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    Good Harbor
    Good Harbor
    Good Harbor
    Audiobook (abridged)6 hours

    Good Harbor

    Written by Anita Diamant

    Narrated by Linda Emond

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Anita Diamant, whose rich portrayal of the biblical world of women illuminated her acclaimed international bestseller The Red Tent, now crafts a moving novel of contemporary female friendship.

    Good Harbor is the long stretch of Cape Ann beach where two women friends walk and talk, sharing their personal histories and learning life's lessons from each other. Kathleen Levine, a longtime resident of Gloucester, Massachusetts, is maternal and steady, a devoted children's librarian, a convert to Judaism, and mother to two grown sons. When her serene life is thrown into turmoil by a diagnosis of breast cancer at fifty-nine, painful past secrets emerge and she desperately needs a friend. Forty-two-year-old Joyce Tabachnik is a sharp-witted freelance writer who is also at a fragile point in her life. She's come to Gloucester to follow her literary aspirations, but realizes that her husband and young daughter are becoming increasingly distant. Together, Kathleen and Joyce forge a once-in-a-lifetime bond and help each other to confront scars left by old emotional wounds.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateOct 1, 2001
    ISBN9780743553742
    Good Harbor
    Author

    Anita Diamant

    Anita Diamant's debut novel The Red Tent was an international bestseller and won the Booksense Book of the Year Award. Her second novel Good Harbor was a favourite with reading groups. Anita is also an award-winning journalist and the author of several books about contemporary Jewish life. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and daughter.

