Summer Romance

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2024

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-9

Chapters 10-22

Chapters 23-35

Chapters 36-49

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Themes

Reclaiming Personal Autonomy and Identity

Ali’s separation from her husband, Pete, spurs her journey toward reclaiming her personal autonomy and identity. Since Ali married Pete, she lost her authentic sense of self and allowed her true desires to dissolve in the context of her marriage. Although her relationship was unstable, Ali “never got angry enough” and chose to be “appeased and distracted,” “to just let [Pete’s behavior] go” (207) instead of confronting him for his lack of support and emotionally abusive actions. In choosing silence and submission throughout her marriage, Ali lost her ability to use her voice and therefore to exercise her agency. The novel uses these fraught marital dynamics to expose the ways that imbalanced relationship dynamics can cause an individual to lose their power and autonomy.

As Ali’s relationship with Ethan evolves, it reminds her of who she was and is still capable of being. He reminds Ali that she was “always [her] own person” (76) and that her confidence and self-assuredness was what originally attracted him to her even when they were in high school. Furthermore, Ethan actively invests in Ali’s life in the present. He respects her, asks her questions, and listens to what she says. His authenticity, patience, and grace give her the space to decide what she wants and to remember who she once was. In turn, she reflects on all the times she “just kept regrouping and shifting gears” (80) in her married life instead of defending her needs and desires and articulating her feelings.

These reflections help Ali recover her buried sense of self and exercise agency in her life. She begins to realize that she’s “the architect of [her] own experience” (291) and that she still has the power to seize control of her life and pursue what she finds good, beautiful, and fulfilling. The scenes of Ali cleaning out her house, taking care of her appearance, investing in her kids’ lives, and opening herself up to love all manifest her work to fully inhabit her authentic self. Instead of allowing the expectations of her husband or her mother define who she is and what she wants (and thereby dictate her experience), Ali fully engages in her life of her own volition. The novel thus reveals the ways that time, relationships, and new experiences can grant an individual perspective on life and self. Neither Ali nor Ethan allow their relationship to consume their individual identities. Rather, Ethan’s love for Ali awakens her to her true power, individuality, and capability.

The Healing Power of Love

Ali’s romance with Ethan ushers her toward change and helps her confront and heal from loss. Before she meets him, she feels “more than a little stuck,” as if she’s “in a holding pattern, like a plane trying to land in too much fog” (1). Within the two years before the novel’s present, her mom died and then her husband left her. These difficult experiences kept Ali from “living [her] best life” (1) and mired her in a protracted period of stasis, immobility, and despondency. Ali doesn’t actively seek out a new sexual and romantic partner to solve her problems. Instead, when she starts taking better care of herself and engaging in her life with new attention and intent, love finds her. Making the decisions to finalize her divorce with Pete, to take off her wedding band, and to start dressing in regular clothing (rather than sweats or pajamas) are all actions that precede Ali and Ethan’s “meet cute at the dog park” (85). These actions therefore illustrate Ali’s work to open herself to the possibility of new experiences and new relationships. In turn, Ali and Ethan slowly become involved and soon discover the ways in which their uncanny connection might bolster their senses of self.

Ethan’s unselfish investment in Ali’s life gives her the courage and strength to confront what she has lost and move beyond grief, disappointment, and pain. Ethan helps her to be present in her life, which gives Ali the strength to overcome “this boulder of grief” that she feels has “landed on [her] chest” (15). The images of Ethan teaching Ali to skate, investing in her emotional state, helping her in the divorce mediation process, and taking her out on the lake and to the park for fresh air all demonstrate Ethan’s selfless love for Ali. At no point in their romance does he pressure her into healing faster or into committing to him. Like Ali, he doesn’t “think love is supposed to be transactional” (209) and therefore always relates to her and respects what she can give in the present moment.

Ali’s relationship with Ethan is a foil for her relationship with Pete because it is equanimous and balanced rather than selfish and lopsided. Ethan “is not a man [Ali] need[s] to pretend for” because he always “wants [her] more when [she’s] [her]self” (202). Ethan’s ability to acknowledge Ali’s grief and pain as she has done for him particularly strengthens their bond. Furthermore, they learn how to celebrate one another’s accomplishments and joys. In these ways, the novel underscores the transformative capacities of a healthy, loving relationship. Neither Ali nor Ethan is the same by the novel’s end: Their deep connection with each other in large part inspires their changes in character.

Embracing Balance, Happiness, and Change

Ali’s self-reclamation and personal healing journeys coincide with her concurrent work to embrace balance, happiness, and change. At the start of the novel, Ali is caught in a protracted state of grief, despair, and immobility. She constantly feels a “pressure on [her] chest and a ringing in [her] head” (3). These physical sensations manifest the loss, pain, and disappointment she has experienced over the preceding two years. She struggles to see the good in her life and therefore chooses a state of numbed detachment to survive her day-to-day experience. Her inability to sort through her “teetering stack of unread mail” (2), to clean out her pantry, to organize her household, and to shower and get out of her pajamas are all evidence of Ali’s cluttered, frustrated state of mind. However, once she makes the difficult decision to divorce Pete, she frees herself to begin a new phase of her life. Agreeing to legal mediation, taking off her wedding ring, and even taking small steps like donning overalls and visiting the public dog park awaken Ali’s dormant desire to be present in her life and to enjoy it.

Ali’s relationship with Ethan spurs her toward emotional renewal and reminds her that despite the sorrows it brings, life offers opportunities for beauty, joy, and goodness. Ethan doesn’t regard or interact with Ali as if she’s a tired, despondent single mother of three. He instead sees her as a vibrant woman who has experienced pain and is undergoing a transformation. When he takes her to the skate park for the first time, he explains how skating saved him over the years and helped him process complex emotions and understand himself better. Throughout the lesson, Ali is “immersed in [her] senses—the thickness of the night air, the electricity coming off of Ethan’s hands. The smell of the grass and the blacktop in the stale air” (107). Therefore, skateboarding isn’t only teaching her about balance and risk but is actively awakening her to her surroundings and helping her become present in her body again. The sensory details in this scene convey Ali’s newfound engagement with her life. Skateboarding acts as a symbol of the balanced, happy life that Ali is pursuing throughout the novel and ultimately achieves at its end.

Indeed, Ethan’s love, her children’s support, Phyllis’s and Frannie’s friendship, and her mom’s memory all help Ali learn that she deserves happiness and joy. In these ways, the novel suggests that while life is often difficult, it always offers opportunities for renewal, revelation, and revitalization.