Gather Seventeenth Summer Narrated By Maureen Daly Readable In Version
on Seventeenth Summer
had to read this for my young adult literature class as this was one of the first books classified as "young adult"! I went into this optimistically since it's described as a love story, but I was disappointed.
Although it was interesting to read a book written and set in the earlys, the main character is quite dull and the writing style was not for me, Whenever I think of this book I can't help but laugh,
The positives: I like the organization, June, July, August. Very rational. The main character is going through something relatable to most teen girls: her first love, Swoon
And now for the main event, When I first read this book in, I couldn't help but remember sitelinkThe Rape of the Lock, For all you English Majors out there, here's a refresher, What seems to be a mighty battle between good and evil, chastity and demonic sexual deviancy, is actually a game of cards and then later a man coming up to a young woman and cutting off a lock of her hair because he fancies her.
Yep. It's an extended metaphor that points out the stupidity of social mores while at the same time being pretty damn funny in my not so humble opinion,
Seventeenth Summer has some similar scenes, How about when Jack Angie's love interest makes the Biggest Faux Pas Ever at dinner
"Even now it is hard to talk about what happened next.
It was too awful. It was the kind of thing you read about but can't believe could ever happen to you, It sent the tears yada yada she's real embarrassed, okay! But eating such a simple thing as ice cream and with my family sitting there an everything, Jack clicked his spoon against his teeth! He looked up in surprise, as if he were wondering who could have done it.
. . ".
Now, I must say. If I've ever clicked my teeth against a utensil whist eating at a friend or significant other's house, . . I'm unbelievably sorry. That being said, who really cares, Angie!
It's scenes like that one that make me
think it's nice to read books that take place in the's educational purposes and let's face it, to make fun of them a bit, but I could never see myself making an actual teenager read this book.
I got more than halfway through the book and just couldn't do it, I couldn't finish, Narrator Angie Morrow is just so unlikable and dull no wonder no one ever paid attention to her! The pacing was terribly slow and author Maureen Daly spent more time describing unnecessary details, such as grass and the sky, than describing who her characters were.
Similarly, there was barely any dialog between Jack and Angie, so I'm still trying to figure out that whole relationship, It was nice, though, to get slight glimpses into what life in thes was like, Allinall, I would recommend this book to no one, I'm reading sitelinkPaperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of 's and 's Teen Fiction and this is apparently considered to be for the YA genre what Kathleen Woodiwiss's sitelinkThe Flame and the Flower was for the romance genre.
So, of course, for that reason I must read it,.STARS
I am so glad my friend gave me this book for Christmas thank you, Qt! because I would probably have never picked it up myself judging from the modernlooking cover, I would have written it off as an annoying and brainless teen romance.
How wrong I would have been!!!
Here is the story, set in the earlys in Wisconsin, of seventeenyearold high school graduate Angie Morrow and her first love, Jack.
Though I would say this is a romance story, first and foremost, it's also a "coming of age" story as Angie comes to understand her dreams about the future, to view her parents and older sisters as adults, and to leave girlhood behind and move on to college.
Her blossoming love for Jack serves as the catalyst, emotions and awareness heightened by her feelings for Jack so, rather than her relationship narrowing her focus to everything else, it helps her to see all of life and herself more clearly.
I loved the writing style here! I love all thes elements, it is delightfully "dated" in so many ways, yet it is also so fresh and vibrant.
Angie's thoughts and feelings as she falls in love are so timeless, The descriptions are just beautiful even little tasks like picking tomatoes together, or going down for the umteenth time to the local hangout for a Coke with friends, are somehow riveting! I just loved it!!!
A few times I felt things seemed a bit unnecessarily foreboding, but perhaps this was just a reflection of Angie in the early stages of a relationship, her uncertainty and not really feeling comfortable with her emotions or sure of Jack yet.
