Second Chance: 1a Novel

After a 30-year estrangement from his father, Charlie, 42-year-old divorced Chuck Carver attends the old man's funeral to discover that Charlie has left him his waterfront house--plus two new siblings and a beautiful new friend--in Montague's melodramatic second novel (after White Wings). The house, on the Marblehead, Mass., waterfront, is worth more than a million dollars. His orphaned siblings, a half-sister and a gay half-brother, and Chuck's new neighbor, single mom Dawn Ireland, all share fond memories of Charlie, but when Chuck strikes up a romance with Dawn, he is revisited by painful memories of the sexual abuse he suffered at Charlie's hands. Montague's blunt, straightforward prose draws attention to the book's fatal flaw: that forgiveness, understanding and reconciliation come too easily for these pedestrian, wooden characters. The romance between Chuck and Dawn unfolds in an unconvincing flash, while convenient plot devices wrap up complex psychological conditions too neatly to be believed. (July)