... enthralling, masterfully written ... The aftermath of this explosion feels both wholly believable and complexly imagined, true to both women’s characters and the demands of the entire world Dark has so deftly created ... One of the novel’s deepest pleasures lies in the ways in which Dark intertwines the social and personal concerns of the main characters with the historical and political ... The novel’s resolution — unexpected and yet, once we get there, satisfying and inevitable — is handled with such skill in its temporal layering, I had to tip my writerly hat over and over to Dark. What first appears to be the story of two old ladies in Maine turns out to be a sophisticated inquiry into the course of female lives, with time as an instrument of revelation, folding in on itself, opening out, revealing the multilayered histories of both Polly and Agnes as a means of showing a kind of existential truth ... a novel rich with social and psychological insights, both earnest and sly, big ideas grounded in individual emotions, a portrait of a tightly knit community made up of artfully drawn, individual souls.
... powerful, enchanting ... Dark fans who devoured In the Gloaming and other, earlier works, rejoice. Striking from the first for its clear, sharply intelligent voice, streaming wisdom and wit on nearly all of close to 600 pages, Fellowship embodies a magnificent storytelling feat ... Some of the many miracles of this dense, bristling, multilayered work are its gut-level reality checks on modern sex, love, money, class, aging, and power. Yet though it fearlessly faces down topical problems (ecology, marriage, inequality) Fellowship remains compassionately complex, avoiding polemic, caricature, or infomercials. Its life is rooted in loyalty to humanness, to people so real you can see, hear, and smell them ... So much is deeply considered: facets of memory, family (parent viewing child; child assessing parent), death and grief, thwarted love, socio-ecological responsibility ... this wealth of rumination never sags, or drags. Instead it manages a seamless fluidity between interiority and scene, gathering relentless momentum, drawing us in tight as it pushes toward a stinging culmination — to resolve (secrets spilled, mysteries cracked) by its amazing close ... What may be most astonishing is Dark’s ability to totally inhabit a series of disparate characters down to the DNA — to walk around in their skins: a canny, contemporary George Eliot.
... marvelous ... [its] intricate plot and precise prose sparkle like the waters off the Maine coast where the book is set ... The contemporary conflict occurs during a time of millennial sea change, and Dark trains a sharp eye on the shifting tides of money, class, marriage and land ownership. She has created a phenomenal portrait of aging and the consequences of choices we're forced to make. Along with these concrete, realistic details, Fellowship Point also has a sort of fairy-tale quality when ruminating on literature and the struggle to create it ... [Dark's] exquisite craftsmanship shines throughout ... Reading this novel is a transportive experience, similar to spending a long, luxurious summer on the shores of a picturesque Maine peninsula. It's full of memorable adventures, tense moments of family drama and opportunities for restorative contemplation.
A grand literary novel destined to dazzle readers with an intriguing combination of social drama, satiric wit and moral gravity ... intricately crafted ... In the delightful tradition of writers such as Edith Wharton and E.M. Forster, Fellowship Point revels in overlapping subplots and a cast of superbly drawn, memorable characters wrestling with delicate questions of the heart as well as social issues of property rights and class divisions ... Heidi's story develops in a tantalizing fashion as unexpected truths emerge, and Dark expertly unveils a series of spectacular plot twists ... triumphantly introduces an uplifting tableau of older female literary role models, a vibrant and agelessly elegant duo with rich histories to share. As the Point's future is settled, it is clear that Dark's octogenarian heroines will have a significant and lasting impact on the lives of all who come after them.
... exquisitely written, utterly engrossing ... Dark explores these strains while celebrating Maine’s gorgeous but threatened landscape. At the same time, she celebrates the beauty – and sticking points – of a lifelong friendship between two women whose choices have taken them down different paths ... It is hard to write about this novel without gushing. You sink into it with a sigh of contentment, as into a hot bath. Its characters, settings, and deftly woven plot pull you right in, the better to soak in its reflections on aging, writing, stewardship, legacies, independence, and responsibility. At its heart, Fellowship Point is about caring for the places and people we love ... Dark, who teaches creative writing at Rutgers-Newark, has been working on Fellowship Point for nearly 20 years. It shows. There is nothing half-baked about it ... has the complexity, pace, and length of an absorbing 19th century epic ... The novel’s various plotlines dovetail with amazing grace, culminating in a moving, well-earned climax ... This magnificent novel affirms that change and growth are possible at any age.
The sense that these characters are still growing, despite their old age, contributes to the novel’s wonderful texture, its feeling of depth and ongoingness. Both women are superbly depicted, but Polly is the more memorable, partly because the reader (like Agnes) is prone to underestimating her ... there are passages following Polly’s sleepless musings that are fired with so much sadness and private satisfaction and unexpressed passion that they lift off the page ... If a friendship novel is by nature episodic rather than plot-driven, how can it end, except in the abrupt way that everything ends? Ms. Dark’s solution is to introduce a fairy-tale element that vaguely connects to Fellowship Point’s Native American religious heritage. Whether this works is probably a question of taste (it is not at all to mine). Ultimately, conclusions may matter far less than what people do while the story is still underway.
Each of Dark’s captivating narrators is more than she seems, while the history of Fellowship Point is a microcosm of the conflict between human desires versus ecological viability. Capacious, psychologically fluent, funny, and intricately and meaningfully plotted, Dark’s novel of love, trauma, guilt, and justice explores women’s struggles, the devaluing of nature, and how stories are told and by whom.
Dark’s novel takes on serious topics, from patriarchy to capitalism, with a multifaceted main character and a story line that’s as surprising as it is satisfying. Sure to please fans of literary women’s fiction like the work of Elizabeth Strout.
... expansive yet intimate ... The families and their grudges and grievances fill a broad canvas, and within it Dark delves deeply into the relationships between Agnes and her work, humans and the land, mothers and children, and, most indelibly, the sustenance and joy provided by a long-held female friendship. It’s a remarkable achievement.
Dark confesses in her acknowledgments that she had 'doubts about the appeal of two old ladies,' but she's written the rare 592-page novel you'll be sorry to finish ... You will surely want to read this book, but you may be able to use its essential wisdom right now ... Elegantly structured, beautifully written, and altogether diverting, with a powerful message about land ownership in America.
