A Place We Knew Well

by Susan McCarthy

“Susan Carol McCarthy blends fact, memory, imagination and truth with admirable grace,” said The Washington Post of the author’s critically acclaimed debut novel, Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands. Now McCarthy returns with another enthralling story of a family—their longings, their fears, and their secrets—swept up in the chaos at the height of the Cold War.
 
Late October, 1962. Wes Avery, a one-time Air Force tail-gunner, is living his version of the American Dream as loving husband to Sarah, doting father to seventeen-year-old Charlotte, and owner of a successful Texaco station along central Florida’s busiest highway. But after President Kennedy announces that the Soviets have nuclear missiles in Cuba, Army convoys clog the highways and the sky fills with fighter planes. Within days, Wes’s carefully constructed life begins to unravel.
 
Sarah, nervous and watchful, spends more and more time in the family’s bomb shelter, slipping away into childhood memories and the dreams she once held for the future. Charlotte is wary but caught up in the excitement of high school—her nomination to homecoming court, the upcoming dance, and the thrill of first love. Wes, remembering his wartime experience, tries to keep his family’s days as normal as possible, hoping to restore a sense of calm. But as the panic over the Missile Crisis rises, a long-buried secret threatens to push the Averys over the edge.
 
With heartbreaking clarity and compassion, Susan Carol McCarthy captures the shock and innocence, anxiety and fear, in those thirteen historic days, and brings vividly to life one ordinary family trying to hold center while the world around them falls apart.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Family, War, Unfinished, Womens Fiction

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 29, 2015

Reviews

[Elyse Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

October, 1962:
"The confrontation between United States and the Soviet Union played out on television worldwide and was the closest the Cold War came to escalating into a full-scale nuclear war.

The U-2 Spyplane produced clear photographic evidence of median-range and intermediate-
range ballistic missile facilities.

After a period of tense negotiations, an agreement was reached between Kennedy and
Khrushchev. Publicly, The Soviets with dismantle their offense of weapons in Cuba and return them to the Soviet union, subject to United Nations verification, in exchange for a US public declaration an agreement never to invade Cuba without direct provocation.

Author Susan McCarthy's book, "A Place We Knew Well", begins in the 2009.
Charlotte Avery grew up as an only child in Florida. She is driving back to her dad's garage.
In the back of the room is a treasure chest. (antique dealers plan to sell whatever
Charlotte doesn't want of her father's collection). Charlotte feels as if she is invading her dad's
privacy- his "private place". Yet ... The items that she finds leaves her brain swimming with questions.

Chapter One begins in 1962:
Wes, WW2 veteran, owned a Texaco gas station. He told Charlotte, his daughter, that he bought a Texaco station, rather than the popular Shell or Gulf Oil ...because of the STAR.
"It was the star, Charlotte: same five-pointed started as on my Air Force uniform. To me, that star meant freedom... Not just to fly and fight the enemy, but to come home, marry your mom,
and build our American dream".
Wes is the only local in his Florida community, that flew over the remains of Hiroshima.
We get hints right away that Wes is anti war.
"Avery had no patience for Bomb-worshipers. Unlike them, he carried his own involvement with the death of all those Japanese civilians like a dead weight, eight guilt-laden drag on an
otherwise upright life".

Sarah, Wes's wife, is on the brink of a nervous breakdown. Very early in the book, I sensed she felt suppressed, invisible within her own family, and had squashed her own dreams.
When she goes by her daughter's school - she run's into the band teacher.
Mr. Beauchamp tells her that he was accepted at Julliard. but the war and his local draft got in the way.
We see Sarah feeling comfortable talking with Mr. Beauchamp, (Charles), in a way we sense
she doesn't with others.
"A fragment of a poem, memorized decades ago, floated into Sarah's mind. Softly, she
repeated it: "From far, from eve and morning, and yon twelve-winded Sky, The stuff of life
to knit me, Blew hither: here am I".
"Beauchamp nodded, his eyes crinkling in a slow, sad smile. A. E. Housman, the sad
Shropshire lad of senior English. I don't think they teach him anymore "
"But they should".
**NOTE:.^.....at this point in the book, I knew I wanted to know more about this poem, and it's author. I purchased an A.E. Housman's collection of poems for myself to read later.

For children, life was a combination of eating frosted flakes for breakfast, and civil defense drills at the schools twice a week. I don't think I'm the only living adult, who doesn't
remember "Duck-and-Cover"..... where kids took cover under their school desks for
protection. In the case of an attack, the idea is that children would be safe.
A few of my friends - in Alameda- had bomb shelters in the backyard if your home. We'd play
in them at times.

The real insanity was that some schools were issuing the kids dog tags. Parents would be able to identify your children/ their bodies....in a worse case scenario. School administration leaders had to be crazy if they thought their plan would give parents peace of mine.
"Reasonable rates juvenile policies"!!!! Complete insanity!!!!!!

This story takes place in the early 60's ... in a very conservative state. Yet, the Avery family
were quite liberal for the times.
There was a 'special' quality in every single one of these characters. -- including the minor
Characters : Emilio, A Cuban refugee who is working at the gas station for Wes, and Steve, another gas station employee.
I felt empathy and compassion for each of them.
I think the best news .. when looking at the big picture, is that the Russian's didn't
deliver any nuclear warheads to Cuba.

The author wrote a value story - under 300 page.. ( these under 300-page authors are becoming
my fast-friends)
Family trauma and world trauma intertwined together. I recommend it ... Especially for those
curious about those 13 very scary days in Oct. in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
4.5

Thank You to Random House Publishing, Netgalley, and Susan Carol McCarthy.

[Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, seriously, I'm not sure if this is getting only three stars because of my reading slump or because I truly thought it was an okay book. I liked reading about the characters and all of these things they went through, the family secrets, the slip into mental health issues. They were all very well written, but alas here we are with just my three stars which is not bad either.

This book is set during the Cuban Missile Crisis as you can read from the description.



The book starts out in 2009 with Charlotte pulling up to her fathers Texaco station to go through some of her dads things before selling. This of course is after he has passed.



I liked the part where Charlotte is remembering when she asks her dad why he picked Texaco....



♣♣♣♣♣

Flipping on the back room's light, I have to laugh at the tin signs that line every available square foot of the walls and ceiling, most bearing the classic red-and green Texaco star. I asked Dad once why he chose Texaco over the more popular Shell or Gulf Oil brands. "It was the star, Charlotte: same five-pointed star as on my air force uniform. To me, that star meant freedom...not just to fly and fight the enemy, but to come home, marry your mom, and build our American dream. Besides, I just couldn't see myself running around with a seashell or an orange ball on my chest."

♣♣♣♣♣

We learn a lot of things about Charlotte, her mom Sarah, and her dad Wes, not everything is as it seems and it's sad. We also get to learn some history into the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I think people that love history, any kind of history, would like this book, but know that it has the story about a family and what they are going through as well.

