Good Harbor

By: Anita Diamant

Narrated by: Linda Emond

Anita Diamant's international best seller The Red Tent brilliantly re-created the ancient world of womanhood. Now Diamant brings her remarkable storytelling skills to Good Harbor - offering insight to the precarious balance of marriage and career, motherhood and friendship in the world of modern women.

The seaside town of Gloucester, Massachusetts is a place where the smell of the ocean lingers in the air and the rocky coast glistens in the Atlantic sunshine. When longtime Gloucester resident Kathleen Levine is diagnosed with breast cancer, her life is thrown into turmoil. Frightened and burdened by secrets, she meets Joyce Tabachnik - a freelance writer with literary aspirations - and a once-in-a-lifetime friendship is born. Joyce has just bought a small house in Gloucester, where she hopes to write as well as vacation with her family. Like Kathleen, Joyce is at a fragile place in her life.

A mutual love for books, humor, and the beauty of the natural world brings the two women together. They share their personal histories, and help each other to confront scars left by old emotional wounds.

©2001 Anita Diamant, All Rights Reserved (P)2001 Simon & Schuster, Inc., AUDIOWORKS Is an Imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Good Friendships

Most women long for the kind of relationship the two main characters in this story developed. That being said, I was a little confused in the beginning of this book. I needed to rewind a few times to keep straight between Joyce and Kathleen. Their lives were interesting but Diamant did not do as good a job telling this story as she did in The Red Tent. They each had their own issues and I did not see them helping one another as much as the story would have you believe. There was just something missing that would result in the closeness they developed. I have not written Diamant "off" as an author, but I long for the job she did in her first novel.

Take me to Good Harbor!

This story was so vivid, the descriptions of the coast of Massachusettes made me want to take a trip there. It was a wonderful story...and anything by Diamant is a good read!

Good, not great

I loved "The Boston Girl" by this author. ( highly recommend it on audio !) Unfortunately, this isnt as involving, perhaps because the (2) main characters, Kathleen and Joyce, are not too sympathetic. Honestly, I felt they were a bit whiny. Everything turns out great for everyone, so any intended life lessons are lost. Pleasant but not memorable. Great narration, though.

Pleasant if forgettable.

Not having read "The Red Tent" I had nothing to compare "Good Harbor" to (for good or bad). Overall I all enjoyed listening to this in the morning but I wasn't nearly as emotional as I'd expected it to be which is good, I guess, because I expected it to ruin my makeup. On the downside, this is a book I won't remember come next week . . .

It was a nice, gentle tale about the distance that can develop between couples that often goes unnoticed but it was also a book about the power of friendship between women and the special bond and sharing that occurs when two friend's just "click".

Both women came across as very realistic but somehow I always remained at a distance from them both. Joyce's attitude towards her "romance" novel (which paid for her summer home ~ I'd love to know who her agent was as new romance novelists are typically paid a slaves wage!) rubbed me the wrong way on more than one occasion though. Her troubles with her bratty daughter were very realistically portrayed and her loneliness well done but in the end I still sympathized much more with Kathleen's character (though, in the end, she nearly lost me as well).

This isn't a book I'd read again but I am interested in picking up "The Red Tent" after reading so many raves.

Good story but mediocre narration

It doesn't feel like the narrator fits the voice compared to the rest of Anita's books. Not much voice variance.... sort of like she's mostly just reading it like a normal person.

Enjoyable

It took a little while to get into the storyline, but once there, I enjoyed the story of these two women. It was predictable in places, but overall the message of friendship came through loud and clear.

The lives of women

For me, the woman characters created by Anita Diamant are some of the best in contemporary fiction. They are rich, complex and compelling. I always understand more about myself and my family thru her novels. I thank her.

computer like voice and way to fast

The story was great but the narrator bothered me since it/she sounded like a computer. There was very little affliction or emotional storytelling in her voice. After a few minutes, it annoyed me and I decided to read the book and not listen. I wish the author would have chosen a more suitable narrator as it was a very good story.