A tale of two Dianas and the strength of friendship
Reviewed by Maureen Corrigan
That Summer is more explicitly a political novel than most of Jennifer Weiner’s 15 offerings in that its plot is informed by the rise of the #MeToo movement and the seismic shift in attitudes towards men who claim their actions should be excused because of their youth or because their victims were drunk or dressed provocatively or... just because.
The intertwined story lines of That Summer concern two women, both named Diana, who have been harmed in different ways by a man. And that’s only the beginning of what these ‘‘two Dianas’’ have in common.
That Summer opens with a prologue that is one long held breath. Weiner writes it in present tense, as if the memory it evokes keeps replaying on a loop.
‘‘She is fifteen years old that summer, a thoughtful, bookstruck girl with long-lashed hazel eyes and a long-legged body that still doesn’t completely feel like her own. She lives in a rowhouse in South Boston with her parents and two sisters, and attends a private school in Cambridge on a scholarship, where she gets mostly Bs, except for As in English and art. She dreams about falling in love.’’
This is Diana Starling, who takes a job as a mother’s helper on Cape Cod during that longago summer and meets a crowd of prep-school boys on the beach and is encouraged to believe that one of them – a sensitive, handsome guy named ‘‘Poe’’ – really, really likes her. He invites her to a big bonfire party on the last night of summer and, as Diana sits close to him, drinking something he’s handed her in a red Solo cup, she thinks, ‘‘This is the best night of my life.’’
It’s not. For years afterward, a traumatised Diana struggles and fails and struggles again to heal from the violence inflicted on her that night.
Daisy Shoemaker, our other ‘‘Diana,’’ is a 30-something wife and mother who lives outside Philadelphia. Though her given name is Diana, she was renamed ‘‘Daisy’’ by her husband, Hal, during their dating days. She is a marvellous cook and once dreamed of becoming a food writer, but her father’s early death and her own early marriage at 20 derailed those ambitions. Now Daisy feels lost and isolated, patronised by her husband and dismissed by her artsy, rebellious teenage daughter. When Daisy begins getting emails meant for the other Diana, the two begin an online correspondence that quickly develops into an inperson friendship. But those misdirected emails turn out not to be as random as they first appeared.
One of Weiner’s signature strengths as a writer is her ability to realistically depict how people change in body and soul.
That Summer is a compelling, nuanced novel about the long, terrible aftermath of sexual assault and the things that can be stolen from women that can never be fully restored.
But, because it’s a Jennifer Weiner novel, it’s no polemic. It’s empowering in its own way. Weiner seems to steadfastly believe in the saving grace of humour, the ability of time to open up possibilities and the strength of female friendship. Me, too.