Save the Drama for Your Mama: A Beach Bard's Good-bye

Elin Hilderbrand's Golden Girl (not to be confused with The Golden Girls or even Hilderbrand's earlier novel, Silver Girl) has all the usual Hilderbrand elements.  The gorgeous Nantucket beaches, the patina of Nantucket privilege.  And, of course, the tragedy that wreaks ripples of havoc.  But Golden Girl has one thing that Hilderbrand's twenty-six other novels don't: a dead heroine.

Fifty-two-year-old Vivian "Vivi" Howe is the titular golden girl.  A successful novelist and divorced mother of three grown children, she becomes the victim of a hit and run accident on her own street.  The search for the driver is the book's central conflict.  But it's Vivi's afterlife that's really interesting.  Her guardian angel "person" guides her to the "boho-chic greenroom of her dreams" (and yes, it's painted green, or rather, Benjamin Moore's Parsley Snips).  She'll remain there for the summer, allowed to connect with her children only by giving each a "nudge" in his or her time of need, before moving on to the choir.  This got my attention.  I've always thought of heaven, the great beyond, or whatever, as a place of infinite possibility, not a place hemmed in by its own rules.  Isn't that what Earth is for?!  But if fiction has taught me anything, then it's that 1) only trouble is interesting, and 2) we don't always get to see dead people -- or, less disturbingly, the ghosts of the people we love. 

Top: Jessica Simpson, Belk's; Shorts: LC Lauren Conrad, Kohl's; Belt: Hand-me-down from Mom; Shoes: Chaps, Kohl's; Bag: Olivia Miller, TJ Maxx; Sunglasses: Party City; Bangle: INC, Macy's; Beaded bracelets: Mixit, JCPenney

That distressing tidbit aside, Mother Vivi in the Clouds makes for an apt plot device.  A spirit peering down at her children is a new way for Hilderbrand to weave the intrigue that her readers (this one included!) have come to expect and rely on.  Golden Girl has the extra layer of Vivi's own beyond-the-grave drama.  She's just released her latest novel, which happens to be her most autobiographical, and it reveals a secret about her past.  Hilderbrand gives us glimpses of Vivi's pre-Nantucket life in Parma, Ohio to tell a nostalgic tale about her first love, rocker Brett Caspian.  Although Vivi and Brett's song is Journey's "Stone in Love," their world feels more like John Mellencamp's Middle America.  It's romantic and edgy yet wholesome, adding dimension to Vivi's narrative, bookending her life as we know it and providing, among other things, some much-needed closure.

Unburied Treasure Necklace

That said, according to the Target exclusive afterward, Golden Girl is Elin Hilderbrand's most autobiographical novel too.  Yet even without that admission, any Hilderbrand fan knows that Vivi is a reflection of Elin.  I love how Hilderbrand has fun with this, even going as far as to speculate what her fellow islanders think of her in sections cheekily labeled "Nantucket."  (Hilderbrand's books are always broken down into sections marked by the characters' names, giving each character a point of view.  Her ability to alternate between voices is one of the things about her writing I admire the most.)  In this sense, Nantucket is a character, everyone and no one at the same time.

Golden Girl gets the gold for sure.  And not just for making us wonder what happens when we get to that big boho-chic greenroom in the sky.  But because it reminds us of what's important while we're still here on Earth.

By which, of course, I mean the fudge brownie batter ice cream at the Juice Bar.