The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (And Their Muses) by Terri-Lynne DeFino
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Women’s Fiction
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Xeranthemum

A whimsical, moving novel about a retirement home for literary legends who spar, conjure up new stories, and almost magically change the lives of the people around them.

Alfonse Carducci was a literary giant who lived his life to excess—lovers, alcohol, parties, and literary rivalries. But now he’s come to the Bar Harbor Home for the Elderly to spend the remainder of his days among kindred spirits: the publishing industry’s nearly gone but never forgotten greats. Only now, at the end of his life, does he comprehend the price of appeasing every desire, and the consequences of forsaking love to pursue greatness. For Alfonse has an unshakeable case of writer’s block that distresses him much more than his precarious health.

Set on the water in one of New England’s most beautiful locales, the Bar Harbor Home was established specifically for elderly writers needing a place to live out their golden years—or final days—in understated luxury and surrounded by congenial literary company. A faithful staff of nurses and orderlies surround the writers, and are drawn into their orbit, as they are forced to reckon with their own life stories. Among them are Cecibel Bringer, a young woman who knows first-hand the cost of chasing excess. A terrible accident destroyed her face and her sister in a split-second decision that Cecibel can never forgive, though she has tried to forget. Living quietly as an orderly, refusing to risk again the cost of love, Cecibel never anticipated the impact of meeting her favorite writer, Alfonse Carducci—or the effect he would have on her existence. In Cecibel, Alfonse finds a muse who returns him to the passion he thought he lost. As the words flow from him, weaving a tale taken up by the other residents of the Pen, Cecibel is reawakened to the idea of love and forgiveness.

As the edges between story and reality blur, a world within a world is created. It’s a place where the old are made young, the damaged are made whole, and anything is possible….

My mind is blown by this novel. How do I even write this review? If you’ve read the synopsis – it’s the best synopsis I’ve seen in many a day. This last sentence, “As the edges between story and reality blur, a world within a world is created. It’s a place where the old are made young, the damaged are made whole, and anything is possible….” encapsulates the charm, the wit and wonder, and the romance of different levels of love a person can experience. Some loves make you smile, some leave you wistful, some leave you longing for days gone by, and some transcend the physical, making a person better, more content and fulfilled. Love is, or can be, healing. It can transform pain into joy, and can leave a lasting impression, a legacy if you will. This story with the rather long title, The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (And Their Muses), is an unexpected gem that I’m very pleased to have read.

The catalyst for the plot pivots on one person, Cecibel Bringer. She is the sun, and the other characters are the planets and moons who orbit her, and whose influences make the sun that is Cecibel shine brighter and warmer. I honestly can’t get the words out to describe the relationships between her, Olivia, Switch, Alphonse, Sal, Fin, Judi and Richard. The relationships between everyone were delightful, heartwarming and heartbreaking. This novel and the amazing personalities that flavor it kept me flipping the pages and marveling at the humanity of its characters. I cried. I felt. I experienced a myriad of emotions while reading this book. All of that thanks to the writing skills of Ms. DeFino. I mean, the last chapter turned me into a blubbering fool. It was bittersweet, beautiful, touching and a testimony to all the people in the story that worked their magic on Cecibel. It’s a happy ending in its own way. More realistic, I guess, and very well written.

There is romance of a sort within its pages. There’s a story within a story about a romance that was doomed but never died. There is romance from the past that flavors the present, and a gentle romance, like a flower growing in spring, that tender bud that eventually blooms from the love, care, and nurturing it’s given. Cecibel is the flower that blooms in this book.

I’d have to give this novel a spicy rating, not because it’s intended to be a romance in that vein, but because the views into the past showed the characters during some of their passionate interludes with those they loved. Some were wild, like the one between Alfonse and Cornelius – that was a desperate passion, especially since it happened sometime in the 1950s when those types of relationships were frowned upon – and gentler ones from … well, a reader has to make up their own mind whether it was real or imagined, and the kind one expects in a romance story. I didn’t expect to see those particular scenes because of what I’d read up to that point, but for a change, I didn’t find it gratuitous. It was a major plot shift for a certain character. Then there was the story within the story that had the trappings of a typical spicy romance in a Romeo and Juliet-esqe type fashion.

I’m very glad I happened upon this story, that the book blurb grabbed my interest and, although it’s a book I typically would not read, the synopsis had that special something that spoke to me and said give this story a chance. I’m glad I did. I read it in one day and re-read the final chapter at least four times.

If readers enjoy stories that focus on character relationships in all their fallibility, larger-than-life personalities with secrets to hide, wonderful dialogue and a nicely done wrap-up, then please do give The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (And Their Muses) a try. It’s a definite recommendation.