This book has some of the most beautiful writing about mothering a little girl that I have ever read. I loved the magnificent distant setting, the descriptions of the island, and the symbol of the lighthouse. The seemingly factual lighthouse keeper's unusual and rigorous job was fascinating, too. I accept that Isabel did what she did, and Tom, too. But then I found the characters' various refusals, required promises, misplaced letters, unfair blaming, quite authorially manipulative and began to resent it. The conclusion, after long grief, stoic oaths, angry revenge behavior, is rather sudden, and Isabel's recovery from her breakdown and its consequences is left to us to imagine. I suspect it was much worse and incomplete than the novel led us to conclude. But then, that's the book club's discussion topic.
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