“Layer by layer art strips life bare.”
–Robert Musil
Mary Alice Monroe’s The Summer Girls
No matter where you go in the world, you cannot run away from the people that are close to your heart and the secrets that they keep for you. In Mary Alice Monroe’s The Summer Girls, we are shown just that with the reunion of three half-sisters Dora, Carson and Harper, at the request of their grandmother, Mamaw, for her eightieth birthday. All three girls travel to Sullivan’s Island in South Carolina, to their beloved Sea Breeze, in search of a glimpse into the carefree summers of their youth, and rediscover the bonds they once shared with each other.
Dora is a stay-at-home mom, caring for her autistic son, Nate, and facing the start of a divorce from her husband, who claims that she didn’t pay enough attention to him, which was true. She is obsessed with caring for Nate, who is a smart child, but at the same time isn’t comfortable in group settings and, heartbreaking to Dora, can’t stand to be touched. Dora lives in South Carolina, under an hour away from Mamaw, and therefore is the only one of the granddaughters that still visits every summer. She brings Nate to Sullivan’s Island even though the invitation specified that it was a girls’ only weekend, because he husband refused to spend any time with him. Dora is depressed over the way that her life has turned out and becomes jealous when she sees her son bonding with Carson.
Carson is a photographer living in California who recently lost her job due to the cancelation of the show that she was working on, and is in need of a change of scenery. Unlike her sisters, Carson grew up a bit differently. Her mother died in a fire when she was little, which led to her spending a few years with Mamaw at Sea Breeze (the name for Mamaw’s house on Sullivan’s Island) before her father (their father) Parker, came back to claim her and they moved to California. Carson loves the ocean, and takes out her surfboard whenever she has a chance, until a close encounter with a shark frightens her and she retreats to the bay. There is a good thing that comes out of the shark though; Carson makes a new friend, a dolphin, whom she names Delphine – which is how she and Nate start to connect a little: the dolphin fascinated him. Carson starts dating Blake, a marine biologist who works with dolphins, and struggles with the possibility that, like her father, she too may have an addiction to alcohol.
Harper lives in New York with her mother, working at a major trade publisher as her mother’s assistant, describing their work relationship as Andy Sachs and Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada. Harper’s mother was displeased that she had decided to go to Sullivan’s Island, making it clear that she was only to be gone for one weekend. After a phone call between the two, Harper decides to quit her job – further angering her mother – and stay for the duration of the summer.
From the beginning, Mamaw seems like she is hiding something, that this visit with her granddaughters is more than what it seems. She unearths family secrets – mainly of Parker – that had long been buried, which threaten to pull them even further apart than they already had become…but will they be able to resurrect their strong bonds in order to move forward together?
The Summer Girls is a great novel for the end of the summer season, because throughout it, you get a sense that something is fleeting, life as each of these characters knows it is fleeting, and I feel like that sense that something is fleeting is felt around this time of the year. The carefree days of summer are fading and the winter is on the horizon, moving towards us faster than we would like. Monroe brings us back to the beginning of the summer season, where the hopes and anticipation still exist, and, as this is the first book in a trilogy that is set to revolve around these characters, it is only the beginning.
Cheating on the Body Shop
I am a Body Shop girl through and through, completely addicted to an array of products from there, however, my last couple of makeup purchases have not come from my belov’ed store. They’ve come from Sephora. It started with a lipstick…let me explain.
I recently have given up lip gloss in favor of lipstick (don’t fret lip gloss, I will be back!), and have been into shades of pink that add noticeable color without being too much: I’ve always favored the natural look. And it seems that I have sped further then the Body Shop. Basically, I was waiting for their new lipstick line to come out, and I couldn’t wait anymore. It is available online, but won’t be in stores until after Labor Day (which isn’t that far away now, but it was a few weeks ago), and makeup really is one of those things that should not be purchased online unless it is a color that you’ve already owned before. So, I walked to Sephora, and with the help of one of their employees, picked out the perfect shade of muted coral from Givenchy’s Rouge Interdit Satin collection (No 03 – secret pink). It has become my go-to lipstick for now, but I will be returning to the Body Shop next week to check out their new collection.
