What do You think about The Last Summer (of You And Me) (2007)?
This might be the hardest review for me to write. I hope someone reads it. :)When people ask me what my favorite book is I always say Pride and Prejudice, and that isn’t really the truth anymore. The truth is that The Last Summer (of You and Me) is my favorite. It has been for years. I love Elizabeth Bennet dearly but Alice is where it’s at for me. I want to be her. She’s so kind and gentle and lovely. I love the dynamic between the three of them. I want to run to Fire Island and find my own Paul. I want to hunt crab and see the different kinds of beaches and eat egg sandwiches while the sun comes up. I don’t know what it is about this particular story. Ann Brashares touches me with this one like no one can. Her words drip off the page, slashing little pangs in my heart. Brashares is divine at describing even the simplest things. Take this for example – if I were writing, I would say, “He felt great distress.” Does she say this though? No. She comes up with this: “His distress and pleasure mixed and married, giving birth to several anxious children.” Good. Lord. Woman.This novel feels personal to me in a way that even I don’t understand. Ann Brashares came for a book signing a few years ago and I turned around a block away from the site because I couldn’t handle if she had been rude to me. I don’t think she would have, but I don’t want anything to hinder my love for this novel. And… now you think I’m crazy. :)So, now that I have completely oversold the book, I leave you with my favorite quote. “She wanted him to see all of her and also none of her. She wanted him to be dazzled by the bits and blinded by the whole. She wanted him to see her whole and not in pieces. She had hopes that were hard to satisfy.”
—Kimberly Russell
I loved this novel.The novel cycles between two sisters, Riley and Alice, and their longtime childhood friend, Paul. While there was something truly tragic about all of the characters, how they yearned for dreams they couldn't attain and emotions they couldn't express, I got really caught up in the love story between Alice and Paul from the beginning. I was heartbroken by Riley's plight, although I felt like she was the least developed of the three main characters thus it was easiest to see bad things happen to her. I think I especially liked the tension between childhood and becoming an adult in this novel; how it subtly alters every relationship you've every known, makes you question your hobbies and dreams, and forces you to confront change on such a personal level. Brashares did a great job of weaving the setting into the novel. The very relationship of the three main characters was tied so firmly to their summer homes on the island to the point where it was hard to imagine them having lives elsewhere. Brashares has a nice, lyrical writing style that I enjoyed and I hope she continues to pursue more adult novels like this in the future.
—Sarah Beth
I have mixed feelings about this story on one hand I really enjoyed it but on the other it annoyed the hell out of me to the point where this could have been quite easily discarded and casually noted as DNF.First off it's marked as adult...but it's not, really the only reason that it's been given that tag is because there is some love making and that is the only reason. Secondly the characters are all very immature for their ages (early to mid twenties) I don't know whether thats an accurate reflection of that age group nowadays or not, I like to think not. I'm also unsure as to whether or not it was a deliberate action by the author, by that I mean did she make them that way or does she think that,that is the way everyone in this age group behalves/thinks. They also 'think about' and pick apart their lives far too much in the same way insecure teens may think far too much, if they 'thought less' and 'did more' their story would have been far more emotional than it already is. So I sat for nearly 2 days totally absorbed by this story, desperately trying to push aside all the annoying things and realized that what I was left with was the kind of emotional story I love, people and relationships torn apart because fear, fear of the future, fear of loosing and leaving behind another loved one, fear of moving on from a relationship that has been shared three ways since childhood,and all the irrational acts that takes place when everyone is so absorbed by such a negative emotion that they can't see the wood from the trees. Even when something happens which turns their world upside down the fear still paralyses them, there is a gross misunderstanding no~one talks to each other about whats really going on, information is withheld, The ultimate finality of course is that the fear does not start to subside until something happens to break up the threesome. This could have been a 4 or 5 star read if only the main characters had been a little more mature.
—Adrienne