*I would like to thank Penguin Random house for a print copy of this book for my honest review.*

[Magdalena aka A Bookaholic Swede · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never really thought about how life must have been those 13 days 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I have read about it, seen documentaries about it and seen movies about the days. But I have never really thought about how it must have been like in America during those days, with little knowledge about what was going on in the White House and in Soviet and still having to go on with your life as usual.

For the Avery family is it time for the Homecoming and the daughter in the family has a date with a boy from Cuba whose family is still there. They try to get on with their lives, the mother in the family is about to break down from stress and inner tumult and the father is doing everything he can to keep his family together. And, then a relative comes to their town. Someone they all thought had died and with that arrival, long-buried secrets are revealed.

I think what makes this story so compelling to read is that the story about the Avery family would be an OK read in any context, it's a good story, but it gets even better with the Cuban Missile Crisis in the background because as they struggle with everyday problems during the 60s they also have to face that this could be the start of WW3 and any moment a missile could end their lives. I mean this could really be the last ever Homecoming.

I liked this book because it got me to picture an American family during a difficult historical time. It got me to feel with them and it gave me a greater understanding of the how lives must have been back then. It gave me so much reading this book. The Cold War may be over, but war never ends...

Thanks to Bantam Dell and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

[☮Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, this book was hard to get into, but once I did it was a good  reading experience.  The author  wrote expertly on a little discussed  time in our history, the Cuban Missile Crisis. She knows this period amazingly  well, or else she researched  her behind off.   She describes with fluidity the fear and panic of the Floridians and the secret military operations in play, although maybe not so secret, as everyone seemed to know everything even before  the morning papers arrived.  I was in grade school  in 1962 and all I recall is that anytime a plane flew overhead, I  thought it was going to drop the  bomb on us.  This was in Illinois--I never imagined how it was in Florida, so close to the action and a prime target!   I knew only one family with a bomb shelter, my grandparents' next door neighbors; and since they stored their games there, we kids spent hours playing in it.

I loved Wes Avery, the main character--war hero, businessman, and loving family man.  I was confused, though, why all the characters  called him Wes, while the author chose to refer to him as Avery.  Very odd.

When writing historical  fiction there is a fine line between compelling the readers with an interesting story and flooding them with boring facts.  Here we almost crossed that line a few times.   But I liked the writing and the trip down memory lane, so 3 stars. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Place we Knew Well: A Novel by Susan McCarthy is a 2015 Bantam publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.


“The Great Enemy of Truth is very often not the lie- deliberate, contrived and dishonest- but the myth- persistent, persuasive and unrealistic”

This is a taut, suspenseful, yet moving and thought provoking novel that explores the cause and effect of stress, unrealized dreams, secrets, lies, and the complexities of family.

Set in Florida in 1962, on the cusp of the Cuban missile crisis, the Avery family, Wes, Sarah, and their daughter, Charlotte, will see their idealistic “American dream” like existence come apart at the seams.

A young Cuban America working for Wes at his gas station, a blonde blue eyed boy, named Emilio, steps up and agrees to take Wes's teenage daughter, Charlotte, to the homecoming dance after it becomes clear she will be a part of the homecoming court.

This seemingly innocuous plan sends Sarah Avery into a deeper tailspin than usual, bringing on more pill popping and migraines, but the week is just getting started.

Wes, is looking at military activity around him, knowing as a world war two survivor, that something is amiss, and he feels a palpable sense of foreboding.

Charlotte is wrapped up in her life as a popular twirler, planning homecoming events and dreaming of dresses and dances, but she's also keenly aware that her mother is unwell, and that something terrible is brewing between Russia and the United States.

As if these issues weren't enough to keep them on edge, a ghost from the past will walk back into their lives causing a crisis for the Avery's equal, in a personal and emotional sense, to the Cuban Missile one.

But, as with so many of these national crisis or events, life, unbelievably, seems to go on as usual, in many ways. Sarah hemmed Charlotte's homecoming dress, Wes ran the gas station, Charlotte went to school, preparing for her homecoming week. But, the situation weighed heavily on them, stalking their dreams and stretching the high wire they walked on tighter and tighter.

Charlotte can't believe this is happening NOW! It's homecoming! Wes is struggling with his wife's mental health, her increased pill popping, the higher dosages, and her high strung personality, which kept her wound up tighter than a two dollar watch on most days.

But, it's times like these, with the very real possibility one may not live to see the next sunrise, that causes churches to fill up, confessions to be made, prompts people to take risk they wouldn't dream of under normal circumstances.

So, it would seem, a person long gone from Sarah and Wes's life has one of those moments and simply must return to Florida with a specific goal in mind. This event will rival the prospect of nuclear war for Wes, who finds himself dealing with a crisis of conscience, with guilt, and the incredible pressure to keep his wife and daughter safe, and in the dark, which begins to take a toll on him. The tension climbs to an almost unbearable level as Wes finds himself caught in a web of deceit, as long buried secrets climb to the surface putting everything and everyone he holds dear on the line, as Sarah sinks deeper and deeper into the abyss, and Charlotte is left confused and afraid.

I think, for Sarah, it was the upcoming homecoming dance and the memories she had of a similar occasion that was the real trigger for her, as opposed to the apocalyptic energy everyone else was effected by. She seemed only vaguely aware that the world was on the verge of blowing up. Long held resentments bubbled to the surface and Wes and Charlotte took the brunt of it, quite unfairly, I might add. But, Sarah had kept her feelings and emotions contained for so long, once history threatened to repeat itself she simply lost it.

Her feelings, were also deeply rooted in her upbringing and in the time period in which she was raised. Still, she had to have been responding in part to the tension she sensed in others, as well. She seemed like a most difficult person, not all that likeable, but once I understood the heavy weight of disappointment and regret she kept bottled up, I admit I felt very angry and sad on her behalf.

Wes is often bewildered by his wife's moods, and at a loss on how to help her. He is vulnerable, has some weak moments, but pulls himself together when it counts.

The author did an admirable job of showing the effect of intense emotional trauma, recreating the country's extreme unease during those thirteen days in October, but also took pains to show the effects lies have on a large scale and on a smaller more personal scale. The myth referred to speaks to the spin we put on the lie, and how that in turn creates it's own cause and effect, which is what happened in the Cuban Missile crisis. The nation was sure Russia cowered in the end, chickened out, and this illusion created it's own snowball effect. Such was the case with lies told to Sarah and Wes, with their own lies, and when the myth of it was uncovered, their lives were never the same as a result.


For Charlotte, that week, in which she was honored to be a part of the homecoming court, the week she fell in love for the first time, the week she learned shocking truths about her family and herself, will forever be indelibly etched in her mind as the same week the world nearly came to an end, literally. The profound impression these events had on her life shaped her into the person she would become as an adult, would play a role in redefining her life goals, and set her on a path she never dreamed of pursuing. That one week in history will haunt Charlotte well into her adult years, and the memories, while lying dormant for long periods, occasionally awaken, bringing about erudite observations which draws out some striking similarities between the past and the present.