While there, I spotted Bobbi Brown’s limited edition Navy & Nude eye palette, which has beautiful nudes and a very dark navy blue. Initially, I left Sephora without it, thinking that I only line my eyes with a very dark grey or black and that navy would be too much color for me (did I mention that I like to stick with natural colors when dealing with makeup?). Then I read the reviews for it, and it seemed that it wasn’t as noticeable a blue as I had thought. After toying with the idea for a couple of weeks, I ventured back to Sephora, testing the colors on my hand and eventually purchasing it…and I’m glad that I did. Honestly, you can’t really tell that the shadow (or in my case liner) is blue, it just adds a little something that you wouldn’t get out of my usual black or dark grey. So, if you’re in the mood for a strikingly obvious pop of blue, this palette unfortunately is not for you, but if you’re like me, then it’s perfect.
As for the Body Shop, perhaps it isn’t a bad idea to branch out a little with my makeup, but I still will predominantly be making my beauty purchases from there.
Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak
In Laurie Halse Anderson’s YA novel, Speak, we are introduced to the character of Melinda, and follow her through her first year of high school. Normally a time where teenagers start on the quest of “finding themselves,” Melinda’s freshman year is anything but that. Still trying to get a grasp on events from what was supposed to be an innocent summer party where she called the police then fled, Melinda starts off the school year with no friends – they’re all furious at her for the police and don’t understand/know the situation (she didn’t tell a soul) – and in a state of depression. She befriends the new girl, Heather, who has no knowledge of the past summer, only to have the friendship thrown in her face partway through the year, when Heather becomes involved in a popular clique.
As the school year goes by, Melinda’s grades slip more and more, and she retreats into herself, ending up speaking as little as possible which frustrates her parents and teachers. Melinda cannot run away from the thoughts inside her own head that keep her silent, and it seems that everywhere she goes, she cannot get away from the one person that is the cause of all of her pain: he’s everywhere. The only place where she seems to open up is in her art class, but is that enough to bring her back to life and save her?
Speak is not just a book for adolescence. It’s really a book for all ages that everyone should read because it can mean different things to different people. It can help a parent whose child suddenly becomes withdrawn, allowing them to notice signs for help. It can help a teenager (or anyone who is being abused or was abused) to recognize that it wasn’t their fault, but also, that they themselves cannot stay silent, they have to speak in order for their cries to be heard and in order to start healing.
A Winery in Brooklyn
About a week ago (a week from yesterday to be exact), my boyfriend and I set out with friends on a twenty-something minute walk for delish key lime pie from Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pies, located near the water in Red Hook. If you have never been there, it is definitely worth the trip.
On our walk over there (basically right near it) I saw a sign that said “winery” with an arrow pointing to the left. I forgot about it for most of the week until Friday, when I googled “winery near key lime pie place in Brooklyn.” A few wine/liquor stores came up, and then I found it. Red Hook Winery.
Started in July of 2008, Red Hook Winery brings in grapes from fifteen different vineyards in New York. For $12 you can have a tasting of six wines, your choice, and there’s a $5 option as well (tasting of three wines). What I’m really excited about are the tours. For $15 you can do a tour (weekends only) and choose five wines to taste. The best offer though (I feel) comes for $25: you get a private tour and barrel tasting of six wines of your choice…and for only $10 more, a cheese plate is included.
The decor has been described as rustic, and they do private parties (fyi). I spent the weekend convincing my boyfriend to go with me, using key lime pie as a bribe, and it worked! Now, to pick a date…sooner rather than later would be preferable seeing as how Red Hook Winery is located on the water and they open their doors (during good weather), allowing you to taste wine with a spectacular vie of NYC…I guess I will have to start liking Brooklyn 🙂
“Every morning when I wake up I forget for a fraction of a second that you are gone and I reach for you. All I ever find is the cold side of the bed. My eyes settle on the picture of us in Paris, on the bedside table, and I am overjoyed that even though the time was brief I loved you and you loved me.”
–Craigslist Posting, Chicago 2009, qtd in Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Forever Interrupted
Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Forever Interrupted
“’I love you Elsie Porter Ross,’ he says, and he bends down to the couch to kiss me. He is wearing a bike helmet and bike gloves. He grins at me. ‘I really love the sound of that.’”
