The Summer Place by Jennifer Weiner: A review

If it is summer it must be time for another Jennifer Weiner book and right on schedule, here it is! It's The Summer Place and it takes place on Cape Cod, of course.

The central plot line involves a planned wedding. Twenty-two-year-old Ruby, daughter of Eli and stepdaughter of Sarah, is planning to get married to Gabe in three months. This takes place during the pandemic and everyone is already feeling the strain of so much enforced togetherness during this time. At some points, it seems like this wedding might be the final straw that breaks the family apart.

The matriarch of this family is 80-year-old Veronica, called Ronnie, of course. Ronnie is widowed and is staying at the family beach house on Cape Cod. She is very excited about her granddaughter's wedding, especially the fact that it will bring all the family together one more time. She looks forward to that because when she has them all together, she has something she wants to tell them.

Ronnie was once a popular published author but she stopped publishing years ago. Stopped publishing but didn't stop writing and now she has a closet full of her unpublished work.

The stepmother Sarah has a twin brother Sam who is now a widower taking care of his stepson Connor. Sam was actually probably my favorite character and there are a LOT of characters in this tale and it was not always easy to keep them straight in my mind. That may have had something to do with the writing which I did not find particularly compelling. It was not bad, but I would not describe it as riveting. I found my mind wandering from time to time.

And then there is Rosa who is the mother of the groom. Rosa had had dreams of a theater career in New York but she gave that all up to raise Gabe on her own. She became a nurse in order to support him and herself. When Eli learns who she is, he realizes in horror that he knows her from the past; that, in fact, he "knew" her in the biblical sense. This does not bode well for a marriage between Ruby and Gabe.

Well, that's it. I can't go on. It's just too convoluted. Actually, reading the book was a reasonably pleasurable experience but trying to accurately describe the rather labyrinthine plot is just mind-numbing.

The beach read is Jennifer Weiner's forte and this one does not disappoint. She keeps the action coming and pulls the reader along at a fairly lively clip with her slightly dysfunctional family and their complicated relationships and juicy secrets. You can almost feel the sand between the pages.

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

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