Good bye. Ava

Frank Blanchard loves houseboats and lives on one along with such things as “cartons, papers, boards, lube oil cans, vinegar jugs, shingles, shoes, branches, busted oars, busted window sash, railroad ties, oil drums, oak wedges from the shipyard, bushel baskets, orange crates, watermelon rind, two by fours, greasy planks with spikes sticking out all over, nail kegs, hunks of cork, light bulbs. . . .” well, you get the idea.  (ch 1)

Frank is in love with an unattainable woman (Oh, Ava!  Oh, Ava!), but Frank’s love life is only part of the story. Frank and his neighbors, Clyde and Jeri and their four children, are about to have their lives turned upside down by the opening of a fertilizer plant which will mean a pending relocation of their houseboats so the harbor can be dredged and a dock built. 

Does this sit well with hot-tempered Clyde? No way! With Clyde at the forefront (and Frank attempting to referee), the war between the dock commission and houseboat owners begins.

With the usual humorous dialogue (Frank’s conversations with Clyde’s and Jeri’s 11 year old daughter, Starlite, are exceptionally warm and funny), romance, and observations about life both on and off the river, Good bye, Ava makes the grade as another one of Richard Bissell’s remarkable novels.