The usual drama of breaking marriages is described in a changed way by Chip Cheek in the debut novel that surely provides glamour and sex but at the same time it makes you terrified from its impact on your personal life.
The novel also highlights the corruption in the English society in 1950s and as the newly married couple moves deeper into the web of the social evil they seem to forget who they really were and what was the purpose that brought them there in the first place. The writer has especially mentioned the year as 1957 so that the era becomes clear in the mind of the listener.
Henry and Effie come to Cape May from Georgia after their wedding in order to spend some time together and enjoy their honeymoon but they observe that the town is a bit deserted so they fail to enjoy to the standard they were hoping and decide to return home.
While they were returning they find a group of people who attract them like wine perhaps because both of them cannot resist the company of Clara, Max and Alma. The two husband and wife not only start enjoying the company of the play boy and his beloved but also start betraying one another by having sex with different people in the group.
They move naked on the beach enjoying the empty houses that are present around and thus the corruption not only destroyed their wedding but also their moral values as well. Chip’s second novel Tage in Cape May can be read along this one as it is somewhat in continuation to the first novel even the location is the same. George Newbern narrates the betrayal scenes in a superb way, the tone the he uses is also according to the standard of the scenes.
