Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The End of the Point: A Novel
    The End of the Point: A Novel
    The End of the Point: A Novel
    Audiobook13 hours

    The End of the Point: A Novel

    Written by Elizabeth Graver

    Narrated by Hillary Huber

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    A place out of time, Ashaunt Point—a tiny finger of land jutting into Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts—has provided sanctuary and anchored life for generations of the Porter family, who summer along its remote, rocky shore. But in 1942, the U.S. Army arrives on the Point, bringing havoc and change. That summer, the two older Porter girls—teenagers Helen and Dossie—run wild. The children's Scottish nurse, Bea, falls in love. And youngest daughter Janie is entangled in an incident that cuts the season short and haunts the family for years to come.

    As the decades pass, Helen and then her son Charlie return to the Point, seeking refuge from the chaos of rapidly changing times. But Ashaunt is not entirely removed from events unfolding beyond its borders. Neither Charlie nor his mother can escape the long shadow of history—Vietnam, the bitterly disputed real estate development of the Point, economic misfortune, illness, and tragedy.

    An unforgettable portrait of one family's journey through the second half of the twentieth century, The End of the Point artfully probes the hairline fractures hidden beneath the surface of our lives and traces the fragile and enduring bonds that connect us. With subtlety and grace, Elizabeth Graver illuminates the powerful legacy of family and place, exploring what we are born into, what we pass down, preserve, cast off or willingly set free.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateApr 22, 2014
    ISBN9780062331120
    Author

    Elizabeth Graver

    Elizabeth Graver is the author of the novels Awake, The Honey Thief, and Unravelling; her short story collection Have You Seen Me? won the Drue Heinz Literature Prize. She is the mother of two daughters, and teaches English and creative writing at Boston College.

    Related to The End of the Point

    Related audiobooks

    Literary Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Top 10 Books

      Jun 16, 2023

      Top 10 Books
      1 min read

    • Article

      Havenfall

      Feb 26, 2020

      RELEASED 3 MARCH 304 pages | Paperback/ebook Author Sara Holland Publisher Bloomsbury Adolescence is hard enough at the best of times, but throw in a murdered brother, a mother on death row and a high school full of bullies that really don’t apprecia

      1 min read

    • Article

      ‘A Registry Of My Passage Upon The Earth’ Is Compassionate, Wise

      Aug 11, 2020

      A new collection of short historical fiction stories is characterized by its beautiful prose and its author’s gentle curiosity and sense of wonder.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Prevarication Jones

      May 1, 2019

      Prevarication Jones
      16 min read

    • Article

      Commonplace Book

      Jun 4, 2018

      I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me. —Fred Allen I have always wondered, in reading travels, at the childish joy travellers felt at meeting people they knew, and their sense of loneliness when they did not, in

      4 min read

    • Article

      About Town Te Anau

      Apr 19, 2021

      About Town Te Anau
      4 min read

    • Article

      Low Expectations

      Feb 1, 2019

      Low Expectations
      7 min read

    • Article

      As the World Collapses

      Jul 27, 2017

      As the World Collapses
      7 min read

    • Article

      Second Language

      Aug 14, 2017

      Second Language
      9 min read

    • Article

      Commonplace Book

      Jun 1, 2022

      Try to praise the mutilated world. Remember June’s long days, and wild strawberries, drops of rosé wine. The nettles that methodically overgrow the abandoned homesteads of exiles. —Adam Zagajewski, “Try to Praise the Mutilated World,” tr. by Clare C

      4 min read

    • Article

      Meet the Stone Collector of Iceland’s Eastern Coast

      May 15, 2020

      Almost every day of her life, Petra went for a walk.  Walks up into the hills mostly, but also walks along the shore. Maybe walks along the relative flat of the unpaved road hemming the eastern fjords, but mostly walks with a vertical bent, a slope,

      7 min read

    • Article

      Across The Whited Fields

      Oct 13, 2019

      In a twilight streeta small girl laughing. The red and yellow flowersprofuse, inhale the air. We want to hold your name,Polly, dancing in the rain Polly, skipping down the street.Sometimes the world bequeaths then takes away the one to whomou