For such a short read, this story really packs a punch and I am still mulling over the many angles presented here. For some the story will draw out memories of a terrifying time in their lives , for others it will give them a realistic idea of what it felt like to live through such a terror filled period, bringing the Cuban Crisis into sharper focus. For others, the emotional trauma this family was suffering through on a personal level will take center stage. I think both situations played off each other, and kept the reader enthralled.

For those who are members of book clubs, this would be a superb selection for your group. Many levels to to ponder, many character analysis to discuss, many ways to perceive events and their long lasting toll on people as a nation, as family, as an individual.


4.5 stars

[Dean Cummings · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I turned the pages of Susan Carol McCarthy’s “A Place We Knew Well” my mind drifted back to the lyrics of Billy Joel’s song, “Leningrad.”

“The children lived in Levittown, and hid in the shelters underground…

Till the Soviets turned their ships around, and tore all the Cuban Missiles down…

And in that bright October sun, we knew our childhood days were done…

And I watched my friends go off to war. What do they keep on fighting for?”

In the story’s opening pages we find out that the year is 2009 and Charlotte is driving up to the site of her father’s now abandoned Orange Town Texaco gas station in Florida.

The land, as well as the capital assets of the store are in the process of being catalogued and valued by a property inventory company named Clement T. Grimes. There is some urgency to move things along quickly since there have been expression of interest from CVS and Walgreens to purchase the property even though it won’t even be listed until the next day.

As Charlotte approaches the property she finds that within herself are two competing “images” of her father’s business…each image representing a distinct era of her life and that of her family.

The image before her is the “current reality” version of the station. The entire property ringed by a chain link fence, a padlocked gate (to ward off vandals and thieves) and there are even sight blocking screens. The station’s once proud, gleaming canopy is now dirk-streaked, as are the windows. The gas pumps are rusted and tall stands of weeds are pushing up through the asphalt, so much so that Charlotte has to lean on the gate to push it open.

The reality of 2009 is that the once great business is without its attentive owner, the courteous, considerate staff, and the loyal local customers. It is no longer the community gathering point, but rather a forgotten relic from a different time that is now devoid of a soul.

The other image of the gas station is the one we see through the “mind’s eye” of Charlotte’s memories.

There’s the prominently displayed red-and-green “Texaco star” signs in the front entrance causing Charlotte to recall the question she asked her father so many years before, why he chose Texaco over the more popular Shell or Gulf Oil brands, “It was the star, Charlotte” he’d replied, “The same five-pointed star as on my air force uniform.” She recalled how the image of the star was, for her father, a symbol of freedom…not just when he flew and fought the enemy, but also later when he came home, married Sarah and built their American dream.

The boarded up gas station is filled with memories for Charlotte, her dad’s extra uniform hanging in the closet, the fragrant mix of oil and Old Spice, the old cash register at the front counter. She pauses a moment realizing that she is standing in the midst of her dad’s dream which, “went exactly as planned…for a while anyway” but something happened along the way, something that turned their well-ordered life on its head.

It began, she recalled, when President Kennedy announces that the Soviets have constructed nuclear missiles in Cuba. The day the army convoys clogged the highways and the sky is filled with fighter planes. That was the point, she realizes, when her family’s carefully constructed life begins to unravel.

As I progressed through the story I came to a scene where Wes, who is Charlotte’s father was recalling his days posted in Tinian Island during World War 2. It was during this posting that Wes began courting the woman who would eventually become his wife. Her name being Sarah. All of this courting was done by way of letters, one of which stood out in Wes’s memory.

It was the one letter in which he’d written and posted after gathering up his courage. It was the one in which he asked Sarah what qualities she might be looking for in a husband. Her written reply, to Wes’s great relief, seemed to confirm that she too was considering the idea of marriage. She listed her top quality for a prospective husband in one plainly written line:

“First and foremost, fidelity.”

As I read this, I realized that this scene was representative of the themes that are carried forth throughout the rest of the book. The question was, “How do we maintain our integrity…our fidelity, in the face of the greatest possible threat to mankind in all of history?”

For Cubans, especially those courageous enough to protest the injustices of the Castro regime, their desire to remain law abiding people who cherished family and community was put to the ultimate test. There was the judge who was imprisoned for making a public statement that Fidel Castro had “blood on his hands” after the man’s daughter was forced from her home to work in a place unknown to her and was later raped and murdered.

There were the families who dared join the man in his protest who were imprisoned or worse.

In Cuba, we learn, the injustices were everywhere.

For many Cubans, the arrival of Castro meant the destruction of their personal freedoms. The state, for example, removed parental authority when it came to children. The state would determine which schools the children were “authorized” to attend. The government also could decide, at any time, and without recourse, to force children away from their homes, to work in other parts of the country.

On the American side, we learn quite a bit from “A Place We Knew Well” about the trials the people were to suffer during the Cuban Missile Crisis. This impact was especially burdensome for the people of Florida. For many people it was the loss of control of their “ordered lives” of the Eisenhower era. And while the American government’s swift actions are easily justifiable in light of the shocking reality of the presence of Soviet long range missiles in Cuba, one could understand how these actions could be viewed as cruel and unforgiving based on how suddenly these wide and sweeping changes affected everything.

Americans in general, and Floridians specifically, were suddenly called upon to set their lives aside, in many cases at great personal cost, in order to ensure the safety of the nation and all within it. A more than worthy cause, but very costly all the same.

It was the costs paid by the everyday American, the effects of the crisis on individuals and communities that I hadn’t looked at quite as closely before reading “A Place We Knew Well.”

For example, there were the fruit producers, the ones who fought the weather and pests and successfully harvested their crops, only to watch the fruits of their hard labor as it rotted at the railway terminal. The government had commandeered the railway system and as a result, the producers had no way of getting their product to market.

As I read “A Place We Knew Well” I found that the story was affecting me in very real ways. As the pages and chapters passed, I found myself with lingering feelings concerning the ways that real people’s lives were impacted by one of the most dangerous chapters in human history. It wasn’t just in the grand events, the drama between nations, but also the impacts on the lives of the people in the story. Their work lives their family lives, their relationships.

Someone once said,

“When we pick up a book, we’re carried away down the currents of story to a world of imagination and when we land on the “shore”, something strange happens.

Stepping onto the “shore”, we’re changed, we don’t retrace the footsteps of the author we followed here…

No, instead we walk a mile in their shoes…”

Whoever said that was right on. That was exactly how I felt as I read this incredible telling of the personal dramas of this period of time. Still, I thought there might be more to it than that. Was there a reason that the telling of this particular story had such had an especially compelling emotional impact on me? Was there something behind the way this story “came on so strong?” and wouldn’t let me out of its grasp?

It was when I watched an interview with author Susan Carol McCarthy that I got my answers. She was just beginning to write the novel when she tragically lost her son. Fortunately, I have never experienced this, but I can only guess that it took incredible courage for the author to continue working through this novel after such a staggering blow.

And if that wasn’t enough, the author, while writing the book also endured what she described as a “nasty bout” with breast cancer. Her energy was low and she fought with “chemo brain” time and time again. What endurance, what tenacity she had to summon in order to endure the loss of a child and a serious cancer setback all in the span of a short period of time.

