A Crooked Cottage by the Sea

Wonderful Wonderful story but you left out what happened to that rotten husband of hers and you left out in between times when she probably had a friend With whom she could share and I couldn’t get that from you

The story line was good in this first book I read by this author. The only thing that frustrates me was the constant repetition of facts. The author seemed insecure in his ability to convey facts and consistently repeated several key issues.

This book was very intricate, and full of surprises. It really touched me, and I could not stop reading it. I simply could not wait to see what happened next.

I have never read a book this good. I would recommend it to everyone. So easy reading but it pulls you in and you don’t want to let go. The end was so special and unexpected I just broke down and cried.

The Crooked Cottage by the Sea by John Anthony Miller is a wonderful book that explores questions of loyalty to one’s country – specifically, how could a man or woman betray his or her country? – of loneliness – the loneliness of a woman, withholding a medical prognosis from her family, while facing the greatest and deadliest challenge of her life, of friendship – who befriends a lonely man living in a crooked cottage by the sea, of whom everyone in town believes is an eccentric old man, and three little girls – Sarah, Alice, and Nancy – who putatively live nearby in Bar Harbor, Maine, and mortality – how does one cope with one’s own mortality?Miller skillfully addresses these captivating subjects in his novel by skillfully merging three genres. The first is a “medical genre,” which we learn at the start of the narrative – the first page – that Billie Cooper, a forty-seven-year-old housewife, and college professor, who lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland with her family, has a brain tumor, and must go for radiation treatments and chemotherapy at Harvard Medical in Boston. Miller describes Billie’s medical journey and apprehensions in detail, as she withholds the diagnosis from her family – from her husband, Derek, who works for the Department of Defense, and their two boys – Bobby and Joe, college students, who are away from home, backpacking through Europe, while not only accepting the diagnosis of the medical doctors trained in the medicine of western civilization, but she also seeking out the medical therapy, passed down from one generation to the next, found in Native American cultures.Derek and Billie rent a cottage in Bar Harbor for the summer, and while Derek is kept busy, sitting on the deck, reading classified information that he keeps locked in a briefcase at his side, and traveling back and forth to Washington, DC, to attend high-level meetings, concerning the placement of missile silos throughout the country and a forthcoming trip to Vietnam, Billie is left alone with no one to talk to but Lillian Moore, the housekeeper and cook. To strengthen her leg which she had injured during a ski vacation in Switzerland, she takes daily walks along a road that leads past Riley James’s crooked cottage, where she often runs into Sarah, Alice, and Nancy, playing in a secret hideaway.As Billie relationship with Riley grows stronger, she realizes that she and Riley are very much alike. Both are lonely, and both are suffering from terminal illnesses. Here, in these encounters, Reiley tells her stories about his life and his daughter, Astrid James, a famous movie star.The second significant genre Miller uses to captivate and build suspense for his readers is the “genre of the spy story.” Espionage! Where first appearances may be quite deceiving. There are twists in the spy genre narrative that will surprise you. Miller also raises the question: could a foreign power approach a man, with a wife and two children in college, with sky rocketing expenses, and convince him to turn against his country and hand over secret, classified documents for remuneration? Miller’s narrative is an explicit illustration how one may be easily seduced to become a spy, even a double agent, reminding me of such great novels as John Le Carre’s: A Perfect Spy, Agent Running in the Field, Smiley’s People, The Night Manager, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Miller writes about this subject with ease and finesse.In the last few pages of the narrative, Miller reveals to his readers the last significant genre of the book. It is here where you will discover that The Crooked Cottage by the Sea is also a ghost story. It is an unexpected, but fabulous twist that clearly brings the narrative to a memorable conclusion. It will remind you of The Sixth Sense, a film directed by Shyamalan, featuring Bruce Willis, as Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist, and Haley Joel Osment, as Cole Sear, the boy who sees dead people. You will not be disappointed, as Billie, surrounded by family, friends, and spirits, in George Washington University Hospital, courageously faces her mortality.Miller has done a magnificent job, bringing this story to life, one that touches upon loneliness, family, survival, friendship, and love. And, thus, I highly recommend this book to all readers.