Three pages into Taylor Jenkins Reid’s debut novel, Forever Interrupted, and it looks as if Ben and Elsie have the rest of their lives in front of them. They were married less than two weeks ago and seem deliriously happy, the kind of couple that is meant-to-be. By the end of that same page however, Elsie is running barefoot in the street to the sound of sirens, and Ben’s body is being placed into an ambulance, Fruity Pebbles scattered in the street. He had gone out to get them for Elsie and was hit by a truck a block away from home. At the hospital Elsie meets her mother-in-law, Susan, for the first time…a woman who didn’t even know she existed. Their relationship starts off rocky – Susan can’t understand why her son had never told her about Elsie – but after a while they both realize just how much they need each other in order to heal, or, at least, to start healing.
The story alternates every few chapters from the six months that Elsie and Ben were dating to Elsie dealing with the grief of Ben’s death. At times her grief is so overpowering that it leaves you in tears – okay, more than half of the time…I cried a lot while reading this. Why read it then? Because, simply put, it is amazing; I honestly could not put it down. For all of the sad points of Elsie’s grieving it really is worth it…an unconventional love story of sorts. At one side you have Elsie and Ben. You get to watch their love story unfold – see their chance meeting over takeout pizza one rainy night, their first date where Ben caught Elsie trying to break into her house, how they were moved in together and married after only six months of knowing each other. Then you have Elsie and Susan. At first Susan seems mean and unreasonable (understandably), but she has more in common with Elsie than either of them realize. She also is one of my favorite characters; she is stronger than she knows. It’s a shame that it took Ben dying for them to meet (his reasons are valid…sort of), but something tells me that was the way it was supposed to be. Elsie needed a mother figure in her life, someone to love her having not been close to her parents, and Susan needed to be needed since both her husband and son were no longer alive.
I really loved Forever Interrupted, and there’s a good chance that I pick it up again soon. Perhaps the second time around I will cry a little less, then again, perhaps not. I leave you with a quote (because I love quotes). It is from a conversation between Elsie and Susan. Elsie had just gotten home from jail for punching someone at work. Her friend Ana had called Susan and brought Elsie home. Susan got there and Elsie started crying and fell apart, and this was Susan’s advice, right before she suggested that Elsie come spend time at her house to grieve. I thought it was very powerful…and it still brings me to tears reading it.
“…you have to find a way to remember him and forget him. You have to find a way to keep him in your heart and in your memories but do something else with your life. Your life cannot be about my son. It can’t.”
“Have you ever heard of supernovas? They shine brighter than anything else in the sky and then fade out really quickly, a short burst of extraordinary energy. I like to think you and Ben were like that…in that short time, you had more passion than some people have in a lifetime.”
-Taylor Jenkins Reid, Forever Interrupted
Gemma Burgess’ Brooklyn Girls
A few weeks ago, my friend Melissa told me about a book that she was obsessed with and wanted me to read once she was finished. I was unsure if I would get into it because it didn’t quite seem like my type of book – my boyfriend has accused me of being a book snob – but I’ve recently been trying to expand my “narrow field,” so I decided to give it a try.
Gemma Burgess’ third book, Brooklyn Girls, is about five women (Pia, Julie, Angie, Coco and Madeline) in their early twenties, just starting on life after college, trying not only to make it in the world (living independently without help from their parents), but also, trying to figure out who they really are and what they’re interested in. It is the first book in a series of the same name (the second book, Love and Chaos is due out winter 2014), told through the eyes of Pia. Pia is a bit spoiled; her parents have paid her way through life and gotten her out of trouble numerous times, but when she loses her job in a PR agency after only being there for a week because of a drunken night (her father had gotten her that job), her parents take action. They cut her off completely, not even sending any money for rent, and give her an ultimatum: if she doesn’t make something of herself in two months, they were going to take her back to Zurich with them. This results in Pia trying out different, sometimes eccentric jobs, none of which seem to be going anywhere for her, until, while visiting the Brooklyn Flea, she comes up with the idea to launch a health-food food truck which she calls SkinnyWheels. The question is, how will she get the money to pay for it?
