Mishaum Point inspires setting, themes for literary thriller

When a law school graduate takes up a summer job as a tennis pro in a gated summer community to make ends meet, he finds himself entangled in a transactional affair with an older divorced woman while simultaneously falling in love with someone his own age.

That’s the story of Connor O’Toole, the main character of Teddy Wayne’s latest literary thriller “The Winner.” O’Toole finds himself in “much hotter water than he anticipated” during the Covid pandemic in this gated community inspired by Dartmouth’s Mishaum Point — known as Cutters Neck in the novel.

Wayne, who resides in Brooklyn, said his wife’s family has a shared house on Mishaum Point that’s been in the family for generations. Spending summers there, especially during the pandemic, said he was inspired by the idea of old money, WASP culture and “the striking geography of the point.”

“It really felt like this is a good place to set a novel in the pandemic and because the pandemic cracked open what we all know to be true, which is that the haves and have nots have a massive chasm between them in America and the pandemic expose that and widen it even further,” he added.

In the book, O’Toole visits “the town” which was also inspired in part by Padanaram. Wayne said the people in town juxtapose those at Cutters Neck in a way that highlights the stark differences in these communities.

“Art can comfort the disturbed or disturbed the comfortable.” Wayne said his book aims to disturb, with a focus on privilege. 

However, he said he wants to clarify that the story follows an “exaggerated version of the Mishaum Point culture.”

While those who currently reside there are for the most part “quite laid back,” “down to Earth” and “progressive,” he said those at Cutters Neck are “much more starchier, crustier — more conservative — at times.”

He added in the spirit of comforting the disturbed, he hopes it’s a page turner.

Wayne said he recently developed an appreciation for escapism in books and the idea of being “so immersed that I’d rather be in their fictional world than the real one.”

He said hopes he is able to give that same feeling to readers. 

Wayne said he’ll find out later this year if the book is getting a movie adaptation with Columbia Pictures/Pascal Pictures, adding if it comes to fruition, he’d like to recommend filming scenes at Mishaum Point or in a place modeled off its geography.