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Summer of '42

Herman Raucher

Mass Market Paperback | Pages: 275 pages

Rating: 3.96 | 1622 Users | 109 Reviews

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Original Title:	Summer of '42
ISBN:	0440183480 (ISBN13: 9780440183488)
Edition Language:	English

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He had always intended to come back, to see the island again. But the opportunity had never quite presented itself. This time, however, with a break in his schedule and with events moving remarkably in his favor, he had driven far up the New England coast to see if the magic still prevailed.

I've seen the movie version of this novel a couple of times already, but I said to myself: Let's see if the magic still prevails! I wanted to find out if the whimsical, bittersweet vibe of the movie is present also in the novel. I know now that both formats come from the same author, and that there is more than a little auto-biographical element to the story of coming of age during a glorious, painful summer on Nantuckett island. That's probably the reason why the story feels so authentic, so vibrant, although I suspect more than a fair share of the actual events have been glamorized, tempered by the passage of years and the fading nature of memory.

In 1970, a writer named Herman returns to Packett Island, the place where he used to spend his summer vacations until 1942.

He had done that before around there, a long time ago. He sank his feet into the good sand, and his toes flexed like cat's paws. He took off his navy blazer and slung it over his shoulder, and in this manner did he walk ahead towards the house on the horizon – and back toward the last painful days of his once-glorious innocence.

The best stories are rarely complicated: childhood friends, growing up, falling in love, exile from paradise into middle age, making peace with the past.
Once upon a time there were three teenage boys adrift on an island not yet discovered by hordes of tourists toting instant cameras, sun lotions and screaming toddlers. Nothing much happened in the sleepy village on Packett Island:

In the good company of each other, they were bored shitless.
They passed the one soggy cigarette down the line, puffing it dramatically like combat men enjoying a brief respite from bloody battle. And the silent and unresisting air provided Hermie the proper climate for his incisive observation: "This has been the longest summer of my life."

Each of the boys has a role to play: Oscy is the pragmatist, the athlete, the pushy one; Hermie is the bookish dreamer, forever creating fantasies in his head ( "You see, Hermie – you're supposed to dream when you're asleep. If you dream when you're awake, people'll think you're buggy." ); Benjie is the nerdy one with the glowing watch and the shy disposition. Together they are about to stumble, willy-nilly, into adulthood. But will their friendship survive the shock?

At that moment in history Hermie was painfully astride the barbed-wire fence that separated boyhood from manhood.

also,
Three pinballs on the table of life, that's what they were. And in their own inimitable way, they were looking for a score.

Small towns in out of the way places provided little in the way of sexual education, so the boys had to resort either to daydreaming about heroines from comic books (Sheena of the Jungle features prominently in Hermie's daydreams), smuggle out from parental libraries of medical treatises, or painfully embarrassing conversations with the drugstore owner about prophylactics. While Oscy chooses the tried and tested method of picking up girls at the movies and Benjie seems content to play with his gadgets, Hermie falls under the spell of a mysterious woman living in an isolated house at the end of the beach. The fact that she is happily married doesn't seem to matter to our amateur voyeur. In fact, it seems to add to her allure.

She was clinging to the man, trying to become a part of him. He was leaving. She knew he had to go. She didn't know when she'd see him again. It was an old familiar story, but it seemed newly strange to Hermie to see it so expertly acted out somewhere else other than the RKO Kenmore.

We learn that her husband is called off to war, and that somehow Hermie makes himself useful to her: carrying groceries and moving heavy boxes in her loft. Oscy and Benjie are typical teenagers and are harassing Hermie constantly about his infatuation with an 'old' woman. Eventually they come to blows, and it seems that part of growing up is to abandon your best friends and to step boldly into the unknown.

She was radiant. It was the only word. Radiant. With her long legs and flowing hair and green eyes, soft and limpid green eyes, how in my dreams you haunt me ...

I love the movie, the way it captures the nostalgia, the fears and the rare moments of gentleness that mark our rites of passage. The book doesn't bring anything new into the equation, but it is well written, compensating for the lyrical passages with a healthy dose of crude humor. It also captures very well the period details and attitudes, although I would argue that what makes the story memorable is not in the local color, but in the universal feelings probably every teenager has gone through. I liked in particular the way the love story was handled: sex is not the reward of the bold (that's too close to rape), but the sharing of pain, and happiness - a shelter from the storm.

So, pick either the movie or the novel – both will do nicely for a trip down memory lane.

Specify Appertaining To Books Summer of '42

Title	:	Summer of '42
Author	:	Herman Raucher
Book Format	:	Mass Market Paperback
Book Edition	:	Special Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 275 pages
Published	:	September 1st 1976 by Dell (first published 1971)
Categories	:	Fiction. Young Adult. Coming Of Age. Romance. Historical. Historical Fiction

Rating Appertaining To Books Summer of '42

Ratings: 3.96 From 1622 Users | 109 Reviews

Evaluate Appertaining To Books Summer of '42

WHYD YOU READ THIS BOOK?Even though the storys setting is actually the summer of 1942 on an island off the northeast coast, it was my own 1970s childhood memories of the film and theme song that kept haunting me recently, and since summer is just now starting to wind down, I thought this would be the perfect time to read it.WHAT DID YOU LIKE ABOUT THIS STORY?The descriptions of the humorous predicaments of the protagonist had me laughing out loud numerous times, and I really appreciated that.

Quite lovely and funny in parts, but oh so sad! I wish I could have seen the musical though, because the majority of my fondness lies with that more than the book or film. I love the story, and the staged execution just seems so perfect.

Loved the book, the movie and the soundtrack! Read it when I was approx. 12 or 13.

This book is kind of dated in some of its pop culture references, yet still relevant in its coming-of-age themes. It does have mature content matter (Raucher definitely didnt shy away from the sexual thoughts adolescent males might be thinking/saying!), so this novel wouldnt be for everyone. Overall, Summer of 42 was just an average read. But, I can now check A Novel With a Season in its Title off of my reading challenge list.

Good writing and characters. I've seen the movie but I think the book is better. Hermie experiences a range of emotions at 15, and being inside his head is hilarious; I laughed out loud. It's summer, he's young, he's in love with a 23 yr old married woman, and his hormones are driving him crazy. He wants to do something important, he wants to be mature and to grow up; most of all he wants to get laid.

Packett Island off the New England coast. It's 1970 and Hermie is recalling the summer of 1942 when he and his pals were fifteen and preoccupied with sex.I'm frustrated. Forty percent of this is brilliant, and maybe sixty percent is... something else. I'm not saying the sixty percent is bad, but it feels tonally out of step. Part of this is Hermie's transitioning from boy to not yet man, and this out of step sense does mirror this transitional stage, but I felt put off by the wild swings between

Romantic coming-of-age story, and a book of its time (1971). Had moments, but I never cared much for the characters. The boys were appalling. Well, 15-ish, but still. Anyway, I lost interest and started skimming. The ending was OK but forced. Not really for me. 2.3 stars.