Review: The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers

The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers by Terri-Lynne DeFino
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is another book I might never have picked up if it were not free/cheap. That seems to be the story of my reading life. Sometimes that works out well, and sometimes less well.

I have so many books on my Kindle shelf that I may never finish them. I suppose that is also okay.

Imagine a retirement home in a restored mansion, filled with writers, writers in the last stages of their lives. They had devoted their lives to writing, and as a result, their family relationships were shot. No one from outside every visits them. They are tired, emotionally, physically, and psychologically, and in the last stages of their lives, they have no more stories in them.

They form relationships with Cecibel, a mysterious orderly, who becomes their muse, and they start writing again, a shared story.

This book is their story, the story they write, the story of their lives, and the story of Cecibel's life. In this book, writing is healing, it is using words to give life, literally and figuratively.

The author alternates between stories about each character and the fiction story they write together, and I transitioned easily from one to the next, not an easy feat for an author to do. Nevertheless, the story lagged in places, or I got bored, or I don't know what. By the end, I was glad the book was over, despite the fact that I had enjoyed most of the book.

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