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Summary: Emotional cripples looking for love in all the wrong places.
Review: As ususal with William Trevor, the story is all in the details. The book is short, but not a quick read or you'll miss what Trevor's revealing about his characters. All of them are emotionally damaged people looking for love in all the wrong places. The story centers around Thaddeus, a recent widower who is looking for a nanny for his infant daughter. Pettite, a young woman loaded with emotional scars, applies and is rejected for the job. However, she develops an obsession for Thaddeus that makes her dangerous. Even though all the characters have had loveless--and even abuse--childhoods, Trevor somehow avoids making them pathetic.
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Summary: A Wonder of Words and Moods
Review: Death in Summer is one of the more appropriate titles for a novel I've seen in a while. William Trevor is a gifted writer, one of characteristic styles that are fascinating, illuminating..yet with a dark view of the world that begs for light. The stories of three deaths, bizarrely interrelated in a strange English place, is only a superficial tease of what lies within and beneath this fine novel. The real passings are about the deaths of life views that occur when indescribable losses alter our lives. Trevor has an uncanny ability to vary his vocabulary/tone/philosophical views/visceral descriptions adjusted according to which of his myriad characters is relating a view of the story. Whether the description of a garden is eloquent when from the mind and mouth of the gentrified owners of the mansion where the story takes place, or the interior of a cafe is puncutated with the glassy views of a declining, bosomy "loose woman", or the stagnation of a squalid orphanage is regarded with acceptance by the ne're-do-well young folks of the street - with each of these disparate voices Trevor allows authenticity beyond the abilities of most contemporary authors. At times his stream of conscious style of writing causes the need to retrace pages to make sure where we are, but that is a glory in and of itself. THAT is how submerged the reader becomes when reading this fine book. It has its own life!
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Summary: Death in Summer is a wonderfully quiet mystery
Review: Early in William Trevor's novel, Death in Summer, the male caretaker of the house in which most of the story's action takes place muses about the correlation between horse-racing and a life spent caring for other people's property; a life of servitude but also one of observation. His conclusion is that "Other people's lives, how they are lived and what they are, offer what the vagaries of the turf do: mystery and the pleasure of speculation." Therein lies the pleasure of reading Death in Summer, which offers more observation than commentary,and which tends to show characters' actions first and then only gradually reveal their motives. There is a quiet mystery interwoven into the story, well maintained by Trevor's prose, which is simultaneously simple and beautiful.
Death in Summer is a meloncholy story, which makes sense as the action begins with a death. Letitia, "a person of almost wayward generosity," is killed when a car strikes her bicycle. She leaves behind a husband, Thaddeus and their infant child Georgina. Letitia's death leaves a literal void--now Georgina will grow up without a mother,but she also leaves a symbolic void. Letitia's good nature and uncomplicated love towards her fellow humans is notably absent in the characters that outlive her (with the exception of Albert,whose goodness winds up being just as futile as Letitia's). Pettie, the orphaned girl who interviews for the position of nanny for Georgina, is constantly looking for father figures--older men to fill the void from her past. She falls in love with Thaddeus, but it only leads to a complicated kidnapping plot. Unlike Letitia and Albert, Pettie cannot simply love and wish the best for those she loves. Trevor's gradual unfolding of her character and the events that shaped her--revealing in tiny pieces her relationship to one of the many "uncles" who came to visit the female orphans--is one of the most masterful elements of Death in Summer. He allows the characters actions to speak without too much explanation and he does not over-analyze. That we, as readers, have to be patient with the story makes it all the more engrossing to read. Death in Summer is a wonderful and haunting book.
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Summary: A chain of events triggered by an accident
Review: Fully realized characters and a plot that turns on the cause and effect results of a random accident are woven into this remarkable novel. The nature of inocence is explored through characters who are victimized by circumstance and others whose acts are based in past trauma when inocence was lost. This story and the people in it will stay with you for a long while. Highly recomended.