From violent loan sharks, drunk roommates and bonding over shared experiences, to an ex that she can’t get over (it’s been four years) and a guy she may miss out on, Pia spends her possible last two months of freedom in chaos, but having a blast (most of the time). She reminds me a bit of Carrie Bradshaw from Sex & the City – likeable, but has those cringe worthy moments where you just want to tell her to stop, take a step back and think first.
What I find particularly funny about this book is that the characters live in a part of Brooklyn that I know well, they walk down the same streets that I do, go to places that I’ve either gone to or know about. Many times when I read a book, it takes place either somewhere that I’ve never been or somewhere that I’ve never heard of. I feel like it makes the characters that much more relatable with them running around in your own backyard. Also, by reading about Pia and her roommates, this book makes you take a look at your own life and reevaluate it. Are you exactly where you want to be? Are there any improvements that you could make to your carrier or life? Are you out of control running around drunk and doing drugs like Pia’s roommate and best friend Angie, cab surfing on the Brooklyn Bridge?
The next novel in this series takes on the perspective of Angie, which I feel will be quite interesting, and Melissa and I will be reading it.
Lauren Weisberger’s Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns
Rarely have I found a sequel to be as entertaining, or capture as much energy as the original book that inspired it. More often than not, the author tries in vain to achieve the same level of perfection, but never quite reaches it. Thankfully, the latter cannot be said of Lauren Weisberger’s Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns, the long awaited sequel to her 2003 novel The Devil Wears Prada, based on her experience of working as an assistant to Vogue’s Anna Wintour (published June 4, 2013, by Simon & Schuster). In the ten-year interim, she has written three other novels (of which I may check out quite soon), but really, Revenge is what we (fans of both the novel and subsequent film) have been waiting for.
Interestingly enough, Revenge is set ten years after The Devil Wears Prada (coincidence? I think not!), bringing back Andrea “Andy” Sachs, Emily Charlton and Miranda Priestly. It opens on the morning of Andy’s wedding to the handsome Max Harrison – who comes from a family of stature, but has recently experienced some financial setbacks – and she is best friends with Emily – which is odd, but somehow they have a good dynamic. Andy and Emily founded and head a high-end wedding magazine together, called The Plunge (what Runway is to the fashion world), of which is how Andy met Max in the first place; he was a friend of Emily’s husband Miles (yes, Emily is actually married, although there is talk throughout the novel of Miles’ play-boy ways), and was at the party that Andy and Emily threw to get investors three years prior.
All that being said, Andy is awoken on the morning of her wedding from a nightmare, where she was still working as Miranda’s assistant and going crazy trying to meet her impossible demands. She is comforted briefly by Max who snuck in to see her, only to become paralyzed with shock upon the discovery of a letter to Max from his mother Barbara, begging him not to go through with the wedding, just moments before having to walk down the aisle.
From that day forward, Andy’s life is never the same. Miranda begins courting Andy and Emily in hopes of purchasing The Plunge. We see a softer, “almost human” side of her as she tries to woo the girls into giving her what she wants, which, we all know is just a formality, because no one says no to Miranda. Emily is thrilled and ready to sign the magazine away, except Andy doesn’t want to sell for a few reasons, one being that there’s a clause in the contract that states that the editorial staff stays on for at least a year after the acquisition…and Andy does not want to work for Miranda again. Andy also has things going on in her personal life, she becomes a mother, and she crosses paths with her ex-boyfriend Alex, the one who broke her heart not too long after she quit working for Miranda, the one whom she still obsesses about…the one who got away.
This is where Revenge matches up to The Devil Wears Prada. The extravagant parties and fashion are still there, the anxiety of Miranda is still there – Miranda is still there, which, as we all know makes the book; she’s the character that you love to hate – and over the course of one evening, Andy learns that no one is who they seem to be, not her husband Max, not Emily…and she will have to decide whether to leave her life behind completely and start over, or stay in a life where she might never have a chance at true happiness.
Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns may feature Andy as a wife, mother, entrepreneur…it answers our question of what happened to her after she cursed out Miranda in Paris and left the job “a million girls would die for” at Runway, but at the same time, it’s nice to know that she hasn’t changed all that much, she’s still the same naïve woman that we empathized with ten years earlier. I’m not sure if this needs to be turned into a series, but it would be nice if Revenge was optioned for a film…with the same case of course.
elizabethsara 