To the New Owners: A Memoir of Martha’s Vineyard

Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Blais (In These Girls) affectionately recounts the summers she spent since the 1970s on Martha’s Vineyard in a small, unassuming cabin that lacked TV and a telephone. Purchased by her in-laws, the cabin became a place where Blais enjoyed relaxing vacations and was also a repository of her family’s history. Blais beautifully documents summers shared with family and friends enjoying unhurried days spent reading, visiting the quirky island towns, and basking in the natural environment. Blais weaves in a history of the island and its famous personages, its beauty, and its tourism-dependent economy. The author chronicles the island’s evolution from a rather remote and quiet place to one overwhelmed by megamansions, traffic, and weekenders’ noisy jets. The cabin was eventually sold, yet it retains its hold on Blais. When packing up for the last time, she laments the loss: “The value of what we could not take was astronomical. How do you pack a view? Can you fold it up, smoothing out the wrinkles, and then protect it with Styrofoam peanuts?” Blais has written a bittersweet account of a wonderfully unplugged summer life. (July)