      14 min read

    • Article

      A Parsonage in New Hope

      Dec 4, 2023

      A Parsonage in New Hope
      12 min read

    • Article

      In The Footprints Of The Ancestors

      Mar 2, 2023

      In The Footprints Of The Ancestors
      11 min read

    • Article

      Summer From Hell

      Mar 18, 2020

      Summer From Hell
      11 min read

    • Article

      Following a Thread

      Sep 19, 2019

      Following a Thread
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The End of the Point

    4/5

    13 ratings12 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      3.5 stars I love multi-generational family sagas and boy did this one have potential! Thoroughly an attention holder for the first half or so, i was slowly becoming dismayed as i read the rest. I DID finish it, though with disappointment. WELL written and initial fantastic character personalities, but, well, i think too many years were crammed into the pages. Time and the changes it brings, the book starts in a beautiful seaside location during WW2, and then makes an uncomfortable jump into the future.
    • 4/5
      The End of the Point by Elizabeth Graver is a family saga that basically covers three generations, with the connection being their summers spent at the coast in Ashaunt, Massachusetts. Graver opens the novel with a brief passage about the arrival of the first Europeans to the point. Then she proceeds to 1942, when the Porter family, three daughters and entourage arrive at the coast to find the army occupying a large portion of it with barracks and viewing platforms. This portion of the narrative is told through the voice of Bea, the Porter's Scottish nanny, but introduces us to other members of the family, especially Helen, the oldest daughter and Jane the youngest.

      Then the novel jumps briefly to 1947 with letters from Helen, written when she was in Europe. It quickly switches to Helen's diary entries from 1960. The next section is set in 1970 and follows Helen's troubled oldest son, Charlie. The final year followed is 1999. Every character in The End of the Point is struggling with change and finding their place in the changing world around them.

      Of the characters, Scottish nurse/nanny Bea is the most compelling. She has the courage to leave Scotland to seek employment in America, but struggles with truly living her own life. She is fretful about Janie and dislikes Helen, but is resolutely devoted to the Porter family and resists any change in her life that does not include them. I was totally swept up with Bea's story and looked forward to seeing the rest of this family saga through her eyes, an outsider but privy to the inside workings of the family.

      However, once The End of the Point moved on and away from Bea's voice, for me it went down hill. Additionally, all the leaps from one time to another made the narrative feel abrupt and disjointed to me. In some ways I wish Graver had chose to connect the time periods by observing family members through Bea's eyes, and with her insight and perceptions about the situations. Once the first section from 1942 was over (a third of the novel) it went downhill for me. While I didn't care for the characters of Helen or Charlie, I was interested in Bea to the very end and looked for information on her life as the story continued.

      What elevated my opinion of The End of the Point was Graves skillful writing. Graves writing ability shines through several murky plot points. She had some lyrical passages that just sang and resonated with me. Her powers of observation and description are incredible. So, even though parts of the novel didn't work for me it is Highly Recommended for the writing.

      Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from the publisher and TLC for review purposes.
    • 4/5
      This was supposed to be my "entertaining" read between a few darker books. Was not expecting to sob through the last 20 or so pages.
    • 4/5
      This is a book covering three principle time periods using the voices of three different characters. What binds them together is a piece of land on the coast of New England referred to as the Point. The first character is Bea the Scottish servant of a wealthy family. The second focus is Helen one of the grown children that Bea took care of at the Point. Finally, there is Helen's son Charlie who is a bit of a black sheep who never quite lives up to has mother's expectations. The time periods ranges from 1942 to 1999. This novel is a well written portrayal of a family in transition.
    • 5/5
      This is not a plot-driven novel, though there are events and changes happening all around the timeless beauty of Ashaunt, the summer haven of the wealthy Porter family. There is also the sense of lives going on that we only see obliquely. Instead of packing this novel with everything that could happen to all the members of this multi-generational family, Graver chooses with rich detail and beautiful clear language to hone in on certain characters at certain pivotal points. So we have the nursemaid Bea contemplating an out-of-character love affair when Ashaunt hosts an army base during the second world war; we have grandson Charlie spending a difficult summer alone on Ashaunt during the Vietnam era; and a stunning ending when the indomitable Helen is facing her own death in the 1990s. A beautiful, intelligent book that examines the way family and home trap us, define us, and endow us with gifts.
    • 4/5
      This family saga, set from WW II through the new millenium, is unique for not cramming in too many characters. Four generations of Porters have lived in Ashaunt Point on Buzzard's Bay on Cape Cod, and the focus is on Bea, the Scottish nanny; Nancy, the eldest daughter; and Charlie, her son. There are many lovely, descriptive passages about the beach, about family members and their summer rituals, and, most disturbingly, about Charlie's unfortunate acid trips.Mid-narrative, the author drops in future outcomes, which I find to be both helpful and reassuring. This is an enjoyable read, chock full of personality traits and twists that, although not typical, are realistic and deeply felt.
    • 4/5
      Sometimes a place is so very much a part of who you are that it is home in a way that even your actual home isn't. I certainly have a place like that in my life. It is a place where I can be most myself, unguarded, a place that heals me and supports me, and is so deeply ingrained in my very marrow that I cannot separate it from myself. It changes incrementally over the years and yet somehow stays the same. Ashaunt Point and the Porter's summer home is that kind of place to several generations in Elizabeth Graver's quietly elegant novel, The End of the Point. Told in several distinct sections spanning almost 50 years in the Porter family's lives, the novel opens with their arrival for the summer of 1942 with teenaged daughters Helen and Dossy, younger daughter Janie, Scottish nannies Bea and Agnes, but without son Charlie who is in Texas away training for the war. The Point is much changed this summer of '42 though as the government has taken over a stretch of it and has soldiers training there. The presence of the soldiers draws Helen and Dossy, who have been left to run wild, as well as nanny Bea, who experiences first love at the age of thirty-seven, and leads to the incident that causes the Porters to leave their refuge early that summer. But this first section of the book introduces most of the major characters in the novel and exposes their complexly intricate relationships with each other. Amongst others, there's Bea's maternal love for her charge Janie and her vague dislike of Helen and there's Mrs. P. who, despite not being terrible involved in her daughters' lives, casts a long shadow. The distant war come home to roost and the way it has both accelerated life and slowed time to a crawl always hovers just on the edge of the narrative as well. Jumping in time from that summer with its loss of innocence to Helen's letters home from school in Switzerland only five years further on and then her diaries some fifteen years after the war as she comes again to Ashaunt as a young mother struggling with her feelings of being trapped and stagnant in motherhood and wanting so much the life of an intellectual. The Point bears mute witness to her desperate search for self and how she invests so much in her golden child, oldest son Charlie. Then the summer compound hosts this lost and searching son Charlie in the early seventies as he hibernates from the world after an LSD trip leaves him fighting its enduring and crippling effects. As he tries to hold onto himself and keep from flying apart from within the safety of his childhood cabin retreat, he watches a world torn apart and bleeding in the face of Vietnam, illegal drugs, and the desecration of development. And finally, in the last section of the novel, the narrative comes back to Helen, now an old woman facing her mortality. Although she might have stayed away in the intervening years, discontented and unsettled, in the end, she seeks the enduring sanctuary and peace of Ashaunt Point as she herself comes to the end. The writing here is measured and slow, reflecting the timelessness of the place within the novel and in fact the very story itself. The world outside of Ashaunt Point is changing but despite the ways in which these changes do press in on the rocky peninsula, there is still a changeless, comforting feel to the natural world and long-time residents of the point. The plot is very much character driven, internal and introspective, and each generation slides seamlessly into the subtly annual picture taken at the cottage. This is an unexpectedly seductive tale, beautifully written with each succeeding generation another wave upon the shore of the place. The characters are alternately remote and confiding depending on their individual personalities. And the impact of the greater family, the casual and quiet emotional connections, is moving and true and beautiful. A novel of belonging, family, and home, where resides the place of your heart, this is a masterful and affecting novel, effortlessly literary, spare, and elegant all at once.
