Hawke's Cove

The journal entries of Evangeline (Vangie) Worth, a WWII bride whose husband, John, is overseas, make up the bulk of this amiable follow-up to Wilson's praised first novel, Beauty. Recovering from the loss of her first baby, Vangie spends the summer of 1944 in Hawke's Cove, a New England coastal community and her childhood vacation spot. Poetry and journal writing fill her time until a stranger shows up looking for work. Joe Green, who mysteriously appears in town at a time when almost every able-bodied man is ""over there,"" moves into Vangie's guest room in exchange for repairing her dilapidated barn. Working on the farm and socializing with the locals, the two become great friends. When Vangie learns that John is missing in action, Joe becomes her pillar of support, and their idyllic relationship blossoms. Then John is found and sent home to Boston, where Vangie must meet him, leaving everything behind except her memories. Deftly shifting back and forth from Vangie's journal entries to the narratives of five other characters, Wilson assembles a polyvocal assortment of letters, journals and text spanning 50 years. Ushering the story into 1993, Vangie's journalist son, Charlie, travels to Hawke's Cove to investigate a recently dredged up Hellcat plane that crashed there in 1944. In a twist of fate, he falls for a local girl; she is Maggie Green, who helps him uncover the true story of the old military plane, her enigmatic father and his reticent mother. Sentimental and sweet, Wilson's tale proves her an empathetic storyteller whose plainspoken Yankee characters have strong appeal. (Mar.)