Cascade, Maryanne OHara
Cascade, Maryanne OHara
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Cascade

Author: Maryanne O’Hara

Narrator: Madeleine Lambert

Unabridged: 11 hr 32 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/16/2012

Synopsis

Cascade, Massachusetts, 1935. Desdemona Hart Spaulding, a promising young artist, abandoned her dreams of working in New York City to rescue her father. Two months later he is dead and Dez is stuck in a marriage to reliable but child-hungry Asa Spaulding. Dez also stands to lose her father’s legacy, the Cascade Shakespeare Theater, as the Massachusetts Water Authority decides whether to flood Cascade to create a reservoir. Amid this turmoil arrives Jacob Solomon, a fellow artist for whom Dez feels an immediate and strong attraction. As their relationship reaches a pivotal moment, a man is found dead and the town accuses Jacob, a Jewish outsider. But the tide turns when Dez’s idea for a series of painted postcards is picked up by The American Sunday Standard and she abruptly finds herself back on the path to independence. New York City and a life with Jacob both beckon, but what will she have to give up along the way?

About Maryanne O’Hara

Maryanne O’Hara, a graduate of Emerson College’s MFA program, was a longtime associate editor at Ploughshares magazine. Her short stories have been published in Five Points, the North American Review, Crescent Review, and Redbook, as well as the literary anthologies MicroFiction, Brevity & Echo, The Art of Friction, and Flash Fiction: Youth. She lives near Boston with her family.

About Madeleine Lambert

Madeleine Lambert received her MFA in acting from Brown University and Trinity Rep. Her performances at Trinity Repertory Company include Shelby in Steel Magnolias and Belle in A Christmas Carol. Madeleine graduated with honors from Duke University with majors in theater studies and English and a minor in French. She attended the School at Steppenwolf in Chicago.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Lara

What drives the artist -- a need to leave something behind, something preserved of one's self, or simply for the fame and fortune in the here and now? Art lives long after the artist has passed on. The central theme to this extraordinary book is expressed by the main character, Desdemona Hart Spauld......more

Goodreads review by Clifford

There is so much going on in this novel, it's hard to know where to begin to talk about it. It's about a woman who believes in her art and isn't willing to bow to the will of a man. It's about art and its power to communicate. It's about love, and how it doesn't always conquer all. It's about what e......more

Goodreads review by Ionia

To be very honest, When I began reading this novel, I was actually rather bored. The first chapter certainly didn't grab me and thrill me any and it was kind of slow plodding along for a while after that. I didn't dislike it at all and the writing is good, but there wasn't much excitement at first.......more

Quotes

“Maryanne O’Hara invites the reader into the life of a young artist, Desdemona Hart, whose sacrifice for love spawns a cascade of secrets that threatens not only to undo her, but also a town, a way of life, and the heritage her beloved father has left them all. Rich with painterly image and flickering with desire, Cascade explores how passion—for life, for love, for art—can determine destiny.”
Robin Oliveira, New York Times bestselling author of My Name Is Mary Sutter

“Maryanne O’Hara weaves as intricate, as theatrical, and as tempestuous a plot as deftly as Prospero. Through the eyes of an artist yearning for a larger life-canvas but constrained by a humdrum marriage in a town careening toward destruction, we see the failing of men and women in their tangled relationships, each member of the cast struggling to find a fulfilling life. Save the town! Save the Shakespearean theater! Save our dreams, we cry out with the players.” Susan Vreeland, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Hyacinth Blue

“Gorgeously written and involving, Cascade explores the age-old conflict between a woman’s perceived duty and her deepest desires, but in O’Hara’s skilled hands the struggle feels fresh and new.”
People

“Cascade unfolds like a Shakespearean tragedy, with an ending you won’t see coming…Much like a drowned town, the novel becomes something that you can’t take your eyes from or stop thinking about in wonder.”
Boston Globe

“O’Hara deftly combines several different themes into a cohesive novel about love, ambition, loyalty, and betrayal, with an ironic twist at the end.”
Library Journal

Awards

  • Slate Magazine Best Book
  • People Pick of the Week
  • Library Journal Editor’s Pick
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