Summer Sisters
Encyclopedia
Summer Sisters is a 1998
1998 in literature
The year 1998 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*March 5 - Tennessee Williams' 1938 play, Not About Nightingales, receives its stage première....
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Judy Blume
Judy Blume
Judy Blume is an American author. She has written many novels for children and young adults which have exceeded sales of 80 million and been translated into 31 languages...
. It focuses on the life of two fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
s, the girls Victoria Leonard (Vix) and Caitlin Somers.
Because of its heavy sexual
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
content—including lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
ism—this Blume novel is aimed squarely at an adult audience, not her pre-teen audience for which she gained popularity.
Plot introduction
Summer Sisters is a coming-of-age novel about two friends, Caitlin Somers and Victoria "Vix" Leonard, who spend every summer together as teenagers. The girls are polar opposites, Caitlin being beautiful, lively and popular while Vix is a shy but intellectual wallflower. As the years progress the girls become closer and closer but soon find their friendship strained.Plot summary
The novel begins with a phone call from Caitlin to Vix. Caitlin calls to tell Vix that she is marrying Vix's ex-boyfriend and first love, Bru. Vix is shocked and becomes sick with the news.Flashback: Now the reader learns of Vix's family and first encounter with Caitlin. Vix's home life consists of her controlling mother, Tawny, an average-joe father, and three younger siblings, Lanie, Lewis, and Vix's favorite: her wheelchair-using brother Nathan. Tawny works for a Countess and is always making Vix feel as though she is not good enough. Then Vix meets Caitlin in her sixth grade class, and Caitlin invites Vix to come to Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....
with her for the summer. This is when Vix's whole world is turned upside down.
After much debate, Vix convinces Tawny and her father to let her go with Caitlin. Vix flies out East
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
from her New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
homestead
Homesteading
Broadly defined, homesteading is a lifestyle of simple self-sufficiency.-Current practice:The term may apply to anyone who follows the back-to-the-land movement by adopting a sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle. While land is no longer freely available in most areas of the world, homesteading...
and meets Caitlin's family: her laid-back father, Lambert "Lamb" Somers, her brother "Sharkey", and Trish, an ex-girlfriend of Lamb's who is still close with him but has recently been replaced by Abby, a woman who means well but whom Caitlin dislikes. Abby's son, Daniel, and his friend, Gus, also vacation with Caitlin's family. This section of the book focuses on the mishaps and adventures that the kids go through, including Vix and Caitlin and their crushes on two older boys, Joseph "Bru" Brudegher and his cousin, Von.
When the summer ends, Caitlin and Vix remain friends and continue to attend school together. They make it a tradition for Vix to spend every summer with Caitlin from then on, hence the "Summer Sisters." Eventually, Vix hooks up with Bru and Caitlin with Von. Then Vix makes out with Von while high. She thinks that Caitlin set up the whole scenario and they get into a huge argument. Just prior to her senior year of high school, Vix's beloved brother Nathan succumbs to his physical disabilities and dies as a result, leaving Vix devastated. Vix's younger sister, Lanie, becomes pregnant and has her first child, and Lewis joins the military. As the girls mature, they encounter their first heterosexual experiences (Caitlin with an Italian ski-instructor, then Von, supposedly) and Vix's in-depth and long-term relationship with Bru, which continues into her college years when she attends Harvard on a scholarship
Scholarship
A scholarship is an award of financial aid for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
from The Somers Foundation. Caitlin is accepted to Wellesley College but chooses not to attend and travels abroad.
Vix goes to Harvard while still remaining in a relationship with Bru. She makes new friends, most notably Maia, her uptight roommate whose worrisome ways begin to grow on Vix, but they become close. However, things turn sour when Vix realizes she doesn't know what she wants in life and she and Bru temporarily break up during her Junior year of college. A few months later, a passionate meeting leads to their renewed faithfulness, but all's well does not end well. Just before graduation, Bru asks Vix to marry him, but she says no after realizing that they do not want the same things in life. Vix misses Bru, but moves on and casually dates other people, whilst Caitlin has numerous hetero and homosexual escapades in Europe. The girls keep in loose contact over the years, each becoming busy with her own life until the fateful day when Caitlin makes that phone call and tells Vix about her upcoming nuptials to Bru.
Caitlin invites Vix to the wedding, and she decides to go, only to end up sleeping with Bru the night before. Then, Vix discovers that Bru took not only her virginity but Caitlin's as well. As Bru thinks in the book, "he loves them both... he is glad they have decided for him [who he will be with.]" Caitlin and Bru get married nonetheless, and Caitlin has a daughter, Somers Mayhew Brudegher, whom they call "Maizie". Vix, meanwhile, reconnects with Abby's son Daniel's friend Gus, whom she spent all those summers with years ago at the vineyard. She and Gus slowly fall in love and eventually get married as well. In the final chapters, Vix visits Caitlin again after Caitlin has a breakdown
Nervous breakdown
Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:...
and leaves her family, her marriage to Bru ending in divorce and Bru marrying Star, a local islander. Vix is pregnant with her first child at this time, a baby boy to be named Nate in honor of her late brother. Caitlin and Vix's meeting is relaxed and the two end up pledging to be best friends forever with each one truly grateful for the other's presence in her life.
In the end, Vix is enjoying married life and motherhood when she and everyone else learn that Caitlin disappears in an alleged boating accident... she was in a boat by herself and that was the last time anyone ever saw her, as the boat turned up empty with Caitlin unaccounted for. Blume is not clear on the true reasons behind Caitlin's disappearance, as no body is discovered and there is no damage or foul play, leading the reader to choose between the possibilities that Caitlin purposely vanished from her family and friends or perhaps she did indeed drown. The closing thought is Vix's recount of her "summer sister" and the memories they will always share, and wishing that things could have ended differently.