The Sand Castle

By Rita Mae Brown

A memoir of a day at the beach, set in the 1950s, with a little girl, Nickel, and her young cousin, Leroy, and his grandmother, Louise, and the little girl's mother, Julia, Louise's younger sister.
Louise's daughter, Leroy's mother, has passed away six months previously and little Leroy is still grieving for her. Leroy has become a little whinny and difficult as he continues to adjust to his loss. He refuses to get in the water because he is afraid of sharks. He and Nickel squabble and fuss at each other while the two sisters also squabble and fuss at each other. While the kids play the two adults build an elaborate sand castle. It's a typical day at the seashore, the worse thing that happens is one of the kids gets nipped by a crab.
Not much plot here, just a pleasant, enjoyable visit to a time when people didn't worry about skin cancer and coat their kids with sunscreen and didn't worry about lung cancer while blithely smoking cigarette after cigarette.

For another review see Epinions.