Finding Griffin

by Barbara Delaney

Mysterious nineteenth-century letters found in the attic of her city brownstone lead Anna and her restless granddaughter, Emma, on a search to discover family secrets in the town of Griffin. To their surprise, the elusive town has all but vanished, reclaimed by the Adirondack forest. What was initially a larky jaunt becomes a puzzle. Anna and Emma's chance encounter with Miles, a lone fisherman on the bans of the East Branch near Griffin, quickly cascades into a series of unanticipated events. Who could have guessed that the mild bump of their worlds would knock Anna and Miles' lives off course? The letters set in motion an unforeseen journey along the green verdant paths and rushing lucid streams sequestered in the backwoods of the Adirondacks. Some trails lead them further into the past; others beckon to a still-occluded future; and then there are promising byways leading nowhere—or, like mistaken deer trails, only divined by the silent furry creatures that live hidden in the forest. Anna's comfortable life as an Albany florist and Miles' simple lifestyle as an Adirondack woodsman are knocked askew by seemly innocent revelations. Can Anna and Miles escape from their time-hardened cocoons? What will Anna and Miles ultimately find in Griffin? "In Finding Griffin, the past and present overlap with intriguing congruencies. Like photographic transparencies, sepia-toned suffragists are layered-over by color images of 1970s-era war protestors, the love-struck Luke of 19th-century Griffin foreshadows his 21st-century Vietnam Vet counterpart; a Victorian-era painter and a contemporary photographer are mesmerized by the same kaleidoscope of butterflies. Delaney shows us that throughout the changes in history there exist the constants that bind one generation to the next and lend meaning to each era's events." —Persis Granger, author of Adirondack Gold

236 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Sally · Rating 3 out of 5]

The novel's conceit is interesting--a woman and her granddaughter find some 19th century letters in the attic and decide to do some genealogical research. This research leads to the town of Griffin, a place in the Catskills which no longer exists, except for one man who lives in a cabin. Although at first they're suspicious, he turns out to be a Vietnam vet who is just not too fond of other people. Friendship blossoms between Miles and Anna and he helps with the research. There are some flashbacks to the people of the letters, but that sort of fades out in the second half as the love affair between Anna and Miles develops. Emma, the granddaughter, who is also keen to research, drives much of the plot with her enthusiasm, including a problematic friend who gets mixed up with a child pornographer. The plot and characters are quite interesting; the writing is a little forced at times, sometimes very short sections or melodramatic internal monologues that seem overly literary, as though the author thinks she needs to think make parts of it deeper. A good first effort, despite some clunkiness.