| Title | : | Seventeenth Summer |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0689853831 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780689853838 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 320 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1942 |
| Awards | : | Lewis Carroll Shelf Award (1969), Intercollegiate Literacy Fellowship (1942) |
Seventeenth Summer Reviews
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I 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 early 1940s, the main character is quite dull and the writing style was not for me.
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The story's synopsis on the back cover implies that it will primarily be about two teens who fall in love and spend an ample amount of time together. But it isn't at all. In fact I knew more about Angie's sister Lorraine than I knew about her. I could better understand how her sister had fallen in love than how Angie had. I don't even believe that Angie was in love at all. I do feel that she was simply infatuated with the first boy that paid any attention to her and that she never really showed Jack any type of affection.
I couldn't connect to Angie at all. The pace was ridiculously slow. Angie herself was dull. There was hardly any dialogue or action between Angie and Jack. Maureen Daly seems to have more fun describing insignificant things like jukeboxes, roses and everyone and everything else except Angie and Jack and their relationship. This book frustrated me more than any other book I've read. The one star I managed to give it was for the few sweet moments there are. -
4.5 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 modern-looking 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 early 1940s in Wisconsin, of seventeen-year-old 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 the 1940s 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 hang-out 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 five-star book.
I'm so glad this book is in print. (I believe the copyright is 1943 and it was written when the author was in college herself.) Like
I 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 the 1940s 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 & Writing Awards alum! Maureen won for her short story, Sixteen, in 1938. That same story was included in the 1938 O. 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."
http://blog.artandwriting.org/2011/08... -
Some consider Maureen Daly's 1942 "Seventeenth Summer", written when she was 17 herself, the first prototype of a YA novel. When you look at the plot you can see why: 17 year old Angie has just finished school and spends the summer at home in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, before she is bound to leave for college in Chicago. Within the three months of summer break, she starts dating local high school basketball star Jack Duluth who she never thought would be interested in someone tame and uncool like her. There's a subplot about Angie's sister Lorraine, but the main plot is very straight forward.
I picked this up out of a stack of ARCs my mother wanted to throw away. Me and YA don't get along, but I've been really into books from the early 20th century lately so despite the less than novel plot this piqued my interest. Thankfully, it payed off. For one thing: This is wonderfully written in sparse and functional language, somewhere between literary and conversational. The themes and scenes may seem cheesy and predictable at times (first date, first kiss, first heartbreak, education or marriage etc), but the language never is. This coming of age story never felt anything but real to life and the main character was fleshed out well. I liked its introspective and slow pace.
I was also fascinated by the setting. Sometimes everything felt so modern, and then some dialogue made me laugh out loud because of how dated it was - the scene where Angie thinks she's going to look like a witch if she drinks a bottle of beer comes to mind. Or the way they met in a drugstore to drink coke, I'd never heard of drugstore-bar hybrids before. The way 'dating' worked was also really fascinating to me, eg Angie's parents keep encouraging her not to date just one boy, so they don't become too serious too fast. The way chastity and conformity was portrayed was really interesting as well. I thought the book was very tame but wikipedia tells me that the novel was really controversial for its time, because of the way it talks about a young girl's sexuality and desire - even though it's only hinted at. The underage drinking and smoking probably didn't help.
A bizarre moment to me was when Jack has dinner with Angie's family, and he behaves in a way that makes Angie feel ashamed. In general, I thought this feeling was very well-captured, but the reasons for her shame read just so oddly. First, she thinks Jack's family probably don't even own a butter knife (the horror!) and then this gem:
"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. [...] But eating such a simple thing as ice cream and with my family sitting there and everything, Jack clicked his spoon against his teeth! He looked up in surprise, as if he were wondering who could have done it."
You had to have been there, I guess.
The ending surprised me in a good way. It was melancholic, bitter-sweet and realistic. It's also what made me give this 4 stars instead of 3. I'm happy I read this. It also confirms my suspicion that I have zero problems reading coming of age stories or classical love story themes - I just hate the way modern YA is written. -
“When I eat, everything tastes so good I can't get all the taste out of it; when I look at something-say, the lake-the waves are so green and the foam so white that it seems I can't look at it hard enough; there seems to be something there that I can't get at. And even when I'm with you, I can't seem to be with you...enough.”
― Maureen Daly, Seventeenth Summer
This is about first love for a 17 year old teenager in the 1940's. I read it as a kid. It really is pure YA and is a coming of age story as well as a romance .
I happen to love the way it is written. The story takes place in Wisconsin and meadows, streams, green green grass and the smell of summer time are all around. I like descriptive writing and I like to feel as if I am living in the pages with the characters.
Angie and Jack's relationship is not always the main focus as there is much that happens. This was an early read for me and one I still remember quite fondly. -
I'll skip over the plot summary stuff because everyone can very well read it at the top of this page, and I'll plow right on with my criticisms.
