The Bennett family was happy and loving. For years, the married couple and their two
daughters spent their summers in a little beach house on Edisto Island less
than an hour away from their Charleston, South Carolina home.
The girls fished and sailed boats, their mother cooked large, sumptuous
meals and their father immersed himself in his favorite hobby: painting. One summer, the eldest daughter Julia brings
her college roommate to stay with the family. Marney becomes like an adopted daughter,
joining in on family activities and working with Julia to save money before
going back to college again each fall.
But one summer, something is different.
Marney stands a little too close to Charlie Bennett, drinks from his
cup, stares a little too long. That
fall, Charlie announces that he is divorcing Mary Ellen and stays out at the
beach house permanently with Marney.
Before the Bennett’s know it, Marney is expecting a child
and Charlie marries her so the two can start a new family. Heartbroken, the Bennett women all deal with
this loss in different ways. Julia flees
to graduate school and then New York City where she has become a famous painter
and visual arts teacher at a university.
Second daughter Meg keeps everything in her life as orderly and proper
as possible and continues to do so throughout marriage and children. Mary Ellen takes up a new job in Charleston
and becomes a well-respected frame restorer for an antique store. Each of the women avoids the issue as much as
possible, even after Charlie’s death several years later.
Fast forward twenty-five years and the Bennett women have
rebuilt their lives in one fashion or another.
Then one evening after Julia is preparing for a large art show, Marney
appears at her door in New York. She has
lung cancer and needs Julia to care for her three children while she
recovers. Julia, who has never met her
half siblings (and never wanted to) and has a big Fulbright scholarship trip
planned to Istanbul in the coming months is convinced that there must be someone else who can care for
these children. After all, Marney ruined
her family and years of her happiness.
Julia certainly doesn’t owe her anything.
But Julia changes her mind and returns to South Carolina and
the island that she has tried not to think about for years. Terrified that this trip will destroy her
emotionally, she treads very lightly at first.
But when she sees the youngest boy who has her father’s eyes, the middle
daughter who loves to draw and paint just as she and her father used to and the
serious eldest child who loves to read she finds herself falling in love with
the family she never knew.
Julia may not find all of the answers to her questions, but by
returning to Edisto she does more for herself and the three children than she’d
ever imagined. Moon Over Edisto is full of the southern Gothic and emotional pull
of a complicated family saga. Most of Hart's books take place in Charleston or the South Carolina lowlands and anyone who has ever visited will tell you her portrayal is as real as it gets. This book isn't all southern belles and sweet tea, but it is chock full of charm and personal growth.
