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A Summer To Die: The Nature Of Unleaving

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whatwouldjanedo
07/31/09

In reply to A Summer To Die: The Nature Of Unleaving
When I was in fifth grade this was THE book to read. Almost every girl in the class did a book report on it at some point, including one who made a pop-up book with scenes from the novel. Now the only things I really remember about it were all of Molly's nosebleeds and how her mother attributed them to her being an "adolescent," and when Meg and Molly draw a chalk line across their room.
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sallyfloyd
07/31/09

In reply to A Summer To Die: The Nature Of Unleaving
Ben and Maria were my model for what I wanted my marriage and subsequent domestic life to be like. Ben was my template for a husband in 6th grade.

The part when Meg comes over, weeping, and passes on that Molly asked that the baby not come until she's home from the hospital, then Ben passes on the message via shouting through Maria's belly and says, "Maria and I are determined to have an obedient kid" -- that, to me, was everything I wanted in a husband during a difficult situation.

(And I'm happy to say I found him.)
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rocknrollunicorn
07/31/09

In reply to A Summer To Die: The Nature Of Unleaving
This has got to be my favorite YA book ever. And I usually tended to read horror novels. I bought a used library copy last summer and re-read it, and it's still just as good as the first time. I adored Ben and Maria. I think I wanted to be a hippy for the longest time because of them.

I absolutely agree with your assessment of death in YA lit, Lizzie, but I would like to point out what my copy of the book has under the author's bio:
"Though the book is not autobiographical, facing the death of her only sister when she was young made it possible for [Lois Lowry] to write about the subject with a good deal of understanding."

When I read that last time (I don't believe my original copy of the novel had such an in-depth author bio), I was completely unsurprised. Compared to, say, a Lurlene McDaniel death novel, this book is amazing.
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Vivien Smith-Smythe-Smith
08/01/09

@rocknrollunicorn: Lurlene McDaniel writes anything other than death novels?!
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JennyTeflon
07/31/09

In reply to A Summer To Die: The Nature Of Unleaving
The image that sticks with me the most from A Summer to Die is an ill Molly lying on a sofa in the kitchen. I dream of having a sofa in my kitchen for just such a purpose. The painted eggs and the lawyer in the hippie's wedding photos have stuck in my mind as well.
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emilyanne
07/31/09

In reply to A Summer To Die: The Nature Of Unleaving
oooh I just got back from Barnes and Noble and Shelf Discovery is very prominently displayed on their new paperbacks table, which made me unnecessarily over-excited.
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corruptsuperspy
07/31/09

In reply to A Summer To Die: The Nature Of Unleaving
Is this the book in which the dying girl gets a nosebleed and her sister wakes up and there's blood all over the wall and the bed? Because I read that book a few times and that was a vivid passage.
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rocknrollunicorn
07/31/09

@corruptsuperspy: Yes it is. And the image of this scene in my head has haunted me my entire life.
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RudyWaltz
07/31/09

In reply to A Summer To Die: The Nature Of Unleaving
Oh, man. I actually just re-read this not so long ago and was thrilled that it's as wonderful as I remember it being.

Yes, the characters are much more mature than normal YA characters, but in a very true way. I love that although Meg feels an inadequacy when comparing herself with her sister, it's not in a way that makes her envious of being beautiful for the sake of being more visible....instead she's envious of the way being beautiful sort of makes life easier for a while.
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bangers
07/31/09

In reply to A Summer To Die: The Nature Of Unleaving
I read the title as "the Nature of Unleavening" and hoped it was a YA book on the intricacies of baking matzoh and the struggles of being a young Jewish girl studying for her Bat Mitzvah.
I can dream...
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Flackette Goes Retro
07/31/09

In reply to A Summer To Die: The Nature Of Unleaving
THANK YOU LIZZIE! This was one of my favorite YA books. What I really