I didn't like this book at all. I was so disappointed, I couldn't even finish it. I'm sorry, but not even Twilight has brought this kind of feeling. I was so excited to read this book but after getting through the half of it, my disappointment overrode everything else. First, because of the heroine. Angie Morrow is just so stoic, and plain, and simply boring; I felt that there was no real depth with her character, and I just wanted to shake or slap her while reading the novel. Maybe because it happened "back in the day", but golly, she's just got to breakaway even once. She's too much of a goody-goody, I didn't like her at all. I understand that it was a different time when table manners should be made important, but when she felt ashamed of Jack for clicking his spoon with his teeth, I almost blew up with indignation. Such a shallow reason! And, she liked Jack, that I could tell, but she's got to express it on her own terms even once! And halfway through the book I couldn't find a development with her character.
Secondly, the plot itself. It was just so slooooooow, I wanted to hurl the book across the room. Is this really considered a classic? Its "classic" reputation was what first called my attention to it, but it has not quite lived up to its fellows. I think three quarters of it was spent on tiresome descriptions of the setting, and the remaining quarter on the story. Jack and Angie started dating, faced the imminence of separation, and then parted amiably. How predictable. Or at least, it wasn't extraordinary.
Lastly, their relationship. Jack and Angie's relationship just seemed so ordinary and didn't excite me or made me feel sparks. Sure, I allow that it was a quiet sort of love, but even those kind of loves should make the reader feel something. I hardly felt anything with their relationship. Yes, I though Jack was a sweet character, but he wasn't great enough to make me fall in love, and Angie described him in an unflattering way. I feel obliged to hand it to the author that he wasn't stereotypical, though.
The author had some really good way of describing things, but for the most part those parts of the book were very tedious. I simply couldn't keep on shouting at the book for them to do something remotely renegade, or maybe that is just me. I simply just wanted them to make me feel something. -
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 1970'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 drive-in 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. -
First off, thank you ever so much for recommending this to me, Kathryn!
What a lovely experience reading this was. I feel I truly lived this seventeenth summer along with the darling Angie: I could feel the fragrant warmth of June; the sticky heat of July; and August with its creeping autumnal chills. The descriptions were luxuriously luminous, and never felt overwrought to me. Also, the prose was so fresh-eyed I think it only could've been written by a young female. (Wikipedia tells me Maureen Daly was 17 when she started writing this. A fact which both impresses me and makes complete logical sense.)
The cover is incredibly misleading, as this book was written in the 1940s. (I think it needs a new printing with a nice vintage cover, don't you?) Of course this book is dated, but in the most charming sense of the word! Personally, I think young-adult romances have degenerated, as I found this innocent and beautiful story to be right up my alley.
Since I have been living in the town of Fond du Lac for the past 20 something hours, having to read the last page and say goodbye made me ever so sad. Actually, here's a confession: I happened to go to the library shortly after I finished Seventeenth Summer, but I didn't take it with me to return it. I wasn't quite ready to let it go back.
I believe that would add up to 4.5 stars from me. :) -
Seventeenth Summer was better than I thought it would be. It was a little hard to get into, although that didn't surprise me since it's from the 40's and writing styles have changed so much.
I wasn't thrilled with the ending...it seemed rather unfinished to me. I almost want to look and see if there is a sequel, because I want to know why Lorraine's life was so bad after the book (as Angie explains on page 115) and, naturally, I'd like to know if Jack and Angie really do keep in touch after they both leave town.
What I did like, however, was the obvious glimpse the book gives you at the time period. The rules and etiquette, etc., that you can see in movies but it's hard to explain in a book. Daly did such a good job of incorporating these nuances into the book that only a few times did I realize how absurd most of the rules would be in present day - not to mention how shocked the characters would be.
I liked Daly's style of writing - very informal and open. She also made the book entirely from Angie's point of view and did it so well that sometimes the reader was just as naive as Angie.
Overall, I liked it. I"m not sure I'll be revisiting it that often, not how often I'd be able to recommend it - but if you're looking for a semi-historical read about first love, this is a good place to start. -
I'm reading
Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction and this is apparently considered to be for the YA genre what Kathleen Woodiwiss's
The Flame and the Flower was for the romance genre.
So, of course, for that reason I must read it. -
Also for my MLIS elective
Read 30 pages 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 was 21 (she 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 the 1940s but Y I K E S) -
I've been on a vintage YA kick lately, and it seemed wrong to read a bunch of old teen books and not try The One That Started It All: Seventeenth Summer, often pointed to as the first modern young adult novel. (Plus, I'm a little fascinated by what a game-changer this book was. Can we please talk about how there was a literary prize named after it, and yet there are almost no details available on that fact? It's enough to make a girl want to write a thesis.)