Also, I felt a bit too much time was spent on the sister Lorraine and her relationship it just seemed like too obvious a foil and, though I tried to be sympathetic to Lorraine, sometimes I just wanted to talk some sense into her! Other than that, though, I thought this was a fivestar book.
I'm so glad this book is in print, I believe the copyright isand it was written when the author was in college herself, Like sitelinkI Capture the Castle, its a book from times past that still holds great relevance to modern girls thanks to the vivid voice and deep thoughts and emotions of its heroine.
Then again, I really was surprised at the overall low rating the book received here on GoodReads perhaps I am just an "old fashioned girl" and girls today aren't that interested in Angie's story.
In any case, I loved it and recommend it to those interested in thes and sweet love stories that don't involve text messages, sex or vampires!
More about the author:
"Maureen Daly was one of the first authors whose work was aimed at a teenage audience.
She is also a Scholastic Art amp Writing Awards alum! Maureen won for her short story, Sixteen, in, That same story was included in theO, Henry Collection, a rare honor for someone so young, She completed her first novel, Seventeenth Summer, before she was even twenty years old, Maureen also launched a teenage column for the Chicago Tribune, the first of its kind in the nation, "
sitelink artandwriting. org Also for my MLIS elective
Readpages from each section, The writing was a bit flowery but I didn't mind it, If you like lots of description about nature, this book has it all,
And the author published this when she wasshe wrote it as a teen though AND she attended my school !
Content warning: fatphobia, racism I skimmed but a white character made a "I'd rather be a dead Chinaman" comment.
. . I know this book was set/released in thes but Y I K E S What amazes me most about this book is that it was written by a girl who was seventeen at the time of writing it.
That the author wrote this story so she would always remember just what it felt like to be seventeen, She did a beautiful job of it,
This is a book that is prose heavy lots of lyrical description which isn't unusual for the time period, The thing is, I happen to like this style, and enjoyed feeling everything she did as she experienced the world around her, But then, this was such a familiar world to me, I grew up in small town Wisconsin in the's and to be honest, this kind of life was not that different from what I experienced so much of the time.
Also, having spent a great deal of time in and around Fond du Lac where this takes place, I felt like I was home again, seeing things that exist there still today the marina and lighthouse for example.
The park that was hinted at as being built I used to love, And finding that drivein along the lake a few miles out of town well there was one out there I visited before that seemed absolutely ancient so I have to wonder if it's still there, and was the actual place in the book, or if that one was made up from other places.
It's hard to say.
I loved this book deeply and my only regret is that it ended and gave us nothing further of her life, I wanted so much for there to be another book so I could revisit Angie and her family, to maybe see Jack and Swede and the rest,
Overall give the book time as you read it, so you can savor the descriptions and fall into the story, Accept it for being perhaps different from books today because it was written so long ago, And enjoy Angie and all her doubts and fears and triumphs,
I suspect this book will stay with me for a very long time, It is about a girl's seventeenth summer, first love, and all that, But it's not icky or frilly, Something about the way it's written makes you want to hold your breath and make you feel like crying through the whole thing, Try it. NOTHING. HAPPENS.
I appreciate this book because it is the forefather mother of YA books and YA literature, But when I read the description I wondered what could possibly happen inpages when it's simply a girl trying to decide if she loves a boy or not,
Well, description is what happens, Lots and lots of description, I like well written description and believe that it definitely can make a book, when used appropriately, I felt like it was mostly filler in this book, This story could've easily been cut down by at leastpages,
Angie, while I approve of her standing up for her beliefs and morals, is boring, I wasn't intrigued by her, but did like learning about her sisters, Which winds up being a good thing because we learn an awful lot about Lorraine,
The relationship between Jack and Angie didn't seem realistic, There's barely any dialogue and he just keeps asking her out, when she literally sits there like a lump on a log,
The ending leaves a lot to be desired because it just ends,
As a huge YA fan I am bummed that I didn't like this, as it is an important part in the history of YA, but you can't like everything, right.