SummaryIt's 1993 and Alec Thompson is traveling to Maine, to
witness at the marriage of his painter friend, Webb
Hartley. When Alec arrives at the wedding scene, he is
surprised that no one-including Pru Mackenzie, Webb's 30-
year younger bride-to-be-is on hand to welcome him. He soon
learns the reason; his best friend has suffered a fatal
heart attack, and the wedding is off. Webb's death sends Alec in search of Jenny Grant, Webb's
first wife, to announce the news. The journey takes him
from Webb's Maine farmhouse to a northern California horse
ranch and leads him through both men's pasts, from college
to the present. As he re-explores the events that had bound
the three of them-both men had been rivals for Jenny's
affection-Alec discovers, in the murky context of those
days, that their lives were far more entangled than he had
imagined. What Alec learns-and what Webb apparently wanted
him to know-cuts to the very essence of the rest of Alec's
life. Understanding what happened thirty years earlier is
more important to him than ever. Along the way, Alec's quest introduces him to a precocious
twelve-year-old, an ultra-sophisticated divorceé, a Native
American psychic. All are part of Webb's legacy for Alec to
comb his memory, and the memories of everyone still living,
in order to realize the truth. Vivid, poetic, and written with the same care and craft as
the author's elegant short stories, Splendid Omens is both
understated and shocking-and a deeply beautiful book that
examines how different versions of the truth are like
holograms that can re-create a life.
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