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Author Elizabeth Castellano. CARL TIMPONE
Elizabeth Castellano's novel "Save What's Left."
North Fork resident Elizabeth Castellano’s debut novel, “Save What’s Left,” isn’t your standard beach read, which leans toward the summer romances. Instead, this is a novel about the messiness of life and politics in beach towns, themes often neglected in the typical summer novel.
“I thought it would be funny to show the reality of what’s going on in the beach towns,” said Castellano in a recent phone interview. “Or at least what else is going on, that even if people are moving to beach towns and having a lovely time, there are other people that are getting more involved in local politics and committees and going to meetings.”
The novel, published by Vintage & Anchor Books, centers around Castellano’s protagonist, Kathleen, a Kansas City woman who moves to the beach town of Whitby just as her 30-year marriage is falling apart. She hopes that her new life in Whitby will be idyllic, just like the Christmas newsletters she receives in the mail every year from her friend who lives there.
In settling into her new home, a tumble-down oyster shack amid an expanse of new mansions, she discovers she’s living in turbulent seas of local drama. Her neighbors spend more time forming committees about local issues and attending town board meetings than relaxing in the sand. Soon enough, Kathleen falls down the same rabbit hole, when a massive monastery, masked as a summer home, is built next door. She begins fighting to stop the construction. Sound familiar?
“We’re calling it the ‘Un-beach read,’” Castellano explained. “It’s the other take on the beach read genre. This woman comes to the beach town and she thinks everything is going to be paradise and great, and she gets here and it’s not. Her fantasy collides with reality and she gets sucked into all the local drama and neighborhood squabbles.
“So it’s like the insider’s view and the behind-the-scenes look at what’s really going on in these beach towns and, not the sitting on the beach, drinking margaritas side of things.”
Castellano used her own passions and life story to draw inspiration for Kathleen. A native of the North Fork, she recalls the East End of her childhood as a simpler place. When the pandemic brought her back to her hometown, she found tourist traps, an increase in Airbnbs and traffic from vineyards and pumpkin picking plaguing her neighborhood. The overdevelopment of homes and the burden they put on septic systems is another of her concerns. For Castellano, the general increase in population and visitors has changed her view of the East End.
“It’s definitely been a big, big difference even just with the beach,” she said. “It used to be just me and my friends on the beach and now it’s wall-to-wall people.”
It’s a difficult internal battle, Castellano admitted, balancing the desire to protect what the community loves about the East End and yet still sharing it with others. In her book, Kathleen has the same struggles.
“She comes here and she really tries her best to find a way to be happy and she wants to love it and she wants to fit in, but so many things go wrong for her,” Castellano said. “And in the end, she does love it and she loves the chaos of the beach town.”
Castellano has made her way to beach towns throughout the Northeast as part of her book tour. Local stops have included author events in Riverhead, at BookHampton in East Hampton, and in Madison, Connecticut. She headed to the New Suffolk Free Library in Cutchogue on July 11 and will take part in Zibby Owens’ Petite Retreat Luncheon in Water Mill on July 15. She’s also set to travel to Cape Cod and Point Pleasant, New Jersey, for book events later this month before returning to the East End where she will present an author talk at Floyd Memorial Library in Greenport on August 6. And on October 18, Castellano is tentatively scheduled to take part in a book event at the brand new Barnes & Noble bookstore opening in the Bridgehampton Commons later this summer.
Throughout her tour, she’s found almost everyone relates to Kathleen’s plight, in seeing problems in their communities that upset them enough to get involved in local politics. Readers often cite examples of homes they think the large house in her novel is based on. Some say the house next to Kathleen’s was inspired by the documentary “One Big Home,” which features mansions on Martha’s Vineyard, or billionaire Ira Rennert’s massive Fairfield estate in Sagaponack. In reality, the home was entirely made up for the book.
One woman, who wasn’t from a beach town, told Castellano the detailed story of her neighbors allying to stop a large house from being built up next to them. She told Castellano she was inspired by the novel.
“Everyone has had something like that going on in their life where they’ve gotten involved and come up against roadblocks,” said Castellano. “It’s been fun to hear everyone’s little personal stories.”
Writing has always been a part of Castellano’s life. She draws inspiration from her favorite writers Nora Ephron, Anna Quinlan, Calvin Trillin and J.D. Salinger, appreciating their conversational voices. In high school, she wrote a humor column for The Suffolk Times, and dabbled in playwriting while studying theater at Bates College in Maine. She took time before writing a novel, but her debut just felt right, she said.
“This was the story that stuck and seemed like the right story for the right time,” she said, noting that at the tail end of the pandemic she approached an agent. After a few months of revisions, she sold it. “It’s been sort of fun, very emotional. It’s exciting. It’s stressful. It’s nerve-racking, it’s all ups and downs. I think the anticipation was a big thing. So I’m very relieved to have it out in the world and have people reading it and enjoying it. It’s a very long process.”
Part of the writing process for Castellano was attending local board meetings for inspiration and hearing about things like piping plovers, parking issues and Dark Skies Initiatives.
“It can be entertaining to listen to town board meetings,” she said. “You get a lot of quirky characters and you get to hear people’s experiences. It’s like ‘Parks and Recreation’ with Amy Poehler.”
The book inspired Castellano, herself, to get more involved in East End issues over time.
“I think I’ve exhausted myself with the board meetings,” she said. “ So I need a break from it now after this.”
She’s also working on another book, this one centered around a younger character in Ireland, which is harder than writing about an older character, she said.
“I don’t know what that says about me,” she joked.
Castellano ultimately hopes the book will provide comic relief for her readers.
“I hope people get a few laughs, and a little bit of an escape,” she said. “Second chances are a big theme in the book. So I hope readers will come away with some sense that you can change your mind or change your perspective or opinion. You can always start over or try something new or find happiness where you wouldn’t expect it.”
