From the Boss: A Labor Day Beach Read
by Kimberley Allen McNamara
Recently I attended a book luncheon with Jennifer Weiner as the guest author. The latest book written by this New York Times #1 best-selling author, entitled: The Summer Place, is a third in her Cape Cod series. While Weiner is dubbed by the NYT as "the undisputed boss of the Summer Beach Read," I knew her more for her witty and on-point OpEds in the NYTimes.
The book is told from a rotating 3rd person point of view–each of the main characters has a chapter, followed by another main character having a chapter, etc. Yes, there are Major Main Characters among the main characters. The house in the title has a soliloquy of sorts at the start of each part, like Puck in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and like Puck, the house causes some mischief.
Weiner does not disguise from the reader the connection between A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Summer Place, and she quotes from the play at the very beginning of the book. She does not shy away from the Pandemic because the Pandemic bathes her characters in a unique set of circumstances. Just as the wild and wantonness of MidSummer's night and Puck's magic casts a spell over Shakespeare's characters, the Pandemic likewise has Weiner's characters behaving in unexpected behavior patterns. Everything is topsy-turvy but also the same.
Weiner gives a substantial role to the Pandemic—this is why 22-year-old Ruby, step-daughter of main character Sarah, is engaged to Gabe (they've been living together since March of 2020 at Sarah's home, which is of course Ruby's home too). There's nothing wrong with Gabe, according to Sarah. He's perfectly polite, good-natured, and kind, but also according to Sarah: there is also nothing really to Gabe. Add to the mix that Ruby wants to get married in three months at Sarah's family's Cape Cod house, and Sarah's mother has said yes before Sarah or Ruby's dad, Eli, was even aware of the engagement, and you have a comedy of errors begging to happen. Seriously, what could possibly go wrong?
Weiner, boss of the beach read, does not disappoint. A messy dramedy of misunderstandings, old secrets, and snafus pepper the steady march toward the wedding as her characters and the world attempt to emerge from the Pandemic, pretending as if everything is normal.
At the luncheon, Weiner read the following passage from The Summer Place::
"When the Pandemic began, she'd asked him not to interrupt her; to just come and go quietly if she was in the middle of something, and he'd nodded and agreed. Maybe he'd forgotten his pledge, or maybe it ran counter to his nature, but Eli seemed as incapable of not talking to her upon arriving as he did of remembering to wipe out the sink's bowl after he finished shaving. "Just plugging in my phone!" he would call, or "Just grabbing a sweater!" or "Just going out to get Lord Farquaad's food!" Every time her husband came slap-slapping his way into the bedroom, she'd feel her stomach muscles clench and her heart start beating faster and her fingers itch with a desire to slap him. ("Please, you think you've got it bad?" asked Tasha, her assistant, when Sarah had complained on a work Zoom. "I learned that my husband's a circle back guy." She'd lowered her voice to what Sarah thought of as a business-casual baritone. "Uh, Bob, can we circle back on that?" Then Carole, one of the teachers, shared that her husband cracked his knuckles, and Justin, who taught the trombone, confessed to daily bickering with Timothy his sax player husband over where he and Justin could each empty their respective spit valves,"
(Weiner, Jennifer. The Summer Place: A Novel (p. 126). Atria Books. Kindle Edition. )
Everyone in Weiner's novel is on shaky ground, presumably caused by the Pandemic and also because their previous life choices. This is one thing the Pandemic did; it gave people time to ponder their past decisions, to wonder ‘what if’ and to consider that perhaps, like Weiner's character Ruby says:
"Karma might not always be fast, but that bitch is always on time."
(Weiner, Jennifer. The Summer Place: A Novel (p. 151). Atria Books. Kindle Edition.)
Unlike many novelists or television series who have chosen to ignore the Pandemic existence in their present-day story/show, Weiner gave the Pandemic a front and center position in this novel. The Pandemic happened with millions of deaths; Covid is still causing illness and deaths. There are variants, and there are booster vaccines, etc. Weiner acknowledges, mentions and does not ignore any of Covid's fears or restrictions: college students move home, zoom classes are taught, then kids attend schools in a hybrid fashion, with masks, masks on subways, museums reopen, theatres reopen, people move out of the city, move back in, and all the while, the main characters are making plans to attend Ruby’s wedding. The wedding plans are all set, but the question is: should/will the wedding happen?
Throughout the novel her characters question their choices, why they became mothers, their decisions to stay married or walk away or not get married, and what is missing from their lives, of not being true to themselves.
Tapping the interiority of her characters, she explores: what it means when a woman leaves her child with the child's father versus a man leaving his wife and child, or when a mother shouts back at a teenage daughter that the only reason she became a mother was there weren't many other options in her day and age, or what does it mean to be successful, to be an ideal mate, to chose career over love, to decide to keep a baby, to want a relationship with the person you are sexually attracted to? Her characters have depth and roundness even if their situations seem worthy of a Shakespearean comedy.
Weiner was an engaging and entertaining host of this IN PERSON book luncheon. This novelty of seeing an author in person had been missing from this venue for the past two summers.
She talked about her mother's passing, of summering in Truro, and took questions from the audience. Weiner shared the views she wrote of in OpEds about the burden placed on women, particularly mothers, during the Pandemic stay-at-home orders. These burdens shifted and increased again after schools continued to zoom or adopted hybrid models with many women being unable to return to work.
Of course, people asked if any of her real-life happenings made it onto the page. In particular, when her character Ronnie, an author, thinks about how she, Ronnie, was almost embarrassed to admit to her date that she wrote commercial fiction rather than literary. Was that you? Someone asked. Weiner laughed and seamlessly sidestepped the question by saying all creatives struggle with what they create and all wonder if their creations are worthy-enough. For example, her character Sarah wonders if she could have been the concert pianist she aspired to be as a teen, was she/had she been good enough? But instead Sarah chose teaching and music administration. Why? Because that path was safe?
Weiner stated how parts of her Pandemic annoyances from her loved ones did find their way onto the page. Character Eli, husband of Sarah, father of Ruby the bride, wears flip-flops to help with his plantar fasciitis; Weiner's husband wears flip-flops for the same reason. And yes, the slap-slapping of Weiner's husband's feet annoyed her as much as Eli's annoyed Sarah but at least, Weiner says: he wasn't a 'circle back' guy.
If you haven’t read That Summer Place: A Novel I recommend it for your next beach read as it is witty, thought provoking, and yes, insightful. If you’re familiar with bard’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream you will enjoy Weiner’s nod to the play. And as in the play, there is also sex. Remember, Shakespeare could be quite bawdy and suggestive.
The author luncheon was hosted by the Indie bookstore Where the Sidewalk Ends of Chatham Massachusetts at the Wequassett Resort.