    • 5/5
      The basics: Spanning three generations of the Porter family and fifty years of their relationships with their hired help, The End of the Point focuses on the family at four different times in history, beginning in the 1950's. Much of the novel takes place at their summer home in Ashaunt, Massachusetts.My thoughts: Reading The End of the Point made me realize how much I love present-future narrators. As the story of the Porter family unfolds, the reader gets hints of how things are now, even though the story is told in the moment:"If things had turned out differently, she would have begun the story here--or no, Smitty would have told it; unlike Bea, he loved an audience, he'd have made it funny, drawn it out."These moments aren't frequent, but as I encountered each one, it felt as though I was unwrapping a present. We don't have the certainty of the future in our own lives, but literature can provide us with one for these characters. It's a testament to Graver's writing and character building that this technique feels so real. I was utterly absorbed in this family that kept growing in number as the generations increased. Graver infuses so much richness into each of them, it's astonishing the novel is as short as it is. It feels more epic than its number of pages, and it feels like a complete story of the people in their time and place. Ashaunt is a character itself:"She loves her house with a tenderness that makes it feel almost human."I pictured it so vividly and delighted in seeing how the bedrooms changed hands over the years and depending on which siblings and cousins were there on a given weekend. In fact, as the narrative moved forward to the next moment in time, the house provides the structure, both literally and figuratively, as the reader takes stock of what has changed since the last moment in time.As I read the last pages, I wept openly and publicly in the airport terminal. When I turned the last page, I was immensely satisfied, yet sad to say goodbye to these characters who felt like family in the two short days I spent with them. Most of all, I wondered how I had not heard of Elizabeth Graver until this, her fourth novel.Favorite passage: "Largely, now, it was not anger he felt, but rather a kind of bone-scraping, quiet, ever-present sorrow. To come to the place that was supposed to stay the same, to come and find it changed. Dr. Miller had warned him against what he called the "geographic cure." You can't fix yourself by going somewhere else, he'd said. You'll always take yourself along."The verdict: The End of the Point is a beautifully written, deeply moving portrait of three generations of the Porter family and the their evolving relationships with their servants and caregivers.
    • 4/5
      Susan mentioned that she likes reading the inscriptions at the beginning of books and that made me take particular note of the inscription in Elizabeth Graver’s latest novel, The End of the Point. “When I began to tell you children about the different ways in which plants sent their young out into the world, I had no idea that I should take so much time and cover so many pages with the subject.” This is a quote from Mrs. William Starr Dana, author of the children’s book Plants and Their Children (more about this book later), and purportedly the great grandmother in Graver’s story. The quote, however, summarizes, in part, what Ms. Graver’s book is all about…sending our children out into the world.It is also about ‘home’. The End of the Point is the secondBigHouse family saga set in Cape Cod that I’ve read recently, the first being The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home by George Howe Colt, the former being fiction and the latter non-fiction.The End of the Point describes the Porter clan who summer in Ashaunt, MA, near Buzzards Bay. It is in four parts, each narrated by a different person: 1942 narrated by Bea, the Scottish nanny to the Porter’s youngest daughter, Janie; 1947-1961 narrated by Helen, Janie’s older sister; 1970 narrated by Charlie, Helen’s son, named after her brother who died during WW II and 1999, told in the third person. Bea describes how the second World War intruded on the serene life of Cape Cod and her life in particular…the opportunities taken and possibly the regrets for those not taken. Helen, always the strong willed daughter recounts her life, her struggles to achieve in a man’s world and how her treatment of Charlie may have been part of his struggle to find himself, although the 1970s were certainly an era in which many college students were ‘lost’. In the last segment, Helen, Janie and their other sister, Dossy, are in their later years, one suffering from cancer, one from mental instability.In all of their worlds of turmoil, though, the one place that seemed to bring peace and calmness is Ashaunt, the Big House (funny, in both books, the main house was called the Big House). Even amidst the hubbub of growing and extended families, Ashaunt was the refuge from troubles, its natural beauty (even in the face of land sales and new home construction) and sense of home easing the mind.Graver has provided stories