One of the reviewers of “A Place We Knew Well” – author Tom McNeal was quoted as saying:

“Susan Carol McCarthy’s genius is in turning history over to muscle-and-blood human beings who variously hope, fear, lash out, hold steady, and tear at the seams. If you weren’t there, this is as close to living through the Cuban Missile Crisis as you will ever come.”

Well I am one of those who “wasn’t there” during the crisis, I wasn’t born till five years later. But after reading McCarthy’s story, I think I’ve had a solid “glimpse” into what people went through in late October 1962. I don’t only know what they went through, but I think I might have a clue what they might have been feeling as they did.

Some authors use their talent to craft unforgettable stories, some dedicate themselves to diligent research so the story can be as authentic as possible. Susan Carol McCarthy did both of these things, but in my opinion took it one tremendous step further.

She wrote about pain and grief while she was living out pain and grief.

I’m so thankful she had the courage to do so. The story was so much better for it.

As I was for reading it.

[Jessica (Odd and Bookish) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received the book for free through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers.

I loved this book. The author did a tremendous job at capturing the fear of Americans during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I never realized just how terrifying that event was. The author also weaved in the family drama portion of the story really well.

[Nikki · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was actually looking forward to A Place We Knew Well because quite frankly there are very few historical fiction books on the 60s, especially based on the Cuban Missile Crisis. However, I was rather disappointed to find that the writing and the story failed to impress.

Overall the writing felt very unnatural to me and often stilted. This displayed itself greatly in the characters. The thoughts of characters often felt strange and unrealistic and unfortunately we were in characters' heads often. For example, male characters were acknowledging how women around them were attired--from specifics of the outfit to how their hair was styled. What man catalogs a woman in this way, especially guys not in fashion? The author also included a number of actual quotes from the time regarding the missile crisis, but it just made it feel like a book report than something a character was actually experiencing. Overall it was just very unrealistic and unnatural to me.

There were a few times that the author turned a phrase rather well, but these were few and far between and only lasted a few sentences. Overall I was not impressed with the writing. The author enjoyed interrupting her own sentences (with statements like this) and continuing on. This happened far too often! The author also enjoyed mentioning why things were named how they were with dull paragraphs explaining this place or that place. It added nothing to the story, the tension she should have been trying to grow or the writing overall. The mentions of television shows and famous people of the time were not effective, these do not make you feel like you are in another time like HF should. The dialogue in the book was also questionable. It was often quite bad and added to my feeling of wishing I was reading a non-fiction about the Cuban Missile Crisis instead.

I found that the author largely seemed to want to write a story about a family's issues rather than the Cuban Missile Crisis. I grew quite tired of the irritating characters, their tedious inner thoughts and the predictable nature of the plot. Where was the historical tension?

As for the last chapter (14), it was an email from the author to a Charlotte Avery (MC's name). So was this real or fake? I don't know. Why is it a chapter if it is real? If it is real why did the author think of pretty much nothing herself? She should have saved us the boredom and had us read the email only. If it was fake, what the hell was the point?!

Small Note: For the first part of the book a number of words were emphasized in bold print. I'm not sure if this was on purpose or an error in the ARC, I am hoping it is an ARC issue otherwise it is terrible and distracting.

Overall a disappointing and tedious read

Disclosure: ARC received from Netgalley & publisher in exchange for an honest review. (They may regret this.) Any and all quotes were taken from an advanced edition subject to change in the final edition.

[Marjorie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author has written an intimate, moving story of a family during the frightening period of time in October, 1962 known as the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the possibility of World War III, a nuclear war, became all too real. She has centered her story on the Avery family, Wes, the owner of a gas station in Florida, his wife, Sarah, and their teenage daughter, Charlotte. They’re living the American Dream, until that dream begins to crumble as the alarming news reports and rumors began to fly.

The effects of this distressing time are different for each character. For Wes, memories of his time fighting in World War II, the war that was supposed to end all wars, were renewed. His wife, Sarah, was already at a fragile place in her life, struggling with the loss of her dream of more children and the long ago loss of her dream of a singing career. For teenage Charlotte, it’s a very confusing time, as she bounces between fearing the end of her world and the joy of the Homecoming Dance and young love. And then there’s Emilio, a young Cuban man who was sent to the US for safety but whose family was still in Cuba in one of the most dangerous areas.

I was 11 years old during this time in history and well remember the “duck and cover” drills and being taught to hide under our flimsy wooden desks in case of a bomb, knowing what futile protection that would be. I was too young to understand all the political discussions that were constantly on TV but I certainly grasped the fact of the terrible danger that our country was in.

I think Ms. McCarthy has done an excellent job in portraying that period of time in history with all its fears and insecurities. Her characters are likeable and realistic. She does an excellent job contrasting the moments of fear and the moments when life went on “normally” as though nothing was happening. Though people were going to bed not knowing if there would be a tomorrow, they went about their regular routines as best as they could. They tried to prepare for the upcoming days, knowing in their hearts that there was little they could do.

For those readers who aren’t too familiar with the Cuban Missile Crisis, this book will give you an opportunity to live those days in its pages. For those who do remember those days, it will bring you right back to that place and time.

I was given this book by the publisher in return for an honest review.

[Lisa B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Thoughts
Wes Avery lives near a military base in Florida with his wife Sarah and daughter Charlotte. He knows something is up when he starts to see alot of activity at the base, both in the air and on the ground. The whole town soon finds out, along with the rest of the nation, about the Cuban Missile Crisis. A Place We Knew Well tells the story of how the crisis impacted one family, one town and an entire nation.

I liked the main character Ms. McCarthy created in Wes Avery. He is a simple man who just wants to take care of his family and run his business. He doesn’t really understand why his wife is slowly falling apart and tries to keep things together for their daughter. Even when the crisis is over, the after effects still take a toll on his family.

This was well written and evenly paced. I was drawn to the characters and wanted to know how their story would end. I like how the author chose to close the book. It was a unique way to provide some statistics regarding the impact the stress from the missile crisis had on people. Overall, I like the author’s style and would be interested in reading her other books.

Many thanks to Random House Publishing - Bantam, via Netgalley, for allowing me to read this in exchange for an unbiased review.

[Karen R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyday people are trying to live normal lives in a small Florida town, a stone’s throw from McCoy Air Force Base, SAC, leading up to the Cuban Missile Crisis. A suspenseful story in which I felt the palpable fear and uncertainty in an assortment of characters as tensions mounted amidst news reports, rumors of war and flybys of war planes.

The author has done her homework as this is a piece of historical fiction that realistically portrays what life was like during this harrowing time. The novel moved along at a good pace and kept my interest.

I was a young child during the Cuban missile crisis, unaware that a full-scale nuclear war was so close to our doorstep. It was something my parents never talked about even as I grew older. Although this story is a piece of fiction, it has motivated me to read further on the subject and to query older acquaintances about their memories.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Marla · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author does a great job of showing how scary it was for the American citizens living in Florida during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I really enjoyed this book. We have easier access to the media and communications so whenever I read a book set back in the 1960's, I have to remind myself they didn't have cell phones and the internet so it was harder to get up-to-date information. Very well written.

