Customer Reviews

Surface Tension: A Novel in Four Summers

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Traditions are funny things. Sometimes we eagerly, even cynically, outgrow the traditions that shape our childhood memories --- putting out cookies for Santa, buying new unsharpened pencils for the first day of school --- only to have them become increasingly important over time, shaping the way we think about family life and time passing as adults.

Traditions play a big part in Brent Runyon's novel, SURFACE TENSION. In a way, the book is all about tradition --- the tradition of Luke's family heading to their lake cabin for two weeks each summer. It's also about the small traditions that make up that annual pilgrimage, whether it's his dad buying his favorite peppermint stick ice cream, to the family noticing all the changes to the "neighborhood" from the previous year, to Luke charging into the lake for a first chilly swim even before unpacking his suitcase.

When we first meet Luke, he is 13 and has been waiting for these blissful two weeks all year: "Here we are. We're back. It feels like it's been forever and no time at all." In typical early-adolescent fashion, only-child Luke alternates between complaining of boredom and, when it's finally time to go home, regretting that he hasn't had enough time to do everything he had hoped.

By the next summer, Luke has discovered girls --- or at least discovered that he really likes staring at their chests, even if the girl he is attracted to (his neighbor's son's girlfriend) seems to see him as only a kid. He is also increasingly annoyed with his parents and their embarrassing habits, a tendency that only grows during the summer when he's 15, when he brings his best friend to the cabin with him.

When Luke is 16, during the fourth summer profiled in the novel, girls have apparently discovered him back. This year he's apprehensive about the two weeks he'll be away from his girlfriend, who's at drama camp. Luke's vulnerable, romantic nature intersects with his increasingly wistful, nostalgic yearnings for his innocent outlook about the lake during his younger days. In this final segment, Runyon effectively captures the complex combination of desire for maturity and longing for a simpler, more innocent outlook on life that characterizes much of older adolescents' development. Luke recognizes changes in himself that he doesn't always like, even as his changing nature opens him up to new experiences.

Each of the four summers profiled in SURFACE TENSION is like a short story, linked by virtue of character and place. What's remarkable is how Runyon captures character development just by looking in on a life for two weeks each year. In addition to effectively capturing specific crises of the various stages of adolescence, Runyon also realistically portrays a loving but challenging relationship between Luke and his parents. All of this happens against a memorable backdrop, a setting that will ring true to anyone who has ever had a favorite spot they've returned to periodically, witnessing both the persistence of tradition and the inevitability of change over time.

At times, the chronological setting of the novel is a bit puzzling; Luke's pop culture touchpoints (E.T., The Karate Kid) seem better suited to a teenager in the 1980s or early 1990s than one in 2005, when the book is nominally set. Nevertheless, Luke's story of change over time is universal enough to appeal to teens, nostalgic adults --- anyone who has embraced both tradition and change simultaneously.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

So good, so good. Here I am on my summer vacation, travel through Utah, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming... and I find this little gem, like it was meant to be read by the side of a lake or a swimming pool or by flashlight late at night as my family sleeps in our motel room.

The book is Surface Tension by Brent Runyon (The Burn Journals), a Novel in Four Summers. Like a Same Time, Next Year for teen boys, Surface Tension perfectly captures the pivitol teen years of Luke, a young man who each summer goes away with his parents to their rundown lakeside cabin. Told in four chapters, one for each summer from age 13 to 16, this is a great concept that pays off with its lovely details of summers long past. Each year Luke's world gets darker and more complex as he yearns for the simplicity of his early years on the lake, at the same time diving head first into the unknown of the murky depths of life. Like a real life vacation, you wish it would go on forever but deep down, you know that all good things must come to an end. A perfect summer read.

This is a great book for teenagers in high school. It talks about how the thoughts of a person change when he grows up. At thirteen, Luke was excited about going to the lake, he was an innocent child that only thinks about playing, when they have to leave Luke even told his mom he wanted to stay longer. The next year, he wanted to hang out with girls, he tried to be cool, and that reminds me what i did when i was 14- trying to do some cool things to get the girl's attention, and that's exactly what Luke did when he was 14. At 15, Luke got into some arguments with his parents like all the other teens, in the age like him, we have our own thoughts that parents might not understand, and parents want to force their child to do things they don't want to. At last, when he is 16, he fall in love, but then he got cheated by his girlfriend. When he goes back to the lake and think about everything that happened, he found out that he never really tried to understand why things happened, and things change, that's just the way it should be.

