Still Summer

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 320 pages
• Published by: Grand Central Publishing August 23, 2007
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0446578762
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0446578769
• Book Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Weighs: 1 pounds

Product Review
Guest Reviewer: Jodi Picoult
From the provocative and gut-wrenching The Pact, to the brilliant genre-bending The Tenth Circle, to Nineteen Minutes, her most recent novel about a high-school shooting, Jodi Picoult's riveting novels center on family and relationships, and bring to light questions and issues that remain with a reader long after the last page is turned.

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In one of my novels, I describe life as what happens when the what-if's don't. In Jacquelyn Mitchard's book, Still Summer, we lucky readers get tumbled into a world where extraordinary things happen to ordinary women; where the what-if's don't only become a reality, but a nightmare that truly puts into perspective what's important in life, and who we truly are.

Mitchard has always excelled at capturing the details of a fictional character with such a finely drawn hand that it's easy to believe you know the people who inhabit her books--that you may have had coffee with them, or passed them on the street. Sometimes her characters are so real to me I have to close the book to cry; or I find myself yelling at them out loud. The ladies of Still Summer--a band of high-school friends who have long since grown up--base their connection to each other on the past, when they were tough-talking Catholic schoolgirls called the Godmothers. But where Tracy, Holly, and Janis went on to marry and live quiet suburban lives, Olivia became an Italian countess, living the kind of life the others could only dream about. Reunited for a Caribbean sailing voyage after Olivia's husband's death, we watch the women come to terms with the fact that our memories of the past are often colored by nostalgia; that friends who fit together seamlessly years ago might, with the passing of time, find it harder to align.

The book begins in familiar territory--women whose lives that are peppered with recalcitrant kids, clueless husbands, the double-handed shuffle of home and career. At the last minute, Janis begs out of the trip to tend to an ailing husband--leaving Tracy's daughter, Cammie, to take her place--in spite of the fact that the relationship between mother and daughter is rocky and cavernous. And then, just as suddenly as a rogue wind, the book takes a shocking turn--leaving these women in a crisis situation that leaves them not only fighting for their lives, but revising their own understanding of friendship, family, and loyalty.

What is it about a Mitchard novel that rises so far above others? The realism, the grace of the characters who people it, and the heartbreaking truths that sneak up on a reader when we least expect it. Still Summer reminds us that sometimes it takes a tragedy to learn what's gorgeous about ordinary life; that sometimes we have to travel great distances to figure out how we define "home"; and perhaps most importantly, that we do not know anyone as well as we think--not our daughters, not our friends, and not even ourselves. --Jodi Picoult

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From Publishers Weekly
Bestselling Mitchard offers the harrowing tale of four women lost at sea and pitted against nature and a cohort of contemporary pirates. Tracy, Holly and Olivia have known each other since high school, when they were glamorous, popular troublemakers. Twenty-five years after graduation, the three women, plus Tracy's 19-year-old daughter, Camille, set out on a "reading, sunning, gossiping" trip aboard a luxe sailboat helmed by a two-man crew. But a storm leaves the women adrift with no sail or engine and their co-captains gone overboard. With limited sailing experience, failing radio equipment and a rapidly diminishing cache of food and water, the women are vulnerable to the worst threats the Caribbean can offer—the elements, sharks and, most troublesome, pirates. This fast-paced novel borrows qualities from several genres—suspense, survival epic, coming-of-age—and mostly succeeds in melding the better aspects of each, though Mitchard has a surer hand in creating women characters than men. Mitchard's fans will appreciate this high-stakes adventure. (Aug.)
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Reader Reviews
This is my first Jacquelyn Mitchard book, and I can't say I was blown away. The fascinating premise of ordinary women trying to survive at sea was really hampered by some pretty stereotypical characters: the bratty teenage girl, the self-sacrificing mom, the self-absorbed beauty, the sexy Frenchman. All of these characters (along with others, who are very thinly drawn for the most part) are on a yacht trip in the Caribbean. Three of the women (Tracy, Holly and Olivia) are lifelong friends; the other is Tracy's daughter Cammie. There are also two crewmen. As they sail, they meet with a series of accidents that put them in increasing peril and show what the women are truly made of. While the story itself was interesting, I found myself repeatedly annoyed at the characters. One of the women is portrayed as an experienced sailor, yet she doesn't know to take the sail down during a heavy storm and is surprised when it gets torn up. Seriously? I've never sailed a day in my life and even -I- knew that. Also, how on earth did it take Tracy twenty years to realize what a worthless excuse for a human being Olivia was? In addition, I saw one major "plot twist" coming about 100 pages before it was revealed. (I won't post it here, in the unlikely event that it would spoil the surprise for others.) This is notable because I'm notorious for not being able to spot plot twists, so if it surprised me, it must be pretty dang obvious! This is the sort of book that a hotel would do well to keep by the pool for guests who want a fast, interesting read. But it's not the sort of book those same guests would go home and buy a copy of for themselves.