I have a Google spreadsheet where I keep track of the books I've read, and after reading this one I wrote "sad, emotionally wringing, gay" in the notes section. That basically sums up this book, Summer Sisters by Judy Blume. This author is one of the iconic authors of childhood and adolescence. Judy is most famous for Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, which is about a 13 year old girl who is grappling with puberty, friends, school, boys, and religion. I don't think I've read any other author write about growing up and puberty and sexuality and being a girl in that liminal stage the way Judy does. It's frank, honest, doesn't shy away from reality, and feels true even if you personally didn't go through any of those things yourself.
Summer Sisters is told from the perspective of Victoria, who made the friendship of a lifetime one day in the sixth grade when popular, rich Caitlin decided she liked her. From then on, Vix (as Caitlin calls her) spends her summers with Caitlin's family at Martha's Vineyard, and her life is changed forever. Caitlin's family is rich, interesting, and carefree, all things Vix's family is not, and Vix finds herself wishing she could be part of that life forever, infatuated with both Caitlin and the island. Caitlin's stepmother encourages Vix to pursue more rigorous studies and scholarships and go to Harvard, all things she would have never considered if she had never become "summer sisters" with Caitlin. Vix's working-class family resents this and feels they are losing their daughter/sister. The book, which takes place in the late seventies, eighties, and nineties, follows the girls through puberty, adolescence and entering the workforce, but it is the girls' feelings towards and about each other that the story hinges on.
Vix and Caitlin's friendship is intense and complicated, with each girl envying the other and thinking the other prettier, but it's not just about frenemies and competition. The girls experiment with each other and are basically on some level in love with each other, and this, coupled with their respective envy, competition, and low self-esteem, creates an unhealthy dynamic that lasts throughout their whole lives. One could argue that everything the flighty, irresponsible and irresistible Caitlin does as an older teenager and adult is to both entice Vix and show her that Caitlin is just fine without her, while everything the quiet, dependable and self-effacing Vix does is to prove herself worthy of Caitlin and her family and the chance they took inviting her into their lives.
The other people in their lives are aware of their obsession with each other, although they only see the girls' relationship as a toxic friendship or being frenemies. The physical experimentation only lasts a short time, with both girls pursuing at their own respective times relationships and sex with men. As teenagers, Caitlin and the older island boys she and Vix are dating introduce Vix to pot, and Caitlin with the support of the boys tricks the stoned Vix into making out with Caitlin's boyfriend. This foreshadows the climactic revelation of the book, which is that Vix's boyfriend Bru has been in a love triangle with the two friends, as Caitlin has sex with him as a teen when Vix starts dating him and later marries him as an adult even though she is fully aware that Vix is/will always be in love with him, that he was her first and the love of her life. Both of these instances show that Caitlin is trying to get as sexually close to Vix as possible: "I can't have her so I'll have her first love." I wish they would have just talked to each other and been honest about their feelings, even if they didn't end up getting together. I know it was the 1970s-90s, but still. It's clear that Caitlin knows what her feelings are towards Vix, what with the boyfriend swapping and, at one point as a young adult, embellishing a story about becoming a lesbian for political reasons and having a jealous female lover, clearly to try to get a reaction out of Vix and see if it piques her interest/jealousy. Vix seems to have never heard of bisexuality, as she takes in their history and her feelings without really realizing what the pull between them means. The sex scenes in this book are frank and explicit.
Their relationship is never really resolved, and the book has Vix end up with a nice stable guy (the childhood friend of Caitlin's brother, who was sort of a "summer brother"; they all grew up together, a nice parallel). This relationship's purpose is to pair Vix off and make her happy; it has none of the feelings or fire of the relationships Vix had with Caitlin or even Bru. Shortly after the friends spend their 30th birthdays together in Italy (romantic much?), Caitlin is lost at sea and presumed dead, an appropriately dramatic death, and one that the book suggests she planned. While she is generally a brat, usually selfish, and kind of a monster, I do not see Caitlin with all her pain as the true villain in this book: heteronormativity and homo/biphobia are.
"Caitlin isn't someone to get over. She's someone to come to terms with, the way you have to come to terms with your parents, your siblings. You can't deny they ever happened. You can't deny you ever loved them, love them still, even if loving them causes you pain."
Cover notes: this book's cover with its beach chairs made this look like a light summer beach read, which it was not. If you look closely, however, the title font, its color, and the shading and background position of the second beach chair give you a sort of eerie apprehension so subtle it barely registers. Does the overturned beach chair in the shadows represent Vix, as Caitlin is the one who gets the most attention? Or is it Caitlin, who, unable to stand in Vix's light, plunges herself into darkness? None of the other covers of this book tie in with the story either; they in fact look even lighter and beachy-er.
Score: 3.9 out of 5 stars
Read in: early-late January
From: free books rack at the library
Format: paperback
Status: tentatively keeping
Read in: early-late January
From: free books rack at the library
Format: paperback
Status: tentatively keeping
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