Intrigue

A troubled man talks to his suicidal sister's psychiatrist about their family history and falls in love with her in the process.

The Wingo family is from South Carolina, living in a house on a tidal plain. The oldest offspring, Lucas, largely acted as the protector for his younger twins siblings, Tom and Savannah, in light of their dysfunctional growing up, with their shrimper father, Henry, distant and abusive if/when he did pay them any attention, and their mother, Lila, while not doting on them most concerned about appearances and striving for social standing. Now in middle age, Savannah is a New York based poet, Tom, still living on the South Carolina coast outside of Charleston with his wife Sally and their own three doting daughters, taking a break from his high school teaching/football coaching job, while Lucas has long since died while still standing up for himself and his beliefs. Lila, divorced and now remarried with that wealth and social standing she so long desired, receives news that Savannah is in the hospital following her most recent suicide attempt. Not wanting to face the blame directly as she suspects, she assigns Tom to go to New York to speak to Savannah's therapist, Susan Loewenstein, to provide any information of a family history nature that could help in Savannah's recovery. Tom agrees despite hating New York, and it being not a good time since he and Sally are experiencing marital problems, they both just knowing that things between them are not working, and not having been intimate in months. As Tom and Loewenstein (as he calls her) begin their sessions, Tom is slow to divulge the Wingo family problems to her. But he learns that she too is having her own family problems, with her concert violinist husband Herbert Woodruff being self absorbed and condescending, with their young adult son, Bernard, hating both largely because they were predestining his life also as a concert violinist. Tom and Loewenstein's sessions blossom into a friendship and romance, where their talks, in addition to helping Savannah, may help them both in dealing with their own life problems, of which Tom's had been long buried both figuratively and literally.—Huggo

Tom Wingo is unhappy with his life. His wife doesn't understand him and he also doesn't get along with his dominant mother. When his sister attempts suicide, her psychologist Susan Lowenstein consults him. Patiently and cautiously she uncovers the terrible secret hidden in Tom and Savannah's childhood. On the other side she's unhappy too and so both help each other to find their way back to life.—Anonymous

When a Southern born New York writer tries to commit suicide, her "unemployed-football-coach" twin brother, Tom Wingo, comes to her aid. While tending to his sister Savannah's care he meets her psychiatrist, Dr. Susan Lowenstein. Dr. Lowenstein, desperate to unlock the door to her patient's self-destructive pattern, relies on Tom to be his sister's memory. What she doesn't realize is that the last thing Tom wants to do is remember. Haunted by a painful childhood and a domineering mother, Tom discovers the only thing worse than not remembering is not telling.—Robin <soonerzs@yahoo.com>

Tom Wingo, a teacher and football coach from South Carolina, is asked by his mother, Lila, to travel to New York City to help his twin sister's psychiatrist, Susan Lowenstein, after his sister Savannah's latest suicide attempt. Tom hates New York but reluctantly accepts, largely to take the opportunity to be alone and away from a life that does not satisfy him. During his initial meetings with Lowenstein, Tom is reluctant to disclose many details of their dysfunctional family's secrets. In flashbacks, Tom relates incidents from his childhood to Lowenstein in hopes of discovering how to save Savannah's life. The Wingo parents were an abusive father and a manipulative, status-hungry mother. The father was a shrimp boat operator and, despite being successful at that profession, spent all of his money on frivolous business pursuits, leaving the family in poverty.

Tom is also torn with his own problems but hides behind what he calls "the Southern way"-laughing at things instead of crying. For example, his wife Sallie is having an affair, and her lover wants to marry her. Tom and Lowenstein begin to have feelings for each other. After Tom discovers that she is married to Herbert Woodruff, a famous concert violinist, Lowenstein introduces Tom to her son Bernard, who is being groomed to become a musician as well but who secretly wants to play football. Tom starts coaching Bernard along with attending sessions with Lowenstein to help his sister. Tom discovers that Savannah has been in such a dissociated state that she even had a different identity, Renata Halpern. As Halpern, she wrote books to disguise the Savannah side of her troubled life. Tom confronts Lowenstein over not revealing this information before, and they argue, during which she throws a dictionary at him. To apologize, she asks him to dinner, and their relationship becomes closer.

Tom has a fateful meeting with his mother and stepfather, bringing up painful memories. Tom reveals that, when he was 13 years old, three escaped convicts invaded his home and raped him, his mother, and his sister. His older brother, Luke, killed two of the aggressors with a shotgun, while his mother stabbed the third with a kitchen knife. They buried the bodies beneath the house and never spoke of it again. Tom bursts into tears, having now let loose a key piece of Savannah's troubled life.

After discovering that Tom has been coaching Bernard, Herbert orders Bernard to stop his football pursuits, return to his music lessons, to prepare to leave for Tanglewood, a prestigious music academy. Tom is invited to a dinner at Lowenstein's home, along with poets and intellectuals. Herbert is overtly rude and reveals that Tom's sister is in therapy with his wife. Infuriated, Lowenstein voices her suspicions about her husband's affair. Tom takes Herbert's "million dollar" violin and threatens to throw it off the high-rise balcony unless Herbert apologizes. Tom throws the violin in the air, Herbert nervously apologizes, and Tom catches the violin before it falls.

Tom spends a romantic weekend with Lowenstein at her country house. Savannah recovers and is released from the hospital. This recovery is due to finally learning about things she has repressed from her childhood, most notably the rapes. Her first suicide attempt at age 13 was after the rapes and murders of the three convicts. Tom then receives a call from his wife, who has finally decided she wants him back. He loves both Lowenstein and his wife, and tells Lowenstein he doesn't love his wife more, "just longer." Tom ends his relationship with Lowenstein and reunites with his wife and family, but wishes that two lives could be given to each man and woman. He is happy in his renewed life, after finally working out the traumatic events in his past with Lowenstein's help. Tom thinks of her daily as he reaches the top of the bridge on his drive home from work. Her name comes to him as a kind of prayer, a blessing.