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    Reviews for Good Harbor

    3.5/5

    290 ratings26 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Good story. It made me yearn for deeper relationships in my own life.
    • 5/5
      really enjoyed book i grew up in Gloucester spend my summers at Good Harbor beach
    • 4/5
      I had forgotten that I tried this one once and put it down because I found it boring. I am glad I picked it up again. Although the writing style lacks, it's mostly just kind of flat, it is a very good story. I would like for it to have been done by someone with a beautiful writing style. That would have made what is a good book into a great book.
    • 3/5
      I was disappointed in this. I have loved Diamant's other novels but this one was lacking. It is the story of a friendship between two women, one suffering from breast cancer and the other dealing with a failing marriage and a difficult teen. Nothing original here.
    • 3/5
      A moving novel of female friendship and the challenges of love and family in the lives of ordinary women. A slow-paced but fluid text with believable characters who forge a strong bond over beach strolls and secrets.
    • 3/5
      Kathleen and Joyce - two women who meet one summer on the New England coast. Each is going through a crossroads in her life. Kathleen has been diagnosed with early stage breast cancer and Joyce is dealing with an unhappy marriage and a rocky relationship with a young teenage daughter. They find eachother when each most needs a friend.Plenty of parts in this book are really good. The women and their friendship with eachother was beautifully described. Kathleen's radiation treatments rang true to me. Joyce's struggles to understand how her marriage was failing - that rang true to me as well as did the descriptions of the two women and their friendship. Some parts - not so much. The failing marriage, the rebellious daughter, the completely unbelievable affair, the son (is he gay? Is he straight?) - everything was wrapped up and resolved so neatly in just a few pages.I'll tell you what this book did make me want to do though - I would love to go to a New England coastal town and walk on the beach for a long, long time!
    • 3/5
      If you asked me, I would say I don't read a lot chick-lit. But this is, and I did. In one day. I have enjoyed some of the author's other works, OK, that's a fib, I adored the Red Tent, but this is the first of her works I have read set in the present day. A novel describing the coming together of two women in friendship, each at a critical and vulnerable time in her life.
    • 2/5
      Good Harbor by Anita Diamant is the story of the friendship between two women living in Gloucester. One is a children's librarian who was recently diagnosed with cancer. The other is a freelance writer who has come to write a novel.I read the book for a combination of the location and the basic character descriptions. I'm a librarian and would like to be a children's librarian. I also want to a writer and I've had fun doing Nanowrimo. I'm also a woman of similar age to these two protagonists.At first, there's not much to this plot. It starts off as a quiet book with the librarian doing everything in her power to not obsess over her breast cancer, and the other one doing everything possible to procrastinate with her writing. And then just to force a cinematic second act, a random dude on the beach is introduced and of course, he becomes the other man. Because nothing says edgy women's fiction like an extra marital affair.I could have let the affair thing go except that the "hot" sex scenes were just so silly and not in a good way. I ended up having to stop reading because I just couldn't take the book seriously any more.
    • 3/5
      OK as a beach book. Begins by introducing 2 women in alternating chapters.,They meet and develop a develop friendship over the summer, slowly building trust enough to confide some of the secrets in their lives which they can't share with their husbands. Kathleen is dealing with breast cancer and memory of the accidental death of one of her children who was disabled. Joyce is struggling with a young teen daughter, distant husband, and writer's block. By the end, I realize that part of the purpose of writing this story was as a chance for Diamant to "explore her relationship with her own daughter", as Kathleen suggests Joyce might do in her proposed novel. I have to say, I felt like retching every time Patrick said "Joycey"--that sounded like such a patronizing nickname.
    • 3/5
      Almost two decades separate Joyce Tabachnik and Kathleen Levine. Each of them is in need of friendship; Kathleen because she is being treated for breast cancer, Joyce because she is at odds with her husband, her teenaged daughter and, seemingly, her life choices. The two women meet by chance at synagogue and a the beginnings of a friendship form. Fostered by long walks on the beach at Good Harbor, by shared confidences and by mutual kindness, the friendship grows. This book seemed to me to be a meditation on the power and importance of friendship among women more than a story. That does not detract from the ease and comfort of the reading experience. The women and their experiences ring mostly true and the growth of their friendship is written in a way that seems genuine. No instant intimacy here. Not surprisingly, the male characters, husbands, lovers and sons, stay mostly unformed and in the background. The book is only 250 pages long and can be read in a relaxed afternoon.
    • 4/5
      Good chick-lit about two women who become close friends, despite their 17 year difference in age. This book was warm and made me want to curl up with an afghan and cup of coffee, despite reading it during the heat wave in PA in mid July.
    • 5/5
      I loved this novel's understanding of middle-aged life: friendship and taking what comes with grace and strength.
    • 3/5
