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Comments for A. Hall & Co.A. Hall & Co.: 03/27/14
A. Hall & Co. by Joseph C. Lincoln was one of the author's last books, from a career that spanned 42 years. While all of his books are loosely connected, A. Hall & Co. serves as a follow up to Mary-'Gusta. The once powerful A. Hall & Company, fish wholesaler is struggling to stay afloat. The land that store sits on, as well as the family home is worth more than the buildings or the store's inventory combined. There's a real estate boom going on and the Hall family is facing losing everything due to gentrification. Meanwhile, there's a romance between the son of the developer and a young woman who is related to the Halls. Because of the underhanded approach the developer has taken to force the Halls out, their romance has to stay secret, even though neither is directly involved and neither wants the Hall store to fail. Having so far mostly read Lincoln's earlier books that take place in the heyday of shipping and sailing, when the lighthouse keepers were heroes, it was fascinating to read one of last books. His bit of Cape Cod has changed with the times and the heroine arrives via airplane. The old sailor dialect of the Cap'ns is nearly extinct and is even mocked among some of the oldest characters in the book (who themselves are too young to have genuinely spoken that way). And that's what I love most about Lincoln's body of work. His fictional towns grown and change with the time. Characters live their lives. Things come and go. Fashions change. The language adapts. Basically it feels like a real place. Four stars
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