Rating: 
Summary: Back to the 60's
Review: Windchill Summer is a novel that is both engaging and descriptive. Norris Church Mailer is highly skilled at setting the scenes through her words that leave vivid images with her readers. As a reader that did not live during the 60's free love and peace protests, Windchill Summer took me there to experience the mood and events of the era.Two best friends, Cherry and Baby will experience the summer they will never forget. Cherry, by most accounts is an innocent. She is active with her family church - First Apostolic Holiness Church of God, and has experienced little distress in her idyllic life. Baby, a Filipino, who often feels disconnected, is vastly different from Cherry. She has experienced numerous relationships and is a keeper of secrets. The murder of a local girl, Carlene, and the arrival of a mysterious guy, Tripp, will turn Cherry's world in ways that she could not have imagined. Windchill Summer examines the summer's events through Cherry's first-person account. In addition, the reader gains the perspective of a variety of supporting voices from the Sweet Valley town. Windchill Summer is a coming of age novel packed with growth and numerous life lessons for its cast. Truly, a captivating read, I anticipate further great work by Norris Church Mailer.
Rating: 
Summary: An author I will search out again and again!
Review: Windchill Summer takes place in Arkansas during the Viet Nam era. As Mailer spins her tail she allows the characters to voice their perspective by presenting each chapter in the words of someone different, allowing the story to slowly unfold. One of the characters is found dead along the way and that adds a bit of mystery. The author very cleverly goes back in time allowing even the dead to present their story. Most important of all she does this with such skill that it is never confusing. Mailer's transition between times and characters is smooth and effortless. Her characters are steeped in their values and misconceptions about religion, the war and each other. Characters that are so real and complete that you feel like they are your personal friends. By the end we know the whole story while some of the main characters will never know everything that we have seen through other peoples eyes. Mailer has weaved an incredible tapestry about life in a small southern town that brings us back to Viet Nam for glimpses of the "My Lai Massacre" under the command of Lt. Cally, the Viet Cong, and the frailty of the killing machines that used to be the boys next door. The portrayal of Mailer's characters is so well done that I hated to leave them behind on the pages of her book.....Kelsana
| 