[Barb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wes Avery runs the Texaco Station on the corner of Princeton and Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando, Florida. Wife Sarah has been emotionally fragile in recent years, a near brush with Hurricane Donna in close proximity to her hysterectomy left Wes and their daughter Charlotte concerned. October 1962 brings challenges for their family and the nation.

I appreciate character driven stories and historical fiction where the author teaches me about the past, this novel was enjoyable on both counts. Juxtaposing the Avery family's personal conflicts and emotional well being with the tension filled thirteen days of the Cuban Missile Crisis was an excellent way to portray what was happening to the American public on a broad scale as well as offering insight into the added stress of Americans living in south Florida. In addition the Avery family had their own conflicts that made for interesting reading regardless of the setting.

I enjoyed the characters McCarthy created, I thought she did an excellent job making the setting and the period come to life. I was sometimes amused by the language Wes would choose to express his frustration "gol-durn" seems a historically and regionally reasonable kind of curse. I also liked that Wes had experience in WWII and could offer his insights as an experienced military man as to what was likely going on behind the scenes with the political struggle and posturing that created the missile crisis.

I enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to others who like character driven stories. I do have to note one disappointment with the book. I've recently read several books where the last chapter had me scratching my head wondering why it was included, the last chapter of this book had me doing the same. The last chapter of 'A Place We Knew Well' is in the format of a reply e-mail with the subject: Your Class of '63 Questionnaire, the sender is CAvery833@aol.com (the reader reasonably assumes that it is Charlotte Avery, who we've just gotten to know over the course of the previous 13 chapters, in reading the body of the e-mail the assumption proves correct) the recipient is Susan@SusanCarolMcCarthy.com, obviously the author of the book. The date is November 3, 2013.

In the e-mail Charlotte gives a condensed run through of her memories of the events that were depicted in the novel with updates on what happened after she graduated from high school. The whole chapter took me out of the very realistic fictional world the author had just created and left me wondering why she would have inserted herself into the story this way. If it was to give the fiction a more realistic feel it had the opposite effect for me.

The e-mail doesn't tie into the first chapter of the book which takes place on March 11, 2009 when Charlotte is looking through a safe with some personal belongings in the Texaco Station after her father's death. It's never mentioned in the contemporary chapter that an author is doing research for a book about the Missile Crisis and asking the class of 1963 questions about their memories of events during that period. It forced me to make these assumptions and made this information feel completely disconnected from the rest of the novel. I read an advance uncorrected proof so the final print version could be different.

Thank you to the Amazon Vine Program and the publisher, Bantam Books for making the advance reader copy available to me.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the second and third grade we practiced “duck and cover” drills along with regular fire drills. I liked the fire drills better because we could go outside. No one told us we were getting under our desks or sometimes going to the basement to crouch against the wall with our coat pulled over our heads.

Later in Junior High School, our principal turned on the PA and turned we heard that about the beginnings of the Cuban Missile Crisis. This time we realized that there may be no tomorrow. We went home on a very quiet school bus and all the girls were sobbing. Our family had a bomb shelter in the basement but wondered how a plastic door could keep out radiation and what about when you leave the bomb shelter?

A Place We Knew Well by Susan Carol McCarthy uses this moment in our history to plant her story. It is set in Florida where the panic must have been magnified. In Indiana, we were just silent, watching and listening to the news. In Florida, people were fleeing the state and the stations were running out of gasoline. Avery narrates most of the story and he is a station owner, a Texaco man. He had been in Japan and participated in bombing of the cities but not the dropping of the atomic bomb. His daughter, Charlotte, aka Kitty, is trying to have a normal teenaged girl’s life. Her mother, Sarah is coming unglued and is approaching what was called in those days a “nervous breakdown”.

The first part of this book dragged. I developed a deep affection for the Avery character but I wanted to kick the story into a faster speed. As the missile crisis became more urgent so did the family crisis, then I was compelled to read. There was some mystery woven into to the story but it is the family drama that pulled me along.

I love historical fiction and one of the things that I really liked in this book was Susan Carol McCarthy using direct quotes from the leaders involved in this crisis. That makes me want to learn more in depth about this situation. I also liked that I could recognize some feelings that I felt at that time.

I received this Advanced Reading Copy by making a selection from Amazon Vine books but that in no way influenced my thoughts or feelings in this review. I also posted this review only on sites meant for reading not for selling.

[Toby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Bantam Dell, via NetGalley, for an opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review!

4.5

I really enjoyed this book. I didn't live through the Cuban Missile Crisis -- obviously -- but it's also not a period of history that is really talked much about. That's one of the reasons I really enjoyed A Place We Knew Well -- because the family crises in this book combined with the actual Missile Crisis was very realistic and very sad, in some ways.

I feel that McCarthy brought the era back to life, in some ways, yet made the characters relatable to people who were born long after that era. For example -- Wes Avery, the father, is a WWII vet. But the issues he faces as a vet and the issues that vets face now aren't terribly different. And Charlotte (aka Kitty), his daughter, is 16 years old and is dealing with all of the "typical" 16-year-old stuff (prom, homecoming, etc.), that 16- and 17-year-olds still deal with today. The only person I didn't really relate to in the family was Wes' wife, Sarah, but although I couldn't really relate, her situation was also something that occurs now.

I definitely want to read more books by McCarthy, and I'd recommend this book to anyone who either has an avid interest in the period of time in which the Missile Crisis occurred, or who wants to learn more about it.

[Cathy Beyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit that I had to push myself at the beginning, because even though the atmosphere and setting of the book were spot on, for quite a while I couldn't see where the story was going. It was all about the threat a potential WW3. Enter Kitty, and it really takes off.
The beginning of the sixties with all the angst and panic around the Cuban crisis, I know only from my history classes and the odd documentary, but these seldom tackle the real lives and feelings of ordinary people. This novel does exactly that, through the eyes of Wes, who has a slightly more interesting perspective on the matter than the average American, because of his WW2 as an air force bomber. Emilio makes us aware of some of the things the ordinary Cubans had to live through before and during Fidel Castro's regime.
Apart from that, Sarah and Charlotte's story tackles the problem of infertility and adoption and also mental illness in a very believable way.The deeper you get into the story, the more things spiral out of control, the more I got into it and the more I admire what the author has done.
Well written, well researched, I recommend it wholeheartedly.

[Maureen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not connect with this book at all. I can't come up with a specific reason, it just wasn't my cup of tea.

ARC from publisher.

[Chaitra · Rating 3 out of 5]

For something with such a heavy topic such as the helplessness and hysteria normal people faced when faced with imminent nuclear war, it was a fast read. Which is to say, it read like a thriller even though it wasn't one. The Cuban Missile Crisis looms large in the book, but ultimately it's only a backdrop for the more intimate family drama that the Averys go through during this time. I liked the Averys, and I cared a little for what they went through. But mostly I felt that it interrupted the very real fear depicted, and the resignation to the doom that was facing ordinary people. It's a good book, and in a way the family tension is perfectly in sync with the deterioration of the outside world. I just wish I liked the Averys a bit more.

