Summer Gone: A Novel [Paperback]

David MacFarlane (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 21, 2001

David Macfarlane’s Summer Gone introduces a writer of incandescent literary skill and beautifully evokes the sometimes painful relationship between father and son.

When Bay Newby is twelve he is sent north for the first time, and he falls in love with the life of ritual, beauty, and stark privilege of summer camp. Then the death of his baby sister calls him home, and it will be twenty-three years before his next “perfect summer.” The summer he spends with his young son will contain loss also, but also discovery and redemption. Summer Gone is a novel of layered experience, of life, death and love as seen through the eyes of a young boy as he grows into a wiser–and more haunted–man.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Macfarlane, a columnist for the Toronto Globe & Mail, earned a measure of admiration for Come from Away, which won the Canadian Authors' Association Award for nonfiction in 1992. This is his first venture into fiction. The gist of the tale is a bit hard to summarize, but it has to do with the editor of a Canadian monthly magazine recalling past summers and winters as he and his young son canoe through Ontario's northern lakes. Macfarlane skillfully evokes an atmosphere at once somber and slightly ominous, but the drama, instead of flowing smoothly, jerks and snaps from past to present, scene to scene, and person to person so that even an earnest attendant finds it difficult at times to follow. Setting and mores are described with an expert hand, but many readers are likely to be puzzled by the often irritatingly abrupt transitions, the curious mixture of present and past, and the intertwining of reality, dreaming, and the twilight in between. Of limited appeal; for collections of Canadian fiction.
-A.J. Anderson, GSLIS, Simmons Coll., Boston
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Macfarlane, an award-winning Canadian journalist, has written a beautifully contemplative first novel about fathers and sons, memory, and the spirituality of wilderness. Bay Newling, divorced and on shaky ground with his close-to-adolescent son, has had a thing about summer ever since his one and only summer camp adventure. He clings to his vision of that brief idyll in a pristine and quiet land of lakes and canoes over the course of his less-than-ideal life. Loss is Macfarlane's theme, and it is manifest in Bay's memories of his parents' disappointments; in his magazine work, where trivia trumps meaning; in the ugliness of urban sprawl; in his beloved lake country, where vacationers have turned wilderness into a motorboat-loud theme park; and most of all in his unforeseen separation from the woman he loves. A bumbling romantic in a harshly pragmatic, unreliable world, an overweight smoker too out of shape to teach his son the joys of canoeing, Bay embodies all that is noble about our species and all that is folly. Donna Seaman --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (August 21, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385720750
• ISBN-13: 978-0385720755
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,715,374 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a beautiful, well-written novel!, July 9, 2000

By 

Linda Gaines - See all my reviews

This review is from: Summer Gone (Hardcover)

It was a pleasure to read Mr. Macfarlane's story of a man's thoughts and memories of childhood though adulthood. I liked the way all the thoughts blended together across the years as thoughts do in our minds as we reminisce. The forced Sunday School experiences recalled my childhood times for me. I've stayed a little closer to religious practice than Bay in the novel but I felt Bay was still a man of faith. Many descriptions in the novel are extremely hope-filled. The characters are all well-drawn and believable. It is just wonderful to read a novel of this caliber, so much writing today is not even worth reading. Summergone, mentioned only once in a list of other flowers, is a wildflower found in Canada. The author doesn't try to imply any heavy-handed symbolism but leaves any connections to be made by the reader. I really liked the economy of Macfarlane's prose in a book that any sensitive reader should love.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Summer Gone but Not Forgotten, July 26, 2001

By 

Michael Younder - See all my reviews

This review is from: Summer Gone (Hardcover)

One of the more interesting twists of our consciousness is how we tend to remember those things for which we have lost and, how we often forget what we have. Bay Newling, one of the central characters in David MacFarlanes' excellent book, Summer Gone, struggles with just that conundrum during his trips to and memories of, Ontario's cottage country. His story, that of his son's and his parents all intertwine amongst the pine needles, rocks, summer storms, clear waters and in particular, one special canoe trip. A moving book, Summer Gone reveals the many intricate faces of the warm months often hidden behind the common veneer of carefree days around the lake. To my American readers, this book will give you a rare glimpse of a summer lifestyle Canadian's hold sacred.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Depressing, February 24, 2003

By 

dave__ "dave__" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Summer Gone: A Novel (Paperback)

Summer Gone is a fine novel, and I don't want to disagree with the comments of the other reviewers. However, while the story has several memorable moments, there was one theme that for me stood out above the others. I saw the book as being largely about the main character's failures; failures in many areas of his life. Thus, if I had to describe the book in one word, I would say "depressing". Does Bay redeem himself by the end? (Maybe, maybe not. I'm not telling.) But whether or not there is redemption, the overall "feel" of the book left me depressed.

I don't want to discourage anyone from reading the book. Just be aware of what you're in for.