Alice Adams (4)

3.5*

"The streets of Hampstead teemed with belligerent old ladies and their posses of tiny canines, and they weren’t to be trifled with."

I must admit that I only picked this up because it fit one of the squares of a Summer Bingo Challenge. Otherwise, I would have judged the book by its cover and it's description, and I would have decided that this was probably fluffy chick lit.

I would have lost out. Big time.

Invincible Summer is the story of four friends, who try to come to terms with their show more lives, romantic entanglements, careers, family, and each other over the course of 20 years. Yes, there is some romance in it, some heartbreak, some drama, but it is all described quite realistically, and with a great sense of balance for fun and seriousness.
In a way, the book reminded me of the film Notting Hill, only that the book had a little more depth, and no bumbling Hugh Grant characters.

There were some aspects, like the mental breakdown of one of the characters, that really were handled quite well, even if all problems seemed to conveniently resolve themselves.
I really can't fault the author for this, tho. Sometimes, convenient solutions are what help the book focus on the character development rather than to get stuck with the depressing state of the human condition.

Also, I loved that Adams included a couple of scenes that were inspired by the works of Albert Camus, an author I have a lot of love for. The title "Invincible Summer" itself is taken from one of Camus' works, and the quote on which it is based is the centre point of the book. I really loved this, the scene in original work fitted really well with the scene in Adams' book. It also sparked my interest in re-reading some of Camus work. (Even if this meant that I found a second quote used by Adams to be a misquote, which is believed to have originated in the early 2000s rather than with Camus....)

No matter. Invincible Summer was moving, engaging, and thought-provoking for all the right reasons.

"A ridiculous response to these glimpses of other people’s lives playing out, she chided herself, because if life had taught her one thing it was that appearances rarely tell the real story. She’d spent long enough tending to her own carefully cultivated work persona to know that apparently calm exteriors could have all sorts of things seething underneath. You could look through the windows at any one of these people, but you would only ever see what was there, not what wasn’t. The losses and absences didn’t show, despite so often being the immovable facts around which a life orbited. That woman, laughing as she herded her protesting children to the table, she might have a story you wouldn’t see at a glance. You wouldn’t be able to see the miscarriages she had before those children came along, or the brother who’d died, or the father she’d had to put into a home because his dementia had become too much to handle. All you saw was the bright flash of happiness, and it wasn’t anything close to the whole truth." show less

*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher at BEA 2016. This is an honest review.*

Invincible Summer tells the life story of four friends over the course of twenty years, mostly starting when they graduate college and continuing from then onward. I know it says it’s a novel right in the title, but I have a hard time exactly classifying what sort of format this is told in; it’s not a saga in that it spends an excruciating amount of time detailing each moment of their lives. show more Instead, it feels like a series of extremely short snapshots of their lives — too short for it to really be considered a short story cycle — but with each year only given a handful of pages, it also doesn’t exactly feel like a novel. Whatever the format you want to label it as, though, it works. Adams does an amazing job in capturing the progression from just-out-of-college young adults to older adults approaching middle age and is somehow able to create relate-able, complex characters in the short amount of page time she gives them.

This novel would not have worked without the characters or their dynamics together, so I’m glad the characterization was spot on. They’re complex and greatly progress throughout the course of the novel. While they’re all friends, they all take vastly different approaches to life; Eva gets a big finance job straight off the bat, Benedict goes in for more school, and Sylvie and Lucien live the bohemian lifestyle while Sylvie tries to make it as an artist and Lucien just continues to live his college dream — partying and clubbing. I thought all of them had at least something that was endearing, but for the most part, they’re incredibly like-able characters. Also, it’s nice to get a story of friends not being with each other every moment, but still trying to make their relationships with each other work among the crazy busy times of adult life, and also seeing how they deal with the rocky points that inevitably come up.

The plot itself was handled brilliantly. Each character has his or her ups and downs; the theme that comes up consistently is that you can’t plan for everything in life, and most of the time, we have no idea exactly what we’re getting into when we make decisions. The characters go from dreaming, idealistic just-out-of-college adults to aged, more experienced adults who realize that they have no idea what they’re doing half the time, and that’s okay. I appreciated how this theme is handled, because it all-too-often goes into the condescending territory of belittling the dreams of young people. Instead, the reader learns along with the characters just how hard life can be, given circumstances and luck; just like real life, some of those young dreams are still there but have to find more realistic avenues to be achieved, and some of those young dreams are shredded entirely. This story has a lot of reflective moments of the characters wondering if they should have made different choices, which the reader is able to follow along with, because we get to read about pretty much every big moment in their lives.

Mostly, I like that Adams doesn’t pull her punches. Life gets really difficult for these characters and they have to deal with realistic, hard situations. This isn’t a happy-go-lucky growing up story where nothing too bad happens, though it is hopeful and optimistic. I think this story works more for an older audience, maybe at least late-twenties so that you can relate to the post-college (or post-high school, if you didn’t choose to go to college) “oh, so this is what life is like” realizations that the characters have. Not saying that younger people wouldn’t enjoy this as well, but it’s more geared to people who’ve been out of school for a couple of years. It’s a quick read and if it sounds at all interesting to you, I say give it a try. I think it’s a rather lovely story.

Also posted on Purple People Readers. show less

I love books with four friends (or even two) as the main characters. Some are formulaic, but not this one. Sylvie and Lucien are siblings, Eva and Benedict are best friends, and the narrator is primarily Eva, with the other three chiming in occasionally. The novel follows the Brits from their college graduation in 1995 to 2015. Problems are many, successes are rare, and even those are usually saddled with a high price. But everything that happens (except for perhaps, the ending) is all show more realistic and even the minor characters are well drawn. A very enjoyable read, especially for those who prize plot above all. show less

Sylvie, Eva, Lucien, and Benedict have been close friends since university. Upon graduation in 1997, they embark into a new world of possibilities - jobs, love, heartbreak, and more. Eva has always carried a torch for Lucien, Sylvie's slightly rough older brother, but during a summer holiday after graduation, she almost wonders if there isn't a spark between her and Benedict. Benedict feels that same spark-- in fact he's been pining for his friend for most of their college days. But the show more moment passes, and Eva goes on to her high-powered job in finance and Benedict to his life in the world of physics. Sylvie, meanwhile, discovers that life isn't so easy now that she's out of university and trying to realize her dreams of becoming an artist. As for Lucien, he's still a playboy, whose career as a club promoter seems successful, but is there more to his success than meets the eye? Over the years, the four friends will drift in and out of each others' lives and experience the ups and downs of life.

I am not usually a fan of these sorts of novels-- those that span over several years or even decades, chronicling the adventures of oft self-centered adults. But Adams' novel surprised me. While in many ways, nothing much happens; in other cases, everything happens: life. Each chapter lets us hear from the characters in a different month and year of their lives. We hear mostly from Eva's point of view, but also Benedict, Lucien, and Sylvie. In this way, we are bystanders to all of their highs and lows of the friends' lives. It doesn't sound exciting, really, but Adams has a lovely way with words and she somehow draws you into their lives. You get to know each, including their strengths, fears, and foibles.

I found the book oddly captivating and basically read it over the span of 24 hours. In some ways, you probably know some of the outcome, but along the way, the characters experience and endure many unexpected life events. This wasn't the type of book I'd like to read all the time, but I found it well-written, intriguing, and a worthy read. 3.5 stars.

I received a copy of this novel from Netgalley (thank you!); it is available for publication on 5/28/16. show less