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Summary: So so
Review: Nothing's really great about the story, although it has some surprising elements. The language is quite cumbersome, with lengthy sentences. It might be appealing to some readers, but not exactly me. Ever feel like you're dragging yourself to endure something? That's how I feel trying to complete reading the book.
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Summary: Nothing Special with Overused Stereotypes
Review: The publication of Death In Summer, as with other works by William Trevor, is cause to rejoice. Fireworks, flag raisings, and cannon salvos might also be appropriate, as Mr. Trevor is inarguably a master of his craft. He defines and illumines characters with strokes of spare, impeccable prose, while his candid renderings of human frailty are often leavened with compassion. Most recently Mr. Trevor's considerable authorial skills were seen in the incredibly touching "Felicia's Journey" (1995), and "After Rain" (1996), a collection of poignant sketches. Death In Summer is one more stellar achievement. A somewhat noir narrative offered with quiet dignity and studied restraint, his latest story is set in England, the flatlands of Essex. It is summertime and, yes, there is death, but there is also hope found in the most improbable of places. Thaddeus Davenant is the pound poor owner of Quincunx House, a servantless home distinguished by "tattered grandeur." It was here that Thaddeus grew up, the lonely, forgotten child of a soap merchant father and beautiful Polish mother. His marriage to Letitia Iveson, a gentle, plain, well-to-do woman, "a person of almost wayward generosity," whom he despairs of ever loving, has enabled Thaddeus to refurbish Quincunx House and retain a live-in couple, the eavesdropping Maidment and plump, devout Zenobia. After six years of marriage, in which there are few disagreements due to "her natural inclination to amity, his to mild prevarication," a daughter is born. Shortly after the baby's birth, Letitia is killed in a tragic accident, leaving Thaddeus to raise their child alone. With the assistance of Mrs. Iveson, Letitia's mother, a series of nanny applicants are interviewed, including Pettie, an emotionally deprived shop-lifting prone young woman who grew up in the Morning Star, a foster home where she was sexually abused. When none of the applicants prove suitable, Mrs. Iveson moves in to take charge of her granddaughter. Having seen Thaddeus and what is to her the luxury in which he lives, Pettie becomes obsessed, almost hallucinatory. Quincunx House and Thaddeus are all Pettie can talk about to her one friend, Albert, also a former resident of the foster home. Although deemed "a few marbles short," Albert worries about Pettie; he frets because he knows the tormented young woman well. Pettie fantasizes, seeing herself living in Quincunx House, consoling a bereft Thaddeus, caring for the baby. Soon, she is taking the train back to Essex, exploring the fields around her imagined home, and discovering a seldom used door into the back garden through which she can watch Thaddeus and Mrs. Iveson tending the baby. Thus, a seemingly unrelated chain of events lead to the tale's unexpected denouement, a reminder of the fragility of life and the goodness of love. Death In Summer limns fate's vagaries, the randomness of tragedy. The joy is that this story is told with the mellifluous grace of William Trevor.
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Summary: Orphan Pettie Kidnaps Baby Girl
Review: This sometimes shocking novel lays bare the tragic lives of orphaned children in London like Pettie, describing in some detail their malicious upbringing and their desperate and often illegal responses to it. Pettie demonstrates that orphans still exist in the contemporary world;she is like a member of the Charles Manson family, desperate to the point of irrationality.
In stark contrast is Thaddeus Davenant, heir to a now-destitute British manufacturing family, who married wealth but whose wife Letitia was killed in a tragic bizarre bicycle accident. He lives in a family estate Quincunx House in Sussex with his servants and pursues an interest in gardening. Pettie fancies herself quite irrationally to be a better nannie for Davenant's infant daughter Georgiana and also to be in love with Davenant, whom she barely knows. There are also subplots involving, for example, Thaddeus' mother-in-law and Thaddeus' old flame that add to the interest. The lifestyles of the two main protagonists could not be more different, and Trevor plays one against the other with great skill. There are also substantial amounts of humour in the book if one knows where to look for it. In addition to being like a Charles Manson family member, Pettie is a bit like Eliza Doolittle from "My Fair Lady." She stalks Quincunx House prior to abducting the child. If I am not mistaken there was a case involving a nannie under similar circumstances about 15 years ago in New England and perhaps Trevor based his novel on this case or one like it. At the end of this novel, I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.
