A sister is for life, not just for summer (Summer Sisters - Judy Blume)

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Summer Sisters - Judy Blume
Date:	09/08/01 (215 review reads)
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Back in 1999 I was at a UMIST open day. Half way through we decided to skip the rest of the talks and tours and go shopping, and it was during a quick browse in the Arndale Centre’s WH Smiths that I came across this book. At this point in my life I usually bought books online as it was cheaper (and I still do as it still is) but I needed something to read on the train back to Blackpool so I bought this on a whim having enjoyed all of Blume’s other books.

Summer Sister’s is somewhere between Wifey and Forever in terms of target audience, but it is a book which can be enjoyed by many. Caitlin and Vix are as different as night and day – Caitlin is out going, mad (in a good way), whose parents are divorced and who lives with her mother whilst attending a posh private school. Vix is shy and reserved, and one of 4 children of slightly hard up parents. One thing I immediately objected to with this book was the names – surely Caitlin’s more of a vix than Vix is (or maybe that’s the point).

The book follows the two as the meet, become friends and grow up. For a “honeymoon period” they do everything together – they go on holiday to Caitlin’s father’s beach house every summer, they discover boys (and try to avoid Caitlin’s annoying brother and his friend), they learn the meanings of rude words from her father’s “erotic” books.... As they get older they even get jobs together, cleaning the houses of wealthy families on the island. Gradually though, things begin to change. The girls inevitably begin to grow apart, especially when Vix goes off to her Ivy League school and Caitlin gets restless.

The main theme throughout the book is friendship, and the trials and tribulations thereof. The book is not as explicit as some of Blume’s books because in this one sex is not the main topic – it’s there, but only in the background. Many other topics
are addressed in this book – there are for example references to politics, disabilities and death. We have teenage pregnancy, divorce, adultery, single parent families and, to a lesser extent, the great “class divide” although we do have the good clever poor girl succeeding in the end (and getting her man) not the privileged rich one who doesn’t work for anything and increasingly gets wander lust.

As would be expected from such an author, the book is wonderfully written and the characters real. Just like everyone else, they have plenty of problems. You could even argue that they have more than average. This is an incredibly moving book, and a compelling read which is truly impossible to put down. The ending is unexpected and leaves the reader sitting there, thinking. I cannot stress enough how good this book is – the best I’ve written on for dooyoo by far. My only complaint is that it ends too soon.

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