The Age Of Consent — Geoffrey Wolff

Ted and Maisie's parents moved to the community of Blackberry Mountain in upstate New York full of hope for the future; they would live a wholesome life rooted in the natural world, free from social constraints and the ugly urban climate of the early seventies. But all this changes when Maisie, age fifteen, stands poised at the top of a waterfall on the 4th of July and looks down over her family and friends before plunging headfirst into the shallow pool, doing herself injuries that will mark them all forever.The sins of parents are visited on their children in this superb new novel. . . a stinging social and cultural portrait of a time, a place and a generation whose highflown ideals masked a weak moral fiber.. . . While he is writing about the death of dreams, he provides a satisfying ending that is a healthy antidote to much current fiction in which cynicism triumphs over faith and moral turpitude over justice.