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Summary: It's what you don't see that matters
Review: Trevor reminds me of Flannery O'Connor. The holy spirit is somehow numinously present in the random, cruel, and grotesque universe that he describes with such precision and wit. In this story, as in so many others, he succeeds in developing our sympathy for the unloved, the shattered, and the deranged. The reader ends up tolerating, appreciating, even loving the most unlikely characters. In this particular book references to Quincunx allude to Browne's Urn Burial; Trevor's tone is steeped in the melancholy wonder that one hears in Browne and W. G. Sebald, who seems to have tramped some of the same vintage in The Rings of Saturn. The mysteries of life, death, entrapment, growth, and transcendence abide after the surprises and plot twists have been forgotten. Felicia's Journey left me with lingering creepiness, but Death in Summer provides an astringent sense of hope despite the despair and decay all around.
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Summary: Lukewarm and lacking depth
Review: Trevor's "Death in Summer" is a well-written but odd story to which I found myself somewhat indifferent. Set in contemporary rural England, the outset of the tale revolves around two young people released into the world, recently discharged from a kind of asylum for young people, The Morning Star. We aren't told exactly what kind of institution but I'm assuming it was a mental institution of some sort, based on the characters' memories of it. After living in an abandoned shack following their release, the boy and the girl who have grown up as friends, try to build normal lives in society. Albert, responsible, kind and sensitive, secures a job washing grafiti off walls and boarding with a middle-aged invalid, as her live-in caretaker. While Pettie, impressionable, brooding, flighty, and prone to acts of petty thievery, decides to apply for a nanny position at a manor - the home of wealthy widower Thaddeus Davenant and his small infant daughter. When Thaddeus' mother-in-law decides to move into the manor to care for the child, there is no longer a need for a nanny. Unstable and imagining herself in love with Thaddeus (who she has only met once), Pettie sets out to prove her love and compassion for him and the infant...in a somewhat distorted way. Albert is instinctively protective of his vulnerable friend Pettie, and ultimately tries to help her out of the desperate situation she soon finds herself in. As the story unraveled in third-person, the reader is afforded a glimpse into each character mind. Since two of the main characters are afflicted with mental infirmities, the barrage thoughts and their purposes can get a bit confusing. The reader may also find the dialogue and certain details a bit puzzling at times, if they are unfamiliar with certain English sayings or allusions. Aside from it's unique perspective, "Death in Summer" exhibited an over abundance of unnecessary information, thoughts and observations which often detracted from the thought at hand, and diverted any interest I may have had in a current scene or plot turn in the novel. Granted, it was not a "dull" read, but not an overly memorable one either..."lukewarm" comes to mind. I feel the storyline itself had a lot of potential that could have been further developed into something more rich and impressive. It failed to involve and capture me.
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Summary: Interiors and Exteriors Make Interesting Story
Review: William Trevor has been highly recommended by people I respect, and I do plan on reading more of him. DEATH IN SUMMER is the first of his works I've encountered and while it did not quite live up to what I expected, that's not to say it isn't good. As I read it, I kept imagining it as a contemporary British television dramatization, a medium to which it would translate well, if not better than the page. The story is spare yet complicated: A new widower with an infant interviews and decides not to hire a nanny, instead accepting his mother-in-law's offer to come care for the child. Unknown to him, one of the girls interviewed and not hired as a nanny becomes obsessed with him, interjecting into his life unforeseen consequences, forcing him to confront the emotional isolation in which he had long taken refuge. The characters are fully drawn, as are the settings. The sentences are graceful. The movement of the action is a bit off, spending a little too much time away from the protagonist at times. It can be very quiet, too; doesn't eat its own scenery. In the end, though, it successfully conveys its themes, especially the observation of how so much of our knowledge about others' lives is gathered in eavesdropping or guessing, never with the complete information.
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