Seventeenth Summer is a book I found more fascinating for its place in history than most of its content. It's a pretty typical YA novel--a girl has a Meaningful Summer with a Handsome Boy With A Roguish Name (oh, Jack Duluth, swoon) and Thinks A Lot about the Meaning Of Growing Up--but it's also a book that comes straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Maureen Daly was twenty-one when it was published and started it well before that point; like
S.E. Hinton a generation later, she wrote what she wanted to read and found that she wasn't the only one.
The book read to me like a very tame Dirty Dancing--cut out the abortion subplot, add some gardening, and you've got a romance between a mousy girl and the cute guy who comes to see all the potential hiding within her. I've also seen it compared to Twilight, and in some respects that's fair...but considering that Maureen Daly's protagonist goes to college in another state instead of accepting her (just-after-)high-school sweetheart's marriage proposal and popping out a kid, that's not entirely fair to Seventeenth Summer.
Really, what captured me most about this book had nothing to do with the plot or the romance, and only a little to do with the characters. I'm not from Fond du Lac--Madison area and proud of it, thank you very much--but in Maureen Daly's writing, I can feel my home. She describes the scenery, the side characters, the entire culture of smallish-town Wisconsin in such a way that it sounds just right. I can see how these characters could belong to my grandparents' generation, and how their cabins and lake shores and supper clubs could become the scenery of my own life. Everything in the book sounds like a place I know, or a place I've known, or a place I could know. There's something deeply satisfying about that, especially for a girl who grew up irritated that so many books were set in New England.
If you aren't interested in the history behind young-adult novels, or you aren't from Wisconsin, there might not be much reason to read it. But if either of those things are true for you, it might be one to look into.
Audiobook-wise, Julia Whelan's performance is fantastic. What might have felt like a lot of description otherwise flowed along smoothly, and she'd clearly read the text several times in preparation for performing it. I'd definitely recommend listening to it if you're going to read it. -
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 2011, I couldn't help but remember
The 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..." (197).
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 1950'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. -
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 in 340 pages 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 least 100 pages.
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? -
I am not a big reader of romantic stories, but I really loved this one for its beautiful writing, and also because it was written in the 40s, which made it more interesting to me. Really, really liked it.
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3.5 stars. This was sweet! Not exhilarating or anything, but sorta like a 1942 version of The Summer I Turned Pretty! A character driven look at the summer of one teenage girl. This was one of the first books to ever be considered YA so that’s pretty cool! And omg Julia Whelan narrating sounded so much younger than I’m used to!!
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I wish I would have known that this book didn't take place during today's day and age. I had a really hard time reading this book. I felt like they were speaking in another language. And once I figured out that it happened "back in the day" although I'm still not sure what time period this was, it became a little easier to read, but it was just so choppy, I guess.
I think I may have been more prepared to enjoy it. I guess it's kind of sad that it's acceptable in today's society that teen relationships move at such as faster pace. I was pretty much bored to tears that the pace was so incredibly slow. I kept waiting and waiting for something to happen, and it never did.
Having said that, being prepared for the slow pace would have made this book a little more enjoyable, but I'm not sure how much more. I kept wanting to shake Angie. At first, I was frustrated with her because she thought so much that it made my head hurt. I understand having your first crush and the things that you worry about. But Angie started imagining thing that could happen or would happen, and it was just really confusing and frustrating that i just wanted her to get a grip.
After the first 35 pages or so though, I just thought her character was quite boring, unemotional and rather stoic. I'm not sure if it was because of the time period or what, but she didn't act like a normal person would act in reaction to some of the events. Her character was just so bland.
I don't know. I just didn't like this book on so many levels. -
This book was dated even when I first read it - and yet there is something very appealing and convincing about it. In fact, it is Angie's older sister who seems unconvincing and unlikely to be attracted to her creepy boyfriend.
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Verkligen en underbar bok! Perfekt tonårspirr och kärlek!! Men främst tagen över vilken otrolig författare Daly var! En mästare av liknelser? Ja! Så pregnant och fint och mustigt och klarsynt sätt att beskriva, amazed!
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Alright, so I'm going to give a quick summary of the book as the summary above doesn't do this book justice. However, my summary is going going to be a few sentences long because I don't want to give anything away!
Seventeenth Summer is about a girl named Angie who, over the course of the summer, falls deeply in love with a boy named Jack. It divulges into her world, and how she lives her life in her small town. It's really a coming-of-age novel, and is about a girl becoming the woman she is meant to be because of love.
I loved this book. As soon as I saw the date of publication (1942) I knew this was something I would love to read. Anything that is older, displaying a time that I'm not from appeals to me. The way Daly words everything is incredibly descriptive, making you feel like you are there experiencing everything with the characters. She is able to describe the smell of the air, to the way a first kiss feels, to the flavor of salty oceanic air.
