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For more than fifteen years S.E. Hinton’s pen has been silent. The author of THE OUTSIDERS, RUMBLE FISH, TEX and THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW has now published her first novel for an adult audience. HAWKES HARBOR is set in a tiny seaside community in Delaware, where Jamie Sommers, a mental patient, is treated at Terrace View Asylum. Dr. Phillip McDevitt tries desperately to break into Jamie's amnesia and blurred memories of the past.
Hawkes Harbor becomes the key to opening Jamie's closed mind. The action begins in the past, in 1950, and then speeds forward to Jamie's present in the asylum, in 1968. A bastard and orphaned, Jamie grows up street-smart and willing to take on the entire human race. He's a likeable young man, with a slight chip on his shoulder. He becomes a sailor, serves a stint in the navy, and then embarks on a series of seafaring adventures with his friend and mentor Kell Quinn, an Irishman. Together, they set out to gather treasure from the deep and seek fortune in daring schemes. Kell is the architect and Jamie the workhorse.
After having been nearly eaten alive by sharks, captured by rogue pirates and thrown in foreign prisons, Jamie and Kell attempt one final scheme --- that of gun-running. But Kell's agenda involves the IRA and Jamie is none the wiser. The ruse fails and they land in a tiny waterfront community, Hawkes Harbor. Kell has come from an educated and mannerly background and can fit in with the town's gentry. Jamie's rough edges land him in small troubles in the town and the two part ways.
Jamie finds work doing odd jobs for a rich family, the Hawkes, for whom the town is named. He's fascinated by tales of treasure on the island across from the estate where he lives. His curiosity finally bests him. On the night Jamie ventures to the island to find and open a large treasure chest, his life is changed forever.
Soon thereafter, he becomes the handyman and manservant for the wealthy but mysterious Grenville Hawke, a loner who resides in the bleak manor that overlooks the island. Subsequent chapters are a rollercoaster ride for the reader. Jamie falls from grace into a depressed, suicidal mental patient who is terrified of the dark, especially at the first twilight. Years of psychotherapy do little in breaking into Jamie's mind to calm his terrors.
Hawkes Harbor gives one hope that Jamie will break through the curtain of darkness he has entered and tell all. But at every opportunity, McDevitt bumps into yet another closed door. The story is about relationships, however absurd. By the final chapter, there was no resolution. HAWKES HARBOR is compelling because one seeks closure to a young man's problem. I discovered none. A bizarre tale of coercion, terror, dependence and resignation, HAWKES HARBOR will certainly be an unusual pick for 2004.
--- Reviewed by Judy Gigstad
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