A Summer to Die
By: Lois Lowry / Narrated By: Andi Arndt
Length: 3 hrs and 26 mins
Soooo short I didn’t wind up crying—
Thank GOSH!!!
I was expecting to tear up cuz no Spoiler Alert (It’s part of the Publisher’s Summary!), one of the sisters gets sick and dies.
It opens with Meg in a four-person family, Mom and Dad, her elder sister Molly rounding it all out. Dad is writing a grand ol’ book, but he can’t concentrate in their home. Soooo, the whole family is to move to the country just for a while, just so Dad can make progress with his writing.
Molly is outraged: The easily confident and popular girl is a cheerleader; she has friends; she has a life, dang it! But move they must and, much to awkward Meg’s disgust, it turns out that Molly will be fine, no matter where she’s transplanted. Popularity, a boyfriend, so easy for Molly.
There’s a bit of sibling strife as the two are forced to share a room; Molly is neat and organized. Meg? Not so much. Molly is even forced to draw a chalk line separating the two halves of the room, demanding that Meg keep her chaos on her own side. But for the most part, the two get along, have each other.
There is sooo much grace to the writing, Lois Lowry just knows how to weave a spell and work every emotional angle to the limit. Meg starts finding her own self, her true self, through her relationships with an old gentleman, with a pair of freedom-loving hippie-types who live close by. The relationship with the old man is the most touching of all, and it’s through his eyes that Meg begins to see herself.
But just when Meg is getting somewhere in her emotional development, Molly’s devastating nosebleeds are finally diagnosed, but new medicines bring the family hope. While the family lives in hope, however, it’s completely obvious to the outsiders: Molly will not be getting better. As a matter of fact, after a reaction to the meds sends her off, squawking in despair, to the hospital, Molly doesn’t say it, and Meg doesn’t know it, but perhaps Molly will NEVER be coming home again.
Bring out the Kleenex, right? Uhm, nope. Cuz part of this story is how someone as young as Meg learns to navigate trauma. Meg has photography, Meg has her relationships with much-loved neighbors, Meg has a need to be seen and heard, and NOT always talking about Molly. This is sooo grand for young people who are living from day to day, trying to navigate illness and grief, trying to grow up and be themselves, all at the same time. A very important book, yes. But, it’s really so very short, that I didn’t have time to get attached to Molly, and I didn’t really have the time to feel the entirety of Meg’s self-doubt, tho’ Lowry writes her awkwardness and envy with just the right amount of sensitivity.
Andi Arndt has done NUMerous audiobooks, but this is my first experience of her narrations. She usually does Contemporary Romance, and for the life of me, I’m wondering how she manages it, cuz oh gosh! she does indeed sound like a young girl, unfinished, untried, inexperienced and innocent, maybe even naive. Dunno how she manages those other things, but her narration here was perfect, capturing Teen Angst so well. P’raps she’s just a flat-out talented narrator as she manages the elderly to go with the hippies to go with the preoccupied parents to go with the sparring siblings. Maaaaybe I’ll give some of her other works a chance one of these days.
But for now, A Summer to Die was a heartfelt piece, showing the many sides of family relationships, of how sisters can hate each other one moment, love so desperately the next. And as with all Lowry’s offerings?
Timeless…
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