      This definitely falls into the "chick lit" genre which usually is not my thing, but my Mom recommended this one, so I decided to give it a chance. It ended up being a pretty nice friendship story between two women who meet later in life (Joyce is 42, Kathleen is 59) while they are both at various crossroads in their lives. Kathleen has been diagnosed with breast cancer and is undergoing radiation. I thought that part was extremely well done, the fears, the treatment, the daily grind of radiation side effects, etc. Joyce was a bit more implausible, an incognito romance writer in a stale marriage and has a bratty daughter. But what I liked is the reality of how difficult it is to make easy, true friendships after your 20s or so. This novel captures the wonder of when that magic happens when you least expect it. The end wraps up a little goofy-perfect, but still it is a nice, easy beach read and not quite as fluffy, and a bit more well written, than most chick lit.
    • 4/5
      Joyce is a romance writer who recently purchased a vacation home near Good Harbor, Massachusetts. Kathleen is a children's librarian living in the area who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The two meet at Synagogue one week (both are Jewish, though Kathleen converted from Catholicism before getting married) and become fast friends. Together they journey through many changes in their marriages, children, and selves. It's beautifully written, and has instilled in me a desire to see this magical place called Good Harbor. It sounds just lovely. I was also a little spooked by this book, because some of the details hit pretty close to home. Kathleen's experiences with breast cancer, for example, are almost identical to my mother's - who also used to work in an elementary school. The details of a child's death described later in the book is eerily similar to a friend's child who recently died. But despite some chills that aren't really related to the story itself, this was a very pleasant little journey through two women's lives. It's not exciting or suspenseful, but it would make a good beach read.
    • 3/5
      A good, quick read. I thought the treatment of "friendship" was well done, and I found the part about Kathleen's illness informative, as well as believable. As a mother who has lost a son, a nephew, and a young cousin, I could certainly relate to the different ways that family members reacted to the loss of Danny.
    • 3/5
      I was surprised to find that I liked this book as much as I did; the book struck me at first as choppily written and amateurish. But I liked it more and more as I went along, especially the spiritual aspects of the story. Recommended as a light, yet thoughtful read.
    • 5/5
      Kathleen and Joyce meet and become good friends.
    • 3/5
      This story was pretty so-so for me. I didn't really connect with either of the main characters and didn't find the plot very compelling. When I set the book down, there wasn't all that much reason to pick it up again.
    • 4/5
      Two women are brought together by a mutual love for books, humor and nature for a once in a lifetime friendship.This second novel by Diamant, author of the Red Tent, is a beautiful story of two women who become best friends during a summer when both of them are experiencing crises in their lives. I really liked it and highly recommend it.
    • 4/5
      This was a pleasant story of two women becoming friends during stressful times in both their lives. I enjoyed the main characters, although there was one 'oirish' character that set my teeth on edge.
    • 4/5
      A wonderful book that shares the story of two women and their friendship with honesty
    • 4/5
      Good Harbor by Anita Diamant is a lovingly crafted story about how two women become best friends over the course of a few months. The book is set in Gloucester Massachusetts. Frequent walks and talks in Good Harbor shape the beginning of their friendship. On the surface, they share much in common. Both woman are Jewish and attend the same temple. Kathleen Levine is a librarian, and Joyce Tabachnik is a recently successful romance novelist with literary ambitions. It is a vulnerable time in both of their lives. Events unfold which give each woman the opportunity to provide life-changing support and understanding to the other. In this way a deep, life-long friendship is forged. This book makes me want to read more by Anita Diamant.
    • 5/5
      Similar to Diamant's other two books, I wasn't overly looking forward to reading "Good Harbor." After only a few pages, however, I was hooked- just like the other with the other books! I may only be in my early 20's and not have kids or cancer, but I was still able to relate to both Kathleen and Joyce- especially their friendship and the need for it. My only critisism is that Kathleen's life was overly dramatic. You name it and it happened (at some point!) to Kathleen. I was able to overlook this minor glitch and breeze through the book, though. What I really like about Diamant's books is her ability to write such a broad range of stories. I also love how her characters are strong females. I hope she comes out with another fiction book soon!FAVORITE QUOTE(S): "I like being told that I'm interesting and artistic," she said to the statue, and pinched its solid cheek. "Don't you?" ... 'The car was an intimate space, too, a good place for telling secrets, but it held no threat.'
    • 4/5
      Good Harbor is the story of Kathleen and Joyce, two Jewish women with much in common. This is the story of their friendship and struggles as their lives come to crises.As others have mentioned, while not as timeless or flawless as The Red Tent, this is still a solid work. Best are Diamant's descriptions of place, and the relationships with tension. She does manage to avoid making things too tidy or unbearably saccharine, always a danger in feel-good women's novels.
    • 3/5
      Anita Diamant is also the author of The Red Tent, which tells the biblical story of Dinah. This book is the story of two female friends, at the crossroads of their lives, who meet and have good talks while walking along Good Harbor beach. One of the main characters has breast cancer and the other’s marriage is falling apart. I thought the book was ok, but it wasn’t amazing. It did make me want to go to the beach though, which I found out is only a short train ride away from here.
    • 4/5
      Very interesting book. Picked it up as I enjoyed Red Tent tremendously. I think Red Tent was better, but i did enjoy how this story was written. And the plot line was good too - I didn't feel like I had to suffer through it.