[Cian O hAnnrachainn · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Cold War era is now far enough in the past to be considered historical, making A PLACE WE KNEW WELL a work of historical fiction.


Set in Florida during the period of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the novel puts us into the heart of a single family that lies in the crosshairs of those Cuban missiles, portraying the stress and madness of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. The book opens with the only child of this family, Charlotte, making a last visit to her father's garage in the present day. There she finds some odd treasures in his safe, and with that author Susan Carol McCarthy pulls her readers into the story. What do the keepsakes mean, you'll wonder, and you'll turn the page.


The story then returns to the past, to the very beginning of military manuevering at a nearby army base. The locals realize that something unusual is up. Charlotte's father Wes, the proud owner of the garage, fought in the Second World War and flew over the remains of Hiroshima. He's fervently against war, you see, and if you don't see it at first you'll get the point repeatedly. The novel gets a bit preachy about the anti-war message.


Charlotte's mother Sarah is teetering on the edge of nervous collapse, the stress of her very existence numbed by prescription drugs. Mother's little helper, the Rolling Stones called those pills. It's a touch of authenticity, to have Sarah popping little yellow pills to deal with her disappointments in life. Those miseries are many, from crushed dreams of a musical career to infertility and misguided medical treatment.


The book starts slow as the military build-up escalates, but most of the action revolves around the ordinary activities of this Florida-based family. There are school functions, business matters to attend to, dresses to buy and meals to eat. Halfway through the author introduces a surprise character from the family's past, and suddenly a deep dark family secret is thrown into the mix. Will the new arrival blow up the family's peaceful existence, and will the Russians deliver those nuclear warheads to Cuba?


The tension ramps up and the novel moves at a more enjoyable pace through the second half. Personal interactions become more complex and the character of Wes develops very nicely as he notices things that the average man did not notice in the early 1960's, like the fact that his wife is falling apart mentally.


After the slog through the first half I was not sure that I liked the novel all that much, but the second half was well-written and held my attention. The book is a short one, a nice weekend read that I would recommend to anyone. The emotional core of the story is fleshed out with incidents of madness as the local populace react to the possibility they could be vaporized at any moment, and the author does a fine job of presenting the atmosphere through which her characters move towards a fitting resolution.


By the way, I received a copy of the book from Penguin's First To Read programme. In case anyone should ask.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was given an electronic copy by Random House Publishing Group - Bantam Dell and NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

A Place We Knew Well is a historical fiction novel regarding the Cuban Missile Crisis, from the perspective of the Avery family. As an owner of a gas station in Florida, Avery had to deal with the gas shortages and the anxiety of his customers and friends. With the added pressure of a wife who is falling apart from stress, both due to the missile crisis and some personal turmoil, Avery has to try and keep his teenage daughter Charlotte's life as normal as possible. Little does he know, but life as Avery knows it is about to get even more complicated.

The first chapter of A Place We Knew Well does not connect well to the ending, as it is the only part of the book that is not written in the past. It is difficult to discern the adult Charlotte's state of mind regarding the sale of her father's gas station, as the author does not give any clues to the state of the relationship between the two over the past several decades. The startling secret that is revealed leads to an abrupt ending of the book and leaves the reader to imagine the years that transpire from 1962 until 2009 (the year listed in the prologue). The author has captured the fear and anxiety of families during the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, but character development has suffered because of the historical focus. The character that comes to life the most is Avery, but I really did not get a complete picture of his feelings and motivations. A Place We Knew Well is good for readers who want to know more about this important period of American history.

[Thing Two · Rating 4 out of 5]

My mother was in the hospital giving birth as tanks rolled down the street in Florida, preparing to go to war with Cuba, in October, 1962. She's always talked about this experience, but I never quite understood until I picked up Susan Carol McCarthy's A Place We Knew Well.

Set in Orlando during the last week of October, 1962, this is the story of one man's view of the world from the gas station he owns. He watches his daughter prepare for homecoming. He watches his wife struggle with depression. And he watches the tanks roll down US 441, heading to Miami. He watches his neighbors trying desperately to control their lives, knowing that others in Washington, Havana, and Moscow have all the power.

It's an interesting look into the madness of a specific time period, one I've never read about in such a man-on-the-ground way. I highly recommend this book to Orlando residents, and anyone interested in Cold War /1960s.

[Amy Neftzger · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that will most likely appeal to history buffs, especially individuals interested in the cold war and family life in the early 60s. The story centers on a family living in central Florida during 1963 and how their lives intersect with the events of history while dealing with their own personal demons. The book definitely pulls the reader back into the time period, but be prepared for an experience of what the world was like before the women's liberation movement when women didn't have careers. I admit that there were times when I couldn't relate to the characters because I had trouble seeing why the homecoming dance and parade were so important. However, the fact that I found these characters annoying at times shows how well the author created the atmosphere of that earlier time. I"m just glad that I don't live there.

Note: I was given a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Taryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Life, like the sea, comes at us hard," he could hear Old Pa saying. "It's kindness--simple human kindness---that buffers the blows."

A family drama set in central Florida, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Wes Avery is a successful gas station owner and dutiful family man. His once meticulous wife Sarah is slowly pulling away from the family, as she increasingly retreats to the family bomb shelter. His 17-year-old daughter Charlotte is nervous about the looming threat of nuclear war, but is also preoccupied with high school and upcoming homecoming activities. As the tension builds between Russia and the United States, so does the tension in the Avery household.

Contemplating the global game played out over the past week, Avery had the dizzying realization that they'd reached every chess player's worst nightmare: zugzwang.

Zugzwang, the endgame perfected by Persian chess masters over a thousand years ago, occurred when every move left is "bad" and whichever player has the next move will, as a result of his move, lose.

In the thermonuclear-charged game between Khrushchev and Kennedy, having reached zugzwang, the only question left to answer was: Whose turn is it? Was it Kennedy's due to Khrushchev's downing of the U-2? Or was it Khrushchev's because of some secret move on Kennedy's part?

This novel felt like two different books: a family drama and non-fiction novel. The non-fiction sections were actually my favorite parts! At the end of each school year, we would always stall out over World War II and then maybe devote the last couple days to everything that happened more recently. I really only knew the basics about the Cuban Missile Crisis. I learned a lot from this book (Pedro Pans, dog tags, women's civil defense effort., etc.), especially about the civilian response. The author obviously did a lot of research. The most fascinating part of this book was the setting: Central Florida in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis. With the main character managing a successful gas station and the location set near an army base, the author is able to explore the escalating tension from an interesting, impactful angle. The author did a good job of portraying the fear and uncertainty the families experienced, as well as the innocence off the time, and the subsequent loss of innocence. I liked that the author chose to tell the story from the perspective of those who are helplessly watching the situation unfold through rumor and television report.

