John Casey - Compass Rose

In this sequel to the author’s National Book Award–winning Spartina (1989), Natural Resources warden Elsie Buttrick is forced to grapple with the fallout from her affair with Rhode Island fisherman Dick Pierce. As the novel opens, Elsie has just given birth to their daughter, Rose. Over the next 16 years, Elsie reins in her fierce love for the taciturn Dick, is grateful for his wife’s love and acceptance of Rose, must deal with the insular nature of a community well aware of her daughter’s illegitimate birth, and, finally, must convince her daughter that she is her biggest fan. Elsie also becomes consumed by her brother-in-law’s greedy development schemes, which are slowly transforming the landscape she knows and loves so well while displacing longtime residents. With its emotionally intricate interior monologues and many complicated relationships among multiple characters, this is a novel best suited to those who have read Spartina. They will most readily appreciate Casey’s rich paean to the prideful seaside residents of a Rhode Island community and their long and tangled history with the land and with each other.