hsienhsien27's review against another edition
4.0
Received from a Goodreads Giveaway in exchange for a review
I read this book forever ago and I have it packed away so I can’t even pull out quotes like most book reviewers do. This is another book post that was supposed to be done a year ago, so it’s unprepared and bare bones like the rest I’ve written.
A Brief Plot Discussion
The Summer She Was Under Water is centered around Sam Pinski, a bisexual, depressed, alcoholic writer who is visiting her dysfunctional family for the first time in years. They are happy to meet her but she can still feel the same tension, the dark cloud she had felt there as a child. Despite spending her adult years being a moderately successful writer, she is still a loner who never really had happy, successful relationships and is apprehensive to pursue them further as proven by her ex, Michael and her friend, Eve. While spending time with her family, dipping into the lake, listening to her parents argue and eating cheese burgers, her memories and trauma come back to her in streams that leave her cold and hurting especially when her dysfunctional brother returns.
The Feel
The Summer She Was Under Water is a brave and ambitious novel but reading it felt like I was indeed drowning with Sam’s trauma. And that means that the novel was written right. I enjoyed Michalski’s short story collection, From Here, and have bought all her other books. Just like in From Here, Michalski is not afraid to touch on taboo subjects and she’s not afraid to let her characters bleed for the reader. I think it took most of the year to read this book and I remember I would only read large chunks of it, picking up the book maybe 2-3 times a month. I read it as slowly as possible and I don’t even remember what book I had on the side. I was probably reading Gantz which is not any better regarding depressing content.
Despite the soft, eye pleasing cover, this is a hard novel to get through. The novel contains physical and emotional abuse, as well as incest in Sam Pinski’s flashbacks. It also contains excerpts of Sam Pinski’s novel about a pregnant man which you will find is about her abuser, her older brother. It serves as a metaphor, a sort of vengeful one, where she hopes that her brother is able to feel and carry the pain she has felt in the form of the pain of motherhood. But of course in real life, this is never achieved when she confronts him about the trauma she carried all these years and the novel ends with a scene that made me feel rather odd since it implies forgiveness and moving on, sort of. Rather, it’s a hopeless one, one forced by the need of “Keeping the family together” after tragedy struck.
The Summer She Was Under Water is beautifully written, with sentences I can’t even provide samples of because I packed the book away. I usually assume if there’s more than five dog earred pages then the writing must’ve been pretty nice.
But yet, I have mixed feelings about this novel. I don’t know or remember if it’s because I had a certain expectation that things would improve for Sam. Novels with these kinds of topics usually don’t have resolutions and endings tied with bright bows. I don’t really know if I enjoyed it and I don’t know if there’s a meaning to it other than what was provided with the metaphorical novel Sam left for the reader.
I guess that’s kind of the point of this book? It isn’t something to be enjoyed rather it’s meant for you to think about and let the character study stew into your mind. It let’s you think of the what if and about Sam Pinksi’s fate. Maybe even wonder if there’s a sequel for some reason where Sam has a redemption arc where she gets her life together. But I think it’s better that it remains a mystery floating in the lake she’s in.
Conclusion
The Summer She Was Under Water is important because of its taboo topics but I felt ambivalent about the novel. If you’re into reading about these kinds of character studies, I’d still recommend it because Michalski’s talent still shines in this novel and I haven’t read her other books so I feel like I can’t pick a magnum opus of hers yet. If you want to read her work, I highly suggestFrom Here before touching The Summer She Was Under Water .
Crosspost from Across From Here.
I read this book forever ago and I have it packed away so I can’t even pull out quotes like most book reviewers do. This is another book post that was supposed to be done a year ago, so it’s unprepared and bare bones like the rest I’ve written.
