Customer Reviews

A Summer Affair: A Novel

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have not been so emotionally disturbed by a story since watching Diane Lane in "Unfaithful". When you are married to a good person, who loves you, and you love them, why are you doing this?

Claire is like so many other moms, my wife included. So much going on and stretched to the breaking point but still can't say, "no". Claire's husband is a good guy and excellent father (yes he is) who, clearly, never got the wife user manual, "How to Feed and Care for your Lovely Wife". As a result, Claire, although she has a rich life in many respects, is left with two huge emotional vacuums, 1) professional satisfaction and fulfillment; and, 2) "just hold me, not bang me" intimacy. You can like both the Jason and Claire characters while wanting to slap, no,... I mean, douse them with ice cold water shouting, "wake up"! It is not like Claire is looking for trouble but when it is clearly there she does not back away.

Adultery is bad. In this story the adulterous situation is a train wreck of humongous proportions you know is going to happen. The train wreck unfurls in a very deliberate manner with lots of interesting characters and twist along the way. I never really despised, but also never liked, Locke, Claire's lover (I am closer to Locke than Jason intellectually). I think I didn't despise Locke because he was starting from such a lonely place emotionally. He was very needy considering who he was. On the other hand, you might see the whole situation as Locke taking advantage of Claire to some extent... but, all Claire had to do is not play ball so to speak.

One the more amusing aspects of an adulterous affair is when one of the perpetrators becomes jealous of their lover having to do "romantic" things with their spouse. Ouch!

Lastly, the cover has to go. Whoever selected that cover should be fired. The cover has nothing to do with the book. This was a "dark, winter" affair on Nantucket conducted under cover of night and in an office conference room. No, no, no, no barefoot walks in the sand. Sorry.

One last thing in the course of disclosures, I did this as an unabridged audiobook. Clearly, I would highly recommend this audiobook, notwithstanding the cover image.

Take A Summer Affair to the beach and take it with a grain of salt. It's a tad difficult to believe how or why an intelligent, caring woman who has it all - good husband, four fine children, a career as an acclaimed artist - would risk throwing it all away for a summer spin in the sand? However, credulity can be easy to suspend when a narrative is filled with pretty people, dreamy scenes, and pulsing passion. So, forget the how's and why's if you've a mind to, and join the fray.

Fray is precisely what it turns out to be when Claire Danner Crispin agrees to chair the Nantucket's Children summer Gala. Not only will she serve as chair but she'll also create an original art piece - a gorgeous glass chandelier. It's not that Claire doesn't already have her plate piled high with house, husband, and kids, as most everyone can see save for Claire. But we're told she suffers from an inability to say no or even not now.

Billionaire Lockhart Dixon directs Nantucket's Children (why are these fellows always millionaires, billionaires or zillionaires?) Whatever the case he and Claire are soon having an affair. Lock's wife was involved in a tragic auto accident which left her mentally impaired.

Problems? What else? Claire has husband problems, lover problems , best friend problems, and problems with her New York co-chair.

How did a rational woman ever get herself into such a mess? One cannot help but wonder. The one thing this listener didn't wonder about is the reading by Tony Award nominee Isabel Keating. Her delightful performance makes a lighter than a cumulus cloud plot seem almost plausible. Once again star quality narration gives a boost to an unremarkable story.

- Gail Cooke

A Summer Affair was a hard book for me to get through. I read it quickly, but more because I was anxious to see where it was going to go, not what was going to happen. I was having a hard time relating to the main character, Claire, a mother of 4 and wife to a husband that watches TV rather than talk to her. I couldn't find it in me to root for her. I just wanted to shake her and say what are you doing? The affair seemed contrived and unrealistic. I found it odd that they were together for almost a year and yet her husband never got suspicious at all. I loved the best friend and sister in law and felt for her. The small sections of the book that were really written about her were great. The Matthew "Max" West part of the story just seemed like more angst that didn't really need to be thrown in. I don't know, overall I wouldn't overly recommend this book. The writing was very good, but the story, not so much. Many times I finish a book wanting more, wishing that there was another book about the same characters so I can see what happens next in their lives, but with A Summer Affair I could care less! It ended very aburptly. I went to turn the page thinking there must be an epilouge or something and nope it was acknowledgements the book was over. There were several loose ends - what happened to Gavin - did he blow the whistle? What about Sibohn and Carter - did they work things out? Others too, but I did want more...I wanted closure.

"It is a rare occasion when our book club completely agrees on a book and this time it was unanimous. We despised this book. I don't know if I'll be able to think of enough adjectives to describe my distaste...the plot was plodding, all of the characters were completely unlikeable and shallow...would you want to hang out with ANY of these people? Absolutely NOT! Perhaps part of their downfall was a lack of character development...there were no clues into their motivation for any of their actions or feelings. Maybe this is what life is like on Nantucket, but if so, I have no desire to visit.

I've read books before that I haven't liked, but I usually can glean some knowledge or perspective about something I'm unfamiliar with, and often they can prompt lively debate. Unfortunately, not this time.

I'm curious about your reviewers who gave it five stars, because I would give it a zero if I could. And normally, I'm not so vehement about my reviews, but this one elicited a visceral reaction and not in a good way. I'm irritated because I wasted the time reading this book.