He could see in her eyes the struggle between her need and her reluctance to believe him. In kindergarten, she'd nicknamed him Happy Pappy, discerning even at the age of five, his determined optimism. Her childhood drawings of him were always smiling. But clearly the problems they were facing today were so much larger, and scarier, than he had the power to resolve. That realization--her recognition that all the positive thinking in the world couldn't mask the fact that he was as powerless as she was-- pained him to no end.

I wasn't too emotionally invested with the Avery family and their domestic situation. The characters never felt like fully formed people and I didn't really care much about them or their relationships to each other. It seemed as if the author's voice was speaking through them and the characters were simply vehicles through which to explore this fascinating time period in history. Avery and his gas station employees, Steve and Emilio, were the most interesting characters. Avery's POV dominated most of the book, so maybe it would helped if there were more chapters from Sarah's and Charlotte's point of view. I did not like the way the last chapter was set up. I thought there would be more symmetry with the intro, so the letter to the actual author threw me off and really took me out of the book.

Whenever Mama did that, she'd quote President Roosevelt: "When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on." …But knots--she sighed deeply, hurting as she thought of it--like families, like dreams, like life, for that matter, can be slippery things, unwilling or unable to hold.

While I felt kind of 'meh' about the Avery family, I was very invested in the crisis unfolding around them. That is no small feat, considering I already knew the basics of how that situation ended up! The historical aspects of A Place We Knew Well were really interesting. I will be seeking out more books about this time period.

(Being from Southeast Texas, there was a one sentence reference to Port Arthur in Chapter 8 which was neat to read!)

"This thing's got disaster written all over it," Sarah had said. He wished she were here now to see them. Those kids aren't the disaster, he would've told her. We are; every one of us who saw this thing coming and didn't do everything in our power to stop it.

(I received this book from the LibraryThing Early Reviewer's program, in exchange for an honest review.)

[Victoria Edwards · Rating 3 out of 5]

This eBook was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Susan McCarthy's A Place We Knew Well had intriguing characters and twists but a disappointingly slow beginning and flat ending.

The novel looks at the Cuban Missile Crisis through the eyes of a family living in suburban Florida. It examines the contrast between the cookie-cutter family values of the 60s and the mounting stresses of a potential World War III.

The characters of A Place We Knew Well are complex and add more depth to the plot.

Wes Avery, whom the novel seems to focus on most, is a World War II veteran who fears the worst may come of the Cuban Missile Crisis but continues to behave as though all is well for the sake of his family.

Sarah Avery is a housewife who numbs her worries with pills. Her prejudices and nervous breakdowns make her the most interesting character of the novel.

Charlotte Avery, their only child, struggles to prepare for homecoming in the midst of the Crisis.

The novel opens with the Charlotte of modern day rummaging through her father's garage, where she finds several odd items that all relate to their family's struggles during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Wanting to know the relationship between the objects and Charlotte's distaste for that time of her life, I turned the page.

The slow pace and the focus on Wes quickly bored me. I wanted to know more about Sarah and Charlotte. While the beginning of the story offers a good snapshot of the times--particularly with the added perspective of the Cuban boy Wes hires at the garage--I wanted more action. Perhaps because I know from history that the Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved, I felt little of the suspense the Crisis presses on the Avery family.

McCarthy redeemed herself, though, and renewed my interest with a plot twist that caught me off guard and the introduction of a character very unlike the others.

Though the missiles never explode, the family does.

The loss of two stars on my rating is attributed in part to the initially slow pace and the focus on Wes, who bored me. Mostly, though, the book disappointed me in its final chapter, which was structured as a character's email to the author.

I've read too many stories that end or begin their novels in this manner, and I think it's not only cliche, but also a bit cheesy. Granted, some of these novels have been a success--such as Rick Riordon's Kane Chronicles--but A Place We Knew Well would have been better suited to end differently.

I agree that the author should end in modern day, but why not continue in narrative form and finish the scene of Charlotte at her father's garage? Without a full-circle ending, the introduction feels incomplete. More than that, it feels unnecessary. What is the importance of naming Charlotte's father's attorney if he only came up a couple times, and only in the introduction? Will Charlotte ever learn the relation between the items she discovered in her father's safe? What happened to the character introduced halfway through the story?

The ending McCarthy chose also allows for little emotional weight. I've spent over 250 pages with these characters but all I know of their futures is told in a formal, detached letter to a stranger. The long-term effects of the Cold War on the characters is revealed through numbers and politics when it should be revealed through emotional narrative; numbers and politics belong in the Author's Note.

The novel would have been much stronger if McCarthy had ended it in a place I knew not so well.

Recommendation: Those interested in the Cuban Missile Crisis and/or life in the 1960s might enjoy this novel.

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[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I requested A Place We Knew Well because it was a family drama set during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was just ten years old in 1962 and had little understanding of world politics. I only knew that the adults in my life were fixated on the small black and white television screen and I knew they were frightened and worried. So I was worried. It was years later that I associated those days of fear with the Crisis.

The novel starts in 2009 with a woman returning to what was her father's gas station, now closed after his death. She notes the "lingering smells of petroleum, cigarettes, and strong coffee that, as long as I can remember, meant "Dad's work." She sees the cash register and the red-and-green Texaco star, finds her father's work jacket which smells of Old Spice and oil.

The woman is jolted to October 1962, her senior year in high school.

I was jolted back myself, to the gas station in our front yard that my father ran until 1963 when he sold the business he had built with his father. Our Station was not a Texaco; that was next door, a later arrival, fancier and more modern than our 1940s one. Our Station was cinder block, unheated, with oil stained cement floors.

For my family the Cuban Missile Crisis passed and was never spoke of. McCarthy was older at the time, and her novel appears to be a cathartic work to organize and control the experience.

McCarthy's novel revolves around the events of October 19, 1962 and the thirteen days that followed.

Wes Avery runs his gas station in Orlando, Florida, not far from McCoy AFB. Wes was a navy pilot in WWII; he understands that unusual things are going on. Such as the arrival of top-secret U-2s at the field and an alert of DEFCON 2, meaning imminent war with the Strategic Air Command.

His wife is active in promoting fall out shelters. She is frustrated and depressed, popping pills to fight a nervous breakdown. Wes had flown over Japan after the atomic bomb attack and saw the destruction. He knows there is no surviving an atomic war.

Meantime, Wes's daughter is on the Homecoming Court at school. Her date is a Cuban refugee his once wealthy family remain in Cuba. He hates Castro but encounters prejudice because he is Cuban and poor.

On top of everything else Wes is visited by someone who is supposed to be 'dead' and who threatens to destroy his family just as surely as Fidel Castro threatens to destroy America.

I liked Wes Avery. He is a good man who sees things straight but is forced to prevaricate to protect his family. He wants to protect his daughter from knowledge that her world may be about to end, allowing her to enjoy the simple pleasures of being up for Homecoming Queen. And he must protect his wife from knowing that a person from her past is returned, a person who could destroy his family.

The novel delivers a lot of history and background information on the political and social climate of the time. Sadly Wes's flashbacks become intrusive and slow the momentum of the story. McCarthy has a lot she wants us to know, but not all of it fits seamlessly into the story. It is my main criticism of the novel.

