Summer sisters
Ratings21
Average rating3.4
No writer captures the seasons of our lives better than Judy Blume. Now, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wifey and Smart Women, comes an extraordinary novel of reminiscence and awakening--an unforgettable story of two women, two families, and the friendships that shape a lifetime.When Victoria Leonard answers the phone in her Manhattan office, Caitlin's voice catches her by surprise. Vix hasn't talked to her oldest friend in months. Caitlin's news takes her breath away--and Vix is transported back in time, back to the moment she and Caitlin Somers first met, back to the casual betrayals and whispered confessions of their long, complicated friendship, back to the magical island where two friends became summer sisters.Caitlin dazzled Vix from the start, sweeping her into the heart of the unruly Somers family, into a world of privilege, adventure, and sexual daring. Vix's bond with her summer family forever reshapes her ties to her own, opening doors to opportunities she had never imagined--until the summer she falls passionately in love. Then, in one shattering moment on a moonswept Vineyard beach, everything changes, exposing a dark undercurrent in her extraordinary friendship with Caitlin that will haunt them through the years.As their story carries us from Santa Fe to Martha's Vineyard, from New York to Venice, we come to know the men and women who shape their lives. And as we follow the two women on the paths they each choose, we wait for the inevitable reckoning to be made in the fine spaces between friendship and betrayal, between love and freedom.Summer Sisters is a riveting exploration of the choices that define our lives, of friendship and love, of the families we are born into and those we struggle to create. For every woman who has ever had a friend too dangerous to forgive and too essential to forget, Summer Sisters will glue you to every page, reading and remembering.Judy Blume's twenty-one books have sold over sixty-five million copies worldwide and have been translated into twenty languages. She spends summers on Martha's Vineyard with her family.From the Trade Paperback edition.
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I definitely originally read this book on a beach trip with a friend while a teenager, so this had the glow of nostalgia for me, calling my name from the cart outside a used bookstore. It's certainly very readable (took me less than a day), and has a few things going for it: I think the third-person narration of multiple characters could have felt choppy, but was more successful than I would have anticipated. I also find the pearl-clutching in goodreads reviews about how the sexuality of teenage girls is portrayed pretty funny - I think Blume is particularly gifted at capturing the hormonal cyclone (for both genders!) of adolescence, and there were many parts of the intensity of teenage crushes and unfocused-yet-persistent drumbeat of sexual energy that rang exquisitely true to my own experience. There's also some compelling observations about typically unspoken socioeconomic differences that I definitely missed as a teenaged reader. What didn't feel particularly enjoyable overall, however, is that although the characters all make complicated and interesting moral choices, Blume doesn't really provide them adequate interiority for the reader to see how each of the characters grapple with and/or avoid feelings related to those choices. This is particularly true because there's no narration for one of the two “summer sisters” (the one who isn't the protagonist), so she (and arguably the other characters as well, although to slightly lesser degrees) flattens further and further as a character as they move into adulthood. I'd summarize it in saying this is one of those 3-star reviews that feels like a 3-star when you're reading it, but doesn't leave a memorable aftertaste, so slides down into 2-star territory.
A true emotional roller coaster about friendship and what people think is friendship until they take a hard look inside themselves.
A spontaneous friendship: Caitlin, the dazzling heiress who eccentrically runs around The Island barefoot and Vix, the poor girl from the opposite side of the tracks who is trying to forge her own path.
Blume writes children so very well. Caity and Vix's summer adventures on The Island felt so real, especially when they did terribly stupid things. Kids have to be free to make mistakes so they can learn from them.
Puberty took the form of The Power, and it made me smile every time. Womxn do have a power all their own. Caity and Vix's summers on The Island were so sweet and adorable, a coming-of-age tale.
Vix's courage and tenacity to say no to Caity's wanderlust is admirable, especially while she's constantly being eclipsed by Caity. Vix gives Caity so much of herself, but Caity just doesn't value their friendship the same way.
I almost out this book down half a dozen times due to the choppy POV shifts from peripheral characters cluttering the main character arcs and pacing, but I'm glad I stuck with it because I definitely didn't see the end coming.
The storyline is good. And so is the ‘drama'. But it has a couple of scenes that make it more of an er.. adult book.