Brent Runyon is the well known author of THE BURN JOURNALS, MAYBE and now SURFACE TENSION. I am personally a big fan of his work and what he stands for. In all three novels Runyon accurately portrays teenage boys who are more than what they appear. Most boys their age go through 'becoming a man' and the proverbial rules for becoming one. SURFACE TENSION is a perfect coming of age story

SURFACE TENSION shows how dynamic we are as we get older, especially through adolescence. The book opens with Luke as a 13 year-old and concludes when he is 16. Each year that passes changes Luke, but Runyon only offers a look at Luke's life during the summer of each year, instead of what may have changed Luke in the meantime. The audience is left in the dark partly as for what causes him to change, but it isn't hard to find out. Remember how it was to be a teenager--that is answer enough. What is ironic is how we don't realize how much we change BECAUSE we are the ones changing.

Luke goes through stages of excitement, aggression and even depression in three year's time. Whenever I read the book, it sparked for some inner searching to take place--in which case I should applaud Runyon. The fortunate thing about change is that hindsight is 20/20-- we can realize who were were, but not always who we are. Runyon's work allows the audience to look at Luke as a piece of ourselves, but also gives the opportunity to be objective about it since it is not ourselves we examine... in other words, Luke can be a caricature or ourselves.

Even though SURFACE TENSION proved to be a very touching story, it does not compare to Runyon's THE BURN JOURNALS or MAYBE. Both of these books had an emotional dynamic that SURFACE TENSION did not. THE BURN JOURNALS and MAYBE dealt with social taboos, and therefor made the book an interesting read. The introductory chapter to SURFACE TENSION dragged a little, but it soon picks up the following year.

In general, SURFACE TENSION is a very good book which I enjoyed, but it does not rise to the standards that Runyon's previous novels imply. It is a story of a boy not only trying to make it out of the teen years alive, but how he does it by leaning from past summers' mistakes... even without his own recognition at the time. It is a very good book that I'm glad I took the time to read.

Gold Star Award Winner!

Luke's parents own a cottage by the lake, and his family has been coming there for two weeks every summer ever since they moved out of the area.

When Luke is 13, he's extremely excited to be back at his most favorite place in the world. Running over the rocks on their beach, climbing the creek up to the waterfall, and fishing in the pond by the dairy farm... Each of these experiences holds a memory for him, but none seem to be as fun as they used to be.

The following year, he's not feeling quite as excited. Their new neighbor is causing a lot of problems, but, as a result, Luke's family finally befriends the conservative, rich family that lives next door. However, things get weird as Luke tries to navigate his feelings about the attractive girlfriend of the family's oldest son.

The next year, when Luke is 15, their issues with the bad neighbor escalate, and Luke has his best friend, Steve, in tow. Steve doesn't quite seem to get Luke's feelings about the lake and their experiences at the cottage, however, so that results in another weird summer.

When Luke is 16, he has no idea why he decided to come to the lake this year. His girlfriend is at theater camp, and Luke spends most of his time thinking about her and wishing she were there. Even when tensions rise among the neighbors and result in a near tragedy and yet another emergency room trip for Luke, he finds that he must come to grips with the ever-changing nature of time.

This "novel in four summers" took my breath away with its elegantly tailored narration and down-to-earth voice, which shifts slightly throughout to reflect Luke's age. A story such as this, I believe, will bring a wave of nostalgia to even the most jaded teen reader, as the main character's struggle with his own cynicism and changing perceptions come across as very real and true.

Reviewed by: Allison Fraclose

I have been entertained by Brent Runyon on This American Life and I have read his novel The Burn Journals and Surface Tension has done it again! I was engrossed from page one and read it in a few hours. I went through every emotion with this main character, I laughed, I kinda cried, I was terrified at times, and I definitely sympathized with him! The theme was a great concept and I really enjoyed this novel.

My teens (13 and 14, boys) didn't like the main character nor the book. We threw it in the trash after finishing it so as not to inflict it on anyone else. As a parent, I don't understand why there needs to be so many f-bombs in a young adult book. Perhaps it reflects reality (yes, I've heard it) but I don't think that justifies using it to the extreme as in the book. Also, the book sets very bad examples, from casual teen sex (again, it reflects some not all people's reality but that's a poor excuse)to a kid running into a burning build (with adults in attendance, no less!) to rescue a small child. Sure he's a hero, but I wouldn't want my kids to do that and more likely wind up with two dead kids instead of (maybe)one. Fire departments are professionals. Kids are not and are likely to underestimate how fast a fire spread and the impact of gases. Yeah, I know, its just a book. Kids shouldn't go into outer space either!