Fellowship Point

Allice Elliott Dark’s Fellowship Point (2022) begins as an elderly woman’s quest to protect the Maine peninsula she loves (Fellowship Point) from development. As the novel unfolds, it showcases the friendship between this woman (Agnes Lee) and her lifelong companion (Polly Wister), who have spent summers together on the Point since their childhood. Coming of age at a time when roles for women were limiting, Agnes and Polly have taken separate paths but remained intensely connected to one another. As both women reckon with aging and life fulfillment, Agnes (the author of a children’s book series) is approached to write a memoir. In doing so, Agnes wrestles with divulging secrets she has kept hidden for decades.

Dark, the author of two novels and two short story collections, is best known for her award-winning short story “In the Gloaming” (1993), which was included in The Best American Short Stories of the Century and adapted into two different films. That story, like Fellowship Point, tackles themes of illness and aging. Dark has also authored essays and reviews, appearing in publications such as The New York Times and The Washington Post. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and is an Associate Professor at Rutgers-Newark, where she teaches in the MFA program.

This guide references the 2022 hardcover edition of Fellowship Point by Scribner Books from Simon & Schuster.

Content Warning: The novel and this guide refer to depression, mental illness, and death by suicide as well as age-related cognitive decline and other health concerns.

Plot Summary

The novel opens as Agnes Lee, author of the When Nan children’s series, tries to begin a new novel, this one for a different series, called the Franklin Square books, which she authors under a pseudonym. In addition, Agnes convinces her friend, Polly Wister, to assist her in establishing a land trust for the property the two have inherited on Fellowship Point in Maine. Agnes is concerned that future development of the Point will diminish the habitat of the eagles and other wildlife dwelling there. Polly, whose husband, Dick Wister (a professor of philosophy), has just retired, agrees with Agnes. During the next several months, Polly neglects to present the idea outright to Dick (who she gleans will disagree), or share with Agnes that her son, James, disapproves of the idea. Meanwhile, Agnes undergoes a double mastectomy, which successfully removes cancerous cells. She continues to try to write during her summer stay at Leeward Cottage (her family’s home on Fellowship Point) but can’t find the inspiration to begin. In addition, she has received a letter from a young woman in the New York publishing industry named Maud Silver, who wants to Agnes to draft a memoir so that Maud might edit it. This nags at Agnes, who is unsure whether she really wants to write a memoir. Eventually, Agnes relents.

Polly’s husband, Dick, undergoes a mental decline. In the early morning hours, Polly finds him reminiscing about his youth and opening up in ways she has longed for during their entire marriage. Agnes finds Dick (who has always lived a life of letters) pompous, especially in the way he belittles Polly rather than encouraging her intellect. Polly has been content as a mother of three boys, though with the birth of each one, she longed for a daughter. She finally had a daughter, Lydia, but the girl died of an illness at age nine. Since then, Polly has mourned the loss of Lydia, whose ghost she’s certain she sees around the Point.

Agnes and Polly are both dismayed when Robert Circumstance, the caretaker of Fellowship Point, is accused of perpetrating theft at the home of Archie Lee, Agnes’s cousin. Robert is incarcerated for two years, during which he corresponds with Dick by letter. Dick, however, succumbs to dementia and passes away. When Polly learns of Robert’s correspondence with Dick, she begins writing to Robert herself, and their exchange continues for the duration of Robert’s prison term.

Agnes invites the editor she’s been corresponding with, Maud Silver, to stay at Leeward Cottage on Fellowship Point. Upon arriving, Maud immediately falls in love with the Point, relishing its natural beauty just as Agnes has. She and Agnes develop a professional friendship, engaging in daily discussions about literature and Agnes’s memoir. Maud is frustrated with the draft, certain that Agnes has intentionally omitted something important. She senses that there’s more to the story of the importance of Fellowship Point and the When Nan books. Maud’s time on the peninsula, however, is cut short when she must return to aid her mother, who has long experienced depression and mental illness and has now been hospitalized. Weeks after Maud leaves, the 9/11 attacks occur, and Agnes and Polly have a fight, after which they don’t speak to each other for months. Meanwhile, Agnes helps Maud obtain care for her mother, Heidi Silver, at the hospital in Philadelphia where Agnes has served as a board member. Maud then divides her time between Agnes’s Philadelphia apartment and her native Manhattan, where she raises her young daughter, Clemmie.

During this time, Agnes shares with Maud a series of notebooks containing writing that she completed in 1960. It consists of a series of letters to her deceased sister, Elspeth, which function as journal entries. In them, Agnes recounts becoming acquainted with Nan and Virgil Reed. Nan (the inspiration for the When Nan books) was the young daughter of Virgil, a relation of the Reed family, who owned a cottage on the Point. Virgil was reclusive and neglectful of young Nan, whom Agnes took under her wing and began caring for. Nan was seriously injured when she was pinned beneath a headstone in the cemetery, and this, coupled with Agnes’s reading Virgil’s published novel, drew the two together. A friendship developed wherein Virgil shared his writing in progress with Agnes, and she encouraged him. She came to believe that Virgil might be her soulmate but was dismayed when he and Karen, the young librarian who was tutoring Nan, announced their engagement. The same night, Virgil and Karen died of carbon monoxide poisoning. Nan was removed from the peninsula to live with relatives. A few years later, Agnes learned that Nan too had passed away.

As 2002 unfolds, Robert is released from prison and returns to Fellowship Point. Agnes and Polly resolve their argument and carry on as if nothing happened. Agnes shares with Polly her feelings about Virgil and agrees to meet with Maud again in an attempt to finally complete the memoir. When Maud arrives with her young daughter in tow, Agnes and Polly are shocked by how much she resembles Nan. They deduce that Heidi Silver, Maud’s mother, is Nan Reed. At the end of the summer, they bring Heidi to the peninsula, where she, Maud, Clemmie, Robert, and the others attend the annual summer’s-end party. Heidi’s memories slowly return. Agnes and Maud continue to work together, focusing on the final installment of the Franklin Square series, since Maud has deduced that Agnes is their author. Agnes comes to a decision about the ownership of Fellowship Point: It should be returned to the Indigenous Wabanaki peoples, many of whom still inhabit the area. She explains this in a letter to Polly, who has just passed away.