Daly has a smooth way of trapping you into this world with all of the characters, and it's almost as though time hasn't changed since then. It doesn't matter that this book was written in 1942 because, despite time difference, love will always remain the same. And the awkward feeling of being in love, not knowing how to admit it, or not knowing if the other person feels the same, will forever be the same. At times, this book can seem a little bit slow because of the intensity of the descriptions, but trust me, it picks right back up.
I recommend this book to anyone looking for a love story that will run through your mind for many, many days after the final page is turned. I've found myself fallen in love with each and every character in this book.
Consider yourself warned: This book tugs at your heartstrings, makes you laugh, cry, and smile goofily despite yourself. It makes you angry, and you want to yell at Angie to just please admit how she feels! And you want to just snuggle up and re-read the gentle words said by Jack if only to hold him closer to your heart, and have him leave a permanent impression that somehow doesn't fade easily with time. -
I liked the simplistic nature of their love. It made me yearn for respect and honor, modesty and decency. I admire that slow courtship. The plot is kind of slow, but that's how I think of their lifestyle. Slow and simplistic. Innocent and calm. The book itself I think wasn't fantastic, but I liked the romance and the character development.
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The greatest value that "SEVENTEENTH SUMMER" has as a novel is in recapturing what first love was like during the early 1940s for an adolescent in Wisconsin fresh out of high school faced with a summer in which she (Angie Morrow) experiences the full measure of that love. A love that, like a double-edged sword, offers pain as well as pleasure, for both Angie and Jack Duluth.
"SEVENTEENTH SUMMER" was the precursor for what would later be defined as the Young Adult fiction genre. Therein is its value. Indeed, it was during the 1940s that the word "teenager" entered the lexicon for the first time. Prior to this novel's original publication in 1942, scant attention had been given in popular literature to the lives of adolescents. "SEVENTEENTH SUMMER" was a best seller in its day and was ranked as one of the most read novels among American youth during the 1940s. -
Due to copy and paste, formatting has been lost.
For whatever reason, Seventeenth Summer was just a flat read for me. I didn't connect with the characters, and I really didn't see the romance in it.
Angie, our main character, is way too prim and proper. I couldn't relate to her in any way, and I often found myself wondering why she even bothered? She would say how disgusted she was with Jack's eating habits, or his family, and I don't understand why it matters? She's supposed to love him, right?
They fell in love way too fast. It was like an instantaneous "he sees me then we go on a date then we love each other" kind of thing. And it drove me crazy! I don't see how they could be in love so easily. Jack doesn't appear to be very into Angie at all, but as I mentioned before, they're "in love". But Jack is always running off to talk to someone else and making Angie feel awkward and out of place. Basically, I didn't feel emotion from either of their characters. It was a big mocha latte of flatness.
If that wasn't bad enough, I couldn't keep our secondary characters straight. They seemed to just pop out of random places and to be with different people often enough that it confused me. I couldn't figure out who Angie was related to, or who her friends were dating...I just couldn't.
All in all, Seventeenth Summer really fell flat for me, which is sad, because I was really expecting to like it. -
This was such a sweet, wholesome romance. The kind you rarely find that rings really true. I just wish that there had been more story and less description. Description is all well and good -- in its place. But when you are reading three paragraphs of description for (on average) every one or two sentences of dialog and plot, it does get a little irritating.
I don't know what it was, but I couldn't get the fact into my head that Angie was 17. I always imagined her as a thirteen to fifteen year old. I can't explain why, because I am seventeen and have had some of the same feelings.
I wasn't sure how I liked the ending. I wish the book had an epilogue.
I DID like the fact that Angie was an innocent girl, who knew her morals and was willing to stick to them. Unlike romances today, where the main focus seems to be doing things at an early age that shouldn't be done, this book showed the struggle that she had in resisting the temptations and how much Jack respected her for that. When she didn't understand what he meant when he told her she was a "good girl", I did, and was really encouraged by it. Lots of girls these days think that if they save themselves and don't do the things that our culture says are ok and cool, they won't get attention. But boys really respect the things that they can't get. If Angie had done what everyone else was doing, I think that Jack would have lost interest after a few dates. It's nice to see a romance that still upholds the old, traditional values. -
Angie is a girl who does not bother with having crushes on boys. Angie is a good girl, she doesn’t get in trouble and she is very controlled by her parents. The summer before she goes to college she has nothing to do over summer vacation, but then she meets Jack. Angie cannot reject the fact that she has feelings for him. Angie and Jack start spending a lot of time together and it quickly becomes serious. In the back of her head she knows what the fall will bring. I think adults would like this book because it uses 50’s and 60’s slang and they might connect with the time frame better than teens. It was a good book but I wasn’t able to connect with the book as much as I would want to.
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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 the 1940s was like. All-in-all, I would recommend this book to no one.
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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.
