A SUMMER PLACE

by Sloan Wilson ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

If that was The Man In The Gray Flannel Surf this is the boy in the chines and loafers for, although the original problem is the background of Sylvia and Bart Hunter's marriage, the development works through teenage Johsny Hunter and his love for Molly. On Pine Island, off Maine, the same families summered through the years and Sylvia, a visitor, had learned to look down on Ken Jorgenson, a tutor and lifeguard, and had married Bart. When there was no money she had gone to live on the island and run the Hunter house as an inn. Ken, determined to show Sylvia, has meantime achieved a fortune, a wife and a daughter, Molly - and returns to the island for a vacation. He and Sylvia face their old love, determine on divorces and set up a tough situation for Molly, whose mother misses no chance to vilify Ken and the Hunters, and for Johnny, who feels that his mother has rejected him. Inarticulately, Molly and Johnny lose their lieliness with each other, manage to see each other, and, visiting Sylvia and Ken in Florida, become lovers. When Johnny learns she is pregnant, his desperate efforts to see her, to marry her and face the world, send them to Ken and Sylvia who diminish the obstructions set by Bart and Molly's mother, stand by their children and send them to the island to work out their own lives. The confusion of divorce on teen agers, the split of loyalties, the questions of guilt and frustrated responsibility, and the issues for adults and their children- these are well worked again into a story whose flaws will not mitigate against its popular appeal.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1958

Categories: FICTION