Summer of '69 moves slowly, just a summer should. We all remember those days, don't we? Days of freedom, exploration, excitement and change. Elin Hilderbrand provides all of that and more as she takes us along to Nantucket and lets us peer into the complicated lives of the Levin/Foley family.
We invest in the characters early when Tiger Foley is sent to Vietnam. Of all the characters, we learn the least about Tiger, but he becomes a symbol of all the uncertainty and fear that gripped too many families during the 60's and 70's. With war, and additional newsmakers - Nixon, Apollo 11, Chappaquiddick - one could easily assume that this will be historical fiction. Not so. Those elements are incidental and treated with a degree of superficiality.
It is Hilderbrand's storytelling and character development that star. Blair, newly married and pregnant, finds herself trapped in a traditional "little woman" role with an emotionally distant husband. Privileged but rebellious Kirby, forsakes her usual summer in Nantucket and takes a hotel job in a small resort town. While some of her altruistic dreams shatter, and she experiences her first true heartache, she finds that reality is not a terrible place in which to live.
Jessie is the youngest daughter - second marriage child; Father is Jewish, making Jesse an anomaly on Nantucket, something she becomes aware of as her grandmother, Exalata (yup, her real name!) regularly tries to hide that from her country club friends. All that has troubled the family; much has haunted each individual in the Foley/Levin clan. Secrets emerges dramatically during the summer of '69, and Jessie finds herself in the midst of the turmoil.
We all need a good summer read, and this sure fits that bill. Who knows where this summer will take us, so why not slip away to the east coast with the summer people. Coffee. Sun. Your deck and Nantucket. Let summer begin.
Thanks for stopping by.
Restrictions have lifted...the virus hasn't. Stay safe.
Keep smiling.
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