The Dive From Clausen's Pier, by A. Packer

It was the last summer Friday of July yesterday so a grand plan was in order.  After work, I was to walk out of my office building, cross the street, and catch the Madison Avenue bus straight to the Met.  I had even brought my camera with me - with a fully charged battery!  But I detoured a few blocks from the bus stop to pick up a library book I had ordered and drop it off at home.  Harmless.  Here's where I foiled my own plan: I stopped to eat lunch.  Mandarin oranges, the canned kind, put me over the edge.  I sipped on the cold sweet liquid between bites of mandarin orange and stared at the book on the table.  I convinced myself that I could just read the first chapter.  You know, to get my feet wet and have something to look forward to after the museum.  Before I knew it, it was pouring buckets of rain outside, I was on page one-hundred-something and gee, that ache to check out Anthony Caro's steel sculptures on the rooftop {+} suddenly went whoosh out the window.  It seems that I enjoy dedicating long hot summer Friday afternoons to reading novels straight through.

I'm waiting to hear if I'll have the chance to Skype into a book club that a friend started, but even if they don't have room, I'm glad I read this.  The Dive From Clausen's Pier is a story about a young midwestern girl from Wisconsin who ditches her high school sweetheart fiancé for New York after he has an accident that leaves him a paraplegic.

I had never read anything by Ann Packer before, but darn if the prude in me didn't cringe when I hit a couple of her racy sex scenes.  The story is to the point, the characters uncomplicated and formulaic, but colorful and honest.  Packer relies heavily on dialogue, which makes for a quick read.  My hunch is that this 2002 novel appealed to the masses because it's really almost a coming-of-age story about the investments we make in young love, friendships, and ourselves.  Who doesn't want to read about that?

My five words on The Dive are: self-awareness, perspective, boldness, freedom, and compassion.