Herman Raucher (1928–2023)

I loved this thing. Way wacky haunted house psychological horror tale that’s pretty weird and fun along the way. Also a poignant story about how war and combat teach basically normal and good people to become unhinged and paranoid. We identify with the protagonist who has mostly sublimated his war trauma even as we realize from his thoughts and behavior that this has shaped who he
now is, and a creepy house he inherited from ‘Nam buddy Maynard is not going to make things better, or is show more it?

The house in the Maine wilderness becomes a symbol for what’s going on in Austin’s head and we’re not even sure if the people or animals he encounters are real, in his head, or wraiths. In fact, the entire novel is laden with symbols of death and rebirth.

Nice embodiment of PTSD which didn’t even have a name when this was written.

Raucher is better known for the coming of age novel Summer of ‘42 which was made into a popular and much talked about (at the time) movie. This was another cloaked war story from a different perspective. show less

"In the summer of '42 they raided the Coast Guard station four times. They saw five movies and had nine days of rain. Benjie broke his watch, Oscy gave up the harmonica, and in a very special way, Hermie was lost forever." This was the summer when 15-year-old Hermie also lost his childhood.

In this semi-autobiographical novel, the adult Herman reminisces about a particular summer that his family rented a house on Packett Island. His friends were Oscy, the one-month older self-proclaimed show more expert sexual relationships between men and women; and Benjie, the younger and gawkier member of the trio. Hermie is an introspective romantic frequently lost in a daydream. He is the stereotypical testosterone-driven adolescent male who frequently imagines the opposite sex through his x-ray eyes. A recent target of his affection is the older by five or six years young married woman who has moved into one of the seaside cottages.

Having watched the movie when I was not much older than Hermie, I decided to read the book. The movie was fairly close to the book; however, with the film you are not a witness to Hermie's daydream musings. The friends' antics frequently had me laughing aloud but were mellowed with the poignant ending. If you were ever an adolescent boy, you will connect with Hermie and his friends and if you were an adolescent girl, you will understand better what was truly on their mind. show less

This book was written after the screenplay for the film had been sold but before the film was released. It tells a fuller story than the film, which is an autobiographical memoir of the author of a moment in his life. The tagline for the book and film is that "In everyone's life there is a Summer of '42." Is there? I don't know. I suppose most of us experience an event we can identify as a loss of innocence. But I don't think most of us have a summer of '42 like this one.

I think this is my show more third read of the novel, but the first two times were in the early 70's. That's a long time ago. I still love the book, but part of that is nostalgia. Herman Raucher wrote this as a tribute to his friend Oscar, "Oscy", who died as a medic in Korea on the author's birthday in 1952. He has said that he never celebrated his birthday again. The film and book are irrevocably intertwined in my mind. I can't read the story without picturing the film in my mind. The story is about 3 boys in the Summer of '42 on an Atlantic coast island. Hermie Oscar and Benjie. The narrator of the story is Hermie and we are inside his head through the entire story. Oscy is the other main character and Benjie, the youngest of the group is part of things but mostly sidelined. And of course it is about Hermie and Dorothy. Dorothy is a young woman who Hermie develops an enormous overwhelming crush on. Hermie is about 14 going on 15 and we don't know Dorothy's age but she is perhaps 20 or a bit older. Hermie never saw Dorothy again after the events in the book.

Reading this now is a little awkward because Hermie is hugely awkward. He's a full generation plus younger then me and of a different simpler time. But not simpler in emotions. A modern reader may be a bit bothered by the things that go on in Hermie's head, but there are quite a few funny moments.

Robert Mulligan directed the film. He was perhaps most famous for making the film "To Kill a Mockingbird". He is also the narrator of the film, a voice that remained in my mind as I read the novel. show less

This was a re-read of an old favorite and, as with all good literature, every trip to Packett Island reveals new insights and details laying about the beach and in the prose. A fine story well told of an earlier, more innocent – not simpler – time. It was like visiting an old friend and reminiscing. Almost an exercise in free association, a read that leaves you with a smile on your face and the urge to pour the sand out of your shoes.