For readers younger than we Boomers, the novel offers insight into a time when mainland America first felt the threat of war on their home turf, long before the attacks of 9-11. They will wonder at America's nativity. As Peter Pan told Wendy, "You see children know such lot now." A sad wisdom indeed.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

[Carolyn Feltus-atkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the plot was thin but I enjoyed the book because I grew up on Winter Park and, though it is set before my time, it was fun read about places I know.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

1962. It was Frosted Flakes, the Texaco star, Andy and Opie Taylor, Gunsmoke and Lawrence Welk. But it was also the Cold War, duck-and-cover drills, fallout shelters, the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Susan Carol McCarthy's new novel A Place We Knew Well (Bantam, digital galley), set in Central Florida in the fall of 1962, is a curious mix of documentary and daytime soap, American Experience meets Search for Tomorrow.

McCarthy is very good at specifying the details of the era, from B-52 bombers lumbering overhead to U-2 spy planes, looking like "a cluster of fantastic dragonflies,'' parked at McCoy Air Force Base. Orlando gas station owner and World War II vet Wes Avery and his teenage daughter Charlotte are viewing the planes through binoculars when an MP asks them to return to their car and move away from the restricted area.

The Averys -- Wes, Charlotte and mom Sarah -- are the major players in McCarthy's story as the nation is gripped by the thought of long-range Russian missiles parked off Florida's front porch. Cuba is just 90 miles from Key West, and missiles could reach Central Florida in eight to 10 minutes. Wes, who saw the aftermath of Hiroshima from the air, has no patience with local "Bombworshippers,'' and is dismayed when a local insurance company salesman gives him dogtags for Charlotte as preparation for "a worst-case scenario.'' Charlotte, meanwhile, is a typical teen worried that the crisis might disrupt homecoming at Edgewater High and her first date with Emilio, a teenage "Pedro Pan,'' sent to the U.S. by his aristocratic parents after the Cuban revolution.

Meanwhile, Sarah, depressed after a recent hysterectomy, is coming apart at the seams, popping uppers and downers as she works with the local women's civil defense league, overseeing the stocking of public bomb shelters. She totally disapproves of Charlotte's date with Emilio, even though the handsome teen works for her husband. As tensions mount about possible nuclear war, an estranged family member turns up and long-held secrets are exposed. The subsequent fallout changes the Averys' lives forever.

A Place We Knew Well begins slowly but eventually builds some suspense. Still, the ending can't help but be anticlimactic, and a final letter to McCarthy from a character strikes a false note. Overall, the book doesn't have the dramatic impact of McCarthy's first novel, Lay That Trumpet In Our Hands, another family story inspired by real events in Central Florida. But it is set a decade earlier, in 1951, when the KKK terrorized the black community. McCarthy deserves credit for her research and her reimagining of an historical turning point, but her fictional characters just aren't as interesting as the times or the place in which they lived.

from On A Clear Day I Can Read Forever

[Catherine (The Gilmore Guide to Books) · Rating 2 out of 5]

On this day in 1962 President Kennedy was notified that Russia had amassed nuclear missiles in Cuba. Despite how close we came to a third world war fiction about the Cuban Missile Crisis is not plentiful but author Susan Carol McCarthy makes it the focus of her new novel, A Place We Knew Well. The novel is set in Orlando, Florida, and is centered on Wes and Sarah Avery and their sixteen-year-old daughter, Charlotte. In them, McCarthy is able to bring to life the crisis from three very different perspectives. Wes was a tail gunner during WWII and so knows early on that what is happening in Florida with the nearby Air Force base is much more than training exercises. On the surface Sarah is the perfect 1960s housewife. Impeccably coiffed and dressed, she does her patriotic duty on the Civil Defense committee of the local Women’s Club. Underneath, she needs a steady dose of Nembutal to cope with a world that seems increasingly frightening and unmanageable. For Charlotte, life in October 1962i about being voted part of the Homecoming court. The tension around her is increased when she agrees to go to the dance with a boy in her school who is a Cuban exile.

McCarthy handles the pacing well in that A Place We Knew Well holds your attention. By focusing on the 13 days leading up to the deadline for each country’s demands McCarthy is able to illustrate not only the panic of the final days but the slow building of tension in not only the Averys but in everyone around them. Where things go a bit awry is with plot overload. McCarthy adds not one but two additional stories involving Sarah Avery. One is of a very real issue of the times but combined with the second, left that character with nowhere to go but an overwrought conclusion that felt unrealistic. A novel about the Cuban Missile Crisis alone is hard to come by and offers so much material to work with that additional dramatics only detracted from what was a nerve wracking time in American history.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A 2.5 star book, I'd say. It would've gotten a full 3 from me except for two things.

- One of the characters, Sarah Avery, a housewife who'd given up her youthful dreams of being an opera singer, kept pet parakeets in a cage. In the midst of a nervous breakdown brought on by years of various events in her life, she hysterically sets the birds free, then tells her husband "I wanted songbirds. Canaries! But I let the guy in the shop talk me into parakeets. I settled, Wes. And I never heard a single note out of any one of them." Oof! Talk about your heavy-handed, unoriginal symbolism. Every time Sarah went anywhere near the birdcage throughout the story, I felt like an anvil was being dropped on my head.

- The final chapter of the book consists of a long, LONG 2013 e-mail from the fictional character of Charlotte Avery to the book's author, Susan McCarthy. Aside from the e-mail rehashing everything you've just read in the book and infodumping a lot of facts and figures about the Cuban Missile Crisis and its aftermath, the conceit of this fictional girl you've been reading about writing to the author of the novel is just so corny!

Other than those two things, the book was pretty good. The Cuban Missile Crisis made for an interesting backdrop to a Florida family's unraveling, and the terrifyingly real threat of nuclear war was palpable. I'm fascinated by the early 1960s era -- the Kennedys, Mad Men, all of that -- so that angle was interesting.

Bottom line: I wish I'd checked this out of the library instead of buying it. I was lured in by that pretty retro cover, though!

[Kathryn in FL · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this shortly after it was released because I live only a few miles away from where the author places the family in the story. Told from Charlotte's teenage eyes, she and her parents await their possible demise, as the tensions build during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The author has stated that this story is based on her own recollections during that time, while living in Orlando. Unfortunately, I felt that the story unwinds with to many unimportant details (lots of information on running a gasoline/auto repair shop) and her mother's daily activities as a stay-at-home mom. Orlando at that time had a large military base and it was a military town (this was way before Walt Disney laid eyes on it), thus many were on stand-by awaiting orders to activate and that is discussed on a superficial level, again, with unneeded minutia. This book would have been stronger had she gotten more background on that aspect or just not have incorporated it to the extent that she did.

I wanted to like this book a lot more, it just didn't deliver the tension that you would expect for a family awaiting a missile attack. I didn't "taste" the terror although she makes an effort to incorporate it. I feel somehow guilty for not awarding it more stars, it wasn't a bad book. It just wasn't intriguing. If I hadn't been familiar with the references made to landmarks in the area, I probably would have abandoned it.