I loved this book, the beautifully constructed web of the  intertwined history of a family, a house, Cape Cod (especially Buzzards Bay), Boston Brahmins, and a world that has disappeared.  Howe is one of 15 cousins that comprise the fifth generation (the book includes his two children making up the sixth!) of a family that began with Edward Atkinson born in 1827 who married money and began a long tradition of proper, Harvard-educated (or at least attended), Brahmin family.  His son Ned, who married the granddaughter of John Murray Forbes of railroad and China trade wealth, rejected Forbes’ Naushon, and with a syndicate of 12 other like-minded and high-Boston society men, bought Wings Neck, an undeveloped peninsula jutting into Buzzards Bay.  Taking the high ground on the southwest side of the Neck, he built the Big House in 1903 working with his brother William as the architect.  Nat’s daughter, Mary, married Henry Colt in 1923, and these grandparents of the author provide the continuity and organization of the Big House that comprise Howe’s childhood summer memories.  The first half of the book is filled with glorious memories of swimming, fishing, tennis, sailing, and eating that are the stuff of Cape Cod summers for the moneyed class.  The second half brings the reader down to the reality of alcoholism, mental illness, alienation (two of Howe’s aunts marry Jews and one is cut off from the Big House for 20 years), gambling, divorce, and death.  Through it all, the reader learns of how the Cape was developed, how Brahmins lived and then disappeared, and how a family deals with being ‘house rich, and cash poor.’  Howe, the husband of one of my favorite essayists Anne Fadiman, writes a wonderful tale, rich in detail (much of which I could identify with, being only 9 years older than he).  A quick Google search found the obituaries of his beloved Uncle Jimmy and father, Henry Colt who crossed my path at Children’s where he was head of development when I arrived as a fellow.  Small world!