My biggest beef of all? The chapter titles. How inane can you get? If I were to add one about this author, it would be 'She Blew It.'"

This is the third book I have read written by this author and I am drawn to her writing because I enjoy reading about real life situations rather than the unrealistic and overblown stories that tend to dominate the bookstores.

It was an OK read but I must say that there wasn't a likable charactor in the book. I do realize that people do have faults and it is important that this be included within the book, but it would be nice to have a charactor to root for.

The main charactor Claire, is a cheater. Her husband doesn't really pay any attention to her, except for sex. The male main charactor, Lock, is also cheating on his wife. Lock's wife apparently has some issues after a car accident and is mean and nasty to everyone. Claire's cochair of the gala is nasty to her and one of the charactors is imbezzling money from a charity.

It just seems that there could be a charactor or two that the reader could root for. The story also ended abruptly with little or no resolution.

This story of two self-absorbed whiners left me cold. I really tried to read it all the way through, but just couldn't. As a friend of mine says--"life is too short to waste on a bad book". This book seemed like a perfect late summer read. However, I found that I really did not care about any of the characters--they were all flat and one-dimensional. I finally quit!!

Motivation is weak. While Hilderbrand writes well, the main character, Claire, blunders into saying yes to co-chairing a huge charity gala despite an already crazily busy life with four children, one of them still an infant she worries about because she had to give birth early by Caesarean section--due to an accident in her glass-blowing studio. She just can't say no, which the author articulates. However, once she actually begins working with the head of the charity, Lock Dixon, she suddenly and inexplicably--even to her--conceives an attraction to him, even though he is middle-aged, paunchy and balding, contrasted with her washboard-stomached young husband. Quickly, they embark on an affair, both of them professing to love the other. In a big coincidence, she turns out to be the high-school girlfriend of a big rock star, and Lock has asked her to request that he perform at the gala, gratis--obviously why she was asked to co-chair. Claire flays herself with guilt over the affair, though she won't end it, even though in high school she behaved like a guiltless slut with the pre-rock star, even sneaking into his aunt's house at night after her job to strip down and jump on top of him while he was asleep, to wake him for sex. Either she has a sense of her professed Catholic morality or she doesn't--this doesn't square with her later dilemma with Lock. The Blue Bistro was a much better book, which almost seems not to have been written by the same woman. The Nantucket backdrop is vague--I never felt I was there; and the ending was abrupt, barely felt by Claire who had been emoting wildly about her feelings and her guilt up until this point in the book. It was like a French movie, which a friend of mine insists just ends when the cameraman runs out of film.

This is the first book I have read by this author,and I am enjoying it more than I thought I would. The story zips along, hard to pull away from. I wondered at first if I would be able to get into the main character, she seems so wishy-washy. But I am finding myself drawn to her. Why did she have an affair? Maybe because of a husband who is not a very good husband. I am hoping he redeems himself by the end of the book. This guy makes mine look like quite the prince! I will be back for more of this author's stories. Later...........I have finished the book and am glad I tried this author. There were many layers to this story, not as much fluff as I thought it would be. Some of Claire's motivation still doesn't make sense to me, but all in all, a good story, hard to put down, definiately will read more by Hilderbrand.

I was given this book to read by a super smart friend who has unfailing good taste in books. I saw the title and wondered why in the world she had recommended it. As I began to read, the writing and subject matter were more than declaration and devoid of nuance, however, as I continued to read, I realized that the inner thoughts of the main character were the essence of the recommendation. Claire, sensitive, self effacing, drenched in all of the second-guessing that each of us do when we are lacking confidence, tries to make sense of what is happening to her. Hilderbrand's writing is introspective, honest, painfully self-critical.
Anyone who has ever had to an affair and had to make a choice between the established and HELD and the unestablished and feverishly DESIRED will read every possible inner thought connected with that decision.
Don't be discouraged by the title of the book or the seemingly trite subject matter.

This is a troublesome book for me to rate. For me, it was a clear 4 stars as a book club book, but much closer to 3 stars as a straight read.

My big question for myself: If the main character's adultery hadn't made me so uncomfortable, how would I have rated the book? Other than this one decision (granted, the main subject of the book), I liked Claire, and was interested in the challenges in her life- as a mother, as a wife, as an artist. I identified with her desire to say "yes" when anyone asked something of her, and her putting away of her professional identity and replacing it with one of straight motherhood. Even though that role fits me much better than it did her, I envy her knowledge of what she truly wanted to be doing.

Claire's best friend was probably my favorite character of the book. I didn't agree with all of her decisions, either, but I understood where they came from. I loved going through her conflicted feelings. She wanted to know what was going on with her best friend's life. When her suspicions were confirmed, she realized she really didn't want to know, and had to figure out where to go next.

I found Claire's husband and her lover to be almost non-entities to me. I couldn't bring myself to care at all about either of them. I think this might be because the book (even the affair) was never about either of them. It was about Claire and her need to break out of her roles.

In the end, if I treat the adultery as a metaphor for recasting the rules for Claire's life, I'd say overall, I liked the book.