THE HAPPY SUMMER DAYS

by Sue Kaufman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 9, 1958

.... submit to a winterkilling scrutiny as the members of a longstanding circle of intimates (New York and, what could be Fire island) are caught in familiar attitudes, suntanning and sipping on the dunes. Katherine and Olivia, just sixteen, take mother's helper jobs, and it is Katherine's prurient, popeyed interpretation of the adults she observes which helps to contribute to the disintegration in the weeks that follow--certainly in the household where she is employed,- that of Anne and Tom Russell. They have reached a hiatus in their marriage, and when Tom abruptly leaves for Denver, Anne is left with the reproachful realization that she has failed him, and to the attentiveness- which she overestimates- of his best friend, George. Next door, the Frys, a glamorous pair- Khaki is in television, Frederick is a connoisseur-aesthete, seem ideally, idyllically suited; nearby Polly Logan, Anne's oldest friend, who has been divorced and analyzed but paints with talent, begins to drink again, associates with two epicene young men, and only pulls out of it after a letter from her former husband. The monotony of the life there leads to boredom- and some -tempered squalls; Katherine's parents visit her- and find the life mordid and sinful and threaten to remove her; and as the summer reaches its end- so do some of the relationships here.... A first novel, malice and mortification offer a certain entertainment without inviting involvement.

Pub Date: Feb. 9, 1958

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1958

Categories: FICTION