A Day like Any Other

Henderson’s riveting narrative is based on true accounts of people who experienced the devastating 1938 Hamptons hurricane. Henderson’s characters exemplify the area’s full socioeconomic range, including Mitch Grindle, whose local roots as a fisherman go back generations, and Emmaline Hartley, who, though married to a wealthy man 20 years her senior, embarks on a love affair with Jack Burns, a New York City commercial illustrator living in the Hamptons for artistic refuge. Judy Tate is a stay-at-home mom yearning for more from her life, and her husband, Chip, is a Manhattan workaholic, hiding personal and financial secrets from his wife. Walter Penn’s trajectory from servant’s quarters to respected art critic makes him a well-liked figure to both the locals and the summer people, and, indeed, the often testy relationship between year-rounders and the vacation crowd is well captured here. Henderson (A Woman of the World) cleverly intertwines the many relationships, interjecting descriptions of the gathering storm throughout, and shows how a calamity dramatically changes lives, arbitrarily causing heartbreaking loss, turning some people into heroes, and leaving survivors with a new perspective on what matters most in life. The result is a transportive and textured glimpse into a moment of American history. (Aug.)