of some very strong women: Bea, in her quiet way, has her strong sense of duty to the Porter children, at times to the detriment of her own life; Helen, the wild child has the drive to succeed in academia’s male world; Gaga (Helen’s mother) runs her family while her husband is wheelchair bound for most of his later life and Janie, seemingly the sanest of all Porter girls makes a strong life for herself, her husband and six children. Even Charlie, a lost boy since his early teens, ‘finds himself’ in the end. Each character could very well be the focus of a novel, each has a story to tell, especially Bea and Helen.I know the strong feeling of wanting to provide a ‘home’ for our children, a place that they can seek refuge and comfort, regroup and go back out into the world rejuvenated. The Big House(s) described in these books and the families that occupied those houses gave their children their sense of well-being and being home. I’m suggesting you read both books, The End of the Point by Elizabeth Graver and The Big House by George Howe Colt.Now I said I’d mention Plants and Their Children by Mrs. William Starr Dana (aka Frances Theodora Parsons).Plants and their ChildrenFrances Theodora Parsons was an American botanist and author active in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was an active supporter of the Republican Party as well as the Progressive Party. She was also an advocate of women’s suffrage. Frances started taking walks in the countryside after the death of her first husband (William Starr Dana). These strolls inspired her most important and popular book, How to Know the Wildflowers (1893), the first field guide to North American wildflowers. It was something of a sensation, the first printing selling out in five days. The work went through several editions in Parsons’s lifetime and has remained in print into the 21st century. Plants and Their Children, written in 1896 was named one of the 50 best children’s books of its time and was suggested for reading to young children in the classroom. The inscription at the opening of The End of the Point (I only gave you a snippet of it) interested me so I did a little (very little) research and after reading that Plants and Their Children was named one of the 50 best children’s books of its time, I was compelled to buy it. I’ll let you know how it is.
    • 4/5
      It is 1942, Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. The Porters arrive at their summer home on Ashuant Point with their three daughters – Helen and Dossie who are teenagers, and Janie who is only eight years old. With them are “the help,” including a Scottish nanny named Bea whose task it is to watch over Janie. Ashaunt has been their place, but this summer things are different. Soldiers have taken over the Wilson home, erected barracks, paved the road. And Charlie, the Porter’s son, is far away, training to go to war overseas. As the summer progresses, Bea falls in love and Helen and Dossie test out their new-found maturity, while something happens to Janie that forces the family to leave Ashaunt earlier than expected. The years spiral outward – Helen goes to school in Switzerland, marries and starts a family; Dossie struggles with mental illness; Janie grieves that Bea has moved back to Scotland. There are new generations, and one child in particular – Charlie, Helen’s son who is named after her brother – again looks to Ashaunt to find solace and meaning.The End of The Point is a sweeping, multi-generational family saga which spans more than fifty years. The book is a quiet novel. Elizabeth Graver takes her time to slowly develop the characters, to examine their lives and their tragedies. The backdrop of history is always right there: WWII, Vietnam, the drug-addled years of the sixties and seventies, and real estate development along the shores of Massachusetts.The novel is broken into four parts and told in multiple points of view, following a family through time. My favorite section was the first where the immediate members of the family are introduced and the girls are coming of age. Bea also takes a central role in the novel – a woman who has lived her life for others and becomes a part of the extended family.It is the characters who drive the narrative in this novel about growing up, family legacy, parenting, and the power of place. Charlie, the brother, is someone who the reader only meets through the eyes of the other characters, and yet his presence reverberate throughout the novel. Janie, who is a strong presence in the first section, yields the novel to Helen, her older sister, as time passes. Charlie, Helen’s son, struggles with his identity, befriends questionable people, and clings to the one place he has always felt he belonged. And Bea, the motherly woman who adopts the Porters as her own, weaves her own tale through the book.This is a novel which is subtle in plot, but beautifully rendered in description and character development. Readers who enjoy quiet novels with a strong sense of place will enjoy The End of The Point.
    • 4/5
      I've been a fan of Elizabeth Graver's since her first novel UNRAVELLING came out in 1997. I couldn't wait to read this new novel of hers and I wasn't diappointed. It's apparent she loves her setting as much as her characters. The Buzzards Bay that she creates is truly a breath of salty sea air. And I was fascinated by the ups and downs of the Porter family and their domestics as they summer on the coast of Massachusetts from 1942 to 1999. A lovely novel of family and place.
    • 4/5
      I agree with another reviewer that the main character is Ashaunt. Beautifully written but unfocussed The quick and major shifts in characters lives left me dissatisfied. There was not enough focus on any one character and too many superfluous characters to give any of them weight.