Hi Everyone,
If you didn’t read the July 2010 book, Love and Summer by William Trevor, there is really no need to take the time. Those of us that met on Wednesday the 14th to discuss the selection did not proclaim its virtues. Angie, Barb, Ginnie, Sharon, and me, attended the meeting at Panera Bread. We enjoyed our conversation and the warm summer evening under a patio set outside the restaurant.
Love and Summer required “reading between the lines.” Ordinarily, I prefer analytical reading to the direct approach, but not with this one. I found the writing unnecessarily inflated with pointless observations by the narrator. In his rambling, he failed to create connectivity between the characters. No two characters shared a stimulating enough relationship to bind me emotionally to the story. Miss Connulty, for instance, clearly despises her mother and finds running the inn her most important vocation over those of being a wife and sister. As for Ellie and her husband Dillahan, theirs is only a marriage of convenience and duty. When Ellie is enticed by the worthless Florian, it becomes clear he has no understanding of how to love anyone but himself. Another character who wanders clueless through the story’s plot is Orpen Wren. Obviously, he is homeless and demented, but the author never offers him a character’s aid or a resolution to his conflict.
In fact, no one receives resolution in the small Irish community of Rathmoye. The story is a sad reflection of the day to day grind of life overshadowing the human desire for passion. For example, after her abortion, Miss Connulty buries her grief and continues her life of running
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