted story with fully-fleshed characters and a plot that engages the reader with intelligence and heart. I know Hinton remembers those days. Perhaps she can return to them.




Rating:
Summary: If you love S.E Hinton, don't read this book
Review: When I was in high school, I loved The Outsiders, and I loved S.E. Hinton's characters (I was a little in love with many of them too). I read everything else she wrote: Rumble Fish; That Was Then, This Is Now; Tex. I read some of them several times. I saw the movies. And so, this fall, when I walked by a display with Hawkes Harbor, I did a doubletake, then went over to read the back cover, and lingered awhile before moving on with a longing backward glance. My husband then bought it for me as a gift.

I read Hawkes Harbor yesterday--it's a quick read. When I was halfway through my husband asked how it was and I said it was awful and he gave me one of those knowing looks and said, "How long has it been since you've read her?" Meaning, maybe you've got it wrong, maybe you're misremembering how good The Outsiders was, it's been 20 years, hasn't it? "No," I said. "She was really good. I was in high school then, and there were books I loved then that were awful, but I knew they were awful and loved them anyway. The Outsiders was something special."

So we went online, and pulled up the first few pages here on Amazon. And the voice is just as strong as I remember it, and the prose is just as clear. On the second page, there's the sentence, "When I see a movie with someone it's kind of uncomfortable, like having someone read your book over your shoulder," a great sentence that puts you right inside her narrator's skin. I don't think there's a single sentence that good in all of Hawkes Harbor.

Hawkes Harbor is a mess. Hinton hasn't figured out how to write in third person, and her point of view is all over the place in a way that's both jarring and distancing. She has no real feel for these characters, and characters who seem to be important turn out to be minor. The timeline isn't clear, the story is jumbled and feels cobbled together, everything from the language to the plot is cliched, and the sex is gratuitous and ... silly, actually. Not one character is developed into someone who feels as real as Ponyboy feels in the first three pages of The Outsiders. I read the whole thing, in part because I kept expecting it to get better--this was S.E. Hinton, after all--and in part because I was fascinated by how awful it was.

If you loved S.E. Hinton's novels, and the sight of Hawkes Harbor brings up a nostalgic longing for the worlds she created so beautifully, go back and re-read her early novels. Or rent the movies that were made of them. But don't read this. Keep your impression of S.E. Hinton as a writer untainted by this garbled mess that should never have been published, and hope that she finds that old voice that enthralled for the next one.