A Brief Plot Discussion
The Summer She Was Under Water is centered around Sam Pinski, a bisexual, depressed, alcoholic writer who is visiting her dysfunctional family for the first time in years. They are happy to meet her but she can still feel the same tension, the dark cloud she had felt there as a child. Despite spending her adult years being a moderately successful writer, she is still a loner who never really had happy, successful relationships and is apprehensive to pursue them further as proven by her ex, Michael and her friend, Eve. While spending time with her family, dipping into the lake, listening to her parents argue and eating cheese burgers, her memories and trauma come back to her in streams that leave her cold and hurting especially when her dysfunctional brother returns.
The Feel
The Summer She Was Under Water is a brave and ambitious novel but reading it felt like I was indeed drowning with Sam’s trauma. And that means that the novel was written right. I enjoyed Michalski’s short story collection, From Here, and have bought all her other books. Just like in From Here, Michalski is not afraid to touch on taboo subjects and she’s not afraid to let her characters bleed for the reader. I think it took most of the year to read this book and I remember I would only read large chunks of it, picking up the book maybe 2-3 times a month. I read it as slowly as possible and I don’t even remember what book I had on the side. I was probably reading Gantz which is not any better regarding depressing content.
Despite the soft, eye pleasing cover, this is a hard novel to get through. The novel contains physical and emotional abuse, as well as incest in Sam Pinski’s flashbacks. It also contains excerpts of Sam Pinski’s novel about a pregnant man which you will find is about her abuser, her older brother. It serves as a metaphor, a sort of vengeful one, where she hopes that her brother is able to feel and carry the pain she has felt in the form of the pain of motherhood. But of course in real life, this is never achieved when she confronts him about the trauma she carried all these years and the novel ends with a scene that made me feel rather odd since it implies forgiveness and moving on, sort of. Rather, it’s a hopeless one, one forced by the need of “Keeping the family together” after tragedy struck.
The Summer She Was Under Water is beautifully written, with sentences I can’t even provide samples of because I packed the book away. I usually assume if there’s more than five dog earred pages then the writing must’ve been pretty nice.
But yet, I have mixed feelings about this novel. I don’t know or remember if it’s because I had a certain expectation that things would improve for Sam. Novels with these kinds of topics usually don’t have resolutions and endings tied with bright bows. I don’t really know if I enjoyed it and I don’t know if there’s a meaning to it other than what was provided with the metaphorical novel Sam left for the reader.
I guess that’s kind of the point of this book? It isn’t something to be enjoyed rather it’s meant for you to think about and let the character study stew into your mind. It let’s you think of the what if and about Sam Pinksi’s fate. Maybe even wonder if there’s a sequel for some reason where Sam has a redemption arc where she gets her life together. But I think it’s better that it remains a mystery floating in the lake she’s in.
Conclusion
The Summer She Was Under Water is important because of its taboo topics but I felt ambivalent about the novel. If you’re into reading about these kinds of character studies, I’d still recommend it because Michalski’s talent still shines in this novel and I haven’t read her other books so I feel like I can’t pick a magnum opus of hers yet. If you want to read her work, I highly suggestFrom Here before touching The Summer She Was Under Water .
Crosspost from Across From Here.
abookwormwithwine's review against another edition
2.0
Unfortunately this book was just "ok" for me. I read it in one day, but it was a slow go for being only 193 pages. I felt like the editor stopped editing after page 100. Words that were incorrect, wrong names. I've never seen anything like that before. It wasn't that many, but I noticed and it bothered me. Also, the tragedy came a lot later than I thought it would. Almost felt weird where it happened. Maybe for the best and it's just me. Anyway, not very excited about this book.
melanie_page's review against another edition
4.0
Here are some observations from my review:
“I thought I knew exactly what happened in the past based on contextual clues, but I was wrong. It’s much more complicated.”
“Michalski easily works in fluidity: lesbian, bi, straight, male, female, both.”
“The Summer She Was Under Water is an emotional giant.”
Review now at Grab the Lapels!
“I thought I knew exactly what happened in the past based on contextual clues, but I was wrong. It’s much more complicated.”
“Michalski easily works in fluidity: lesbian, bi, straight, male, female, both.”
“The Summer She Was Under Water is an emotional giant.”
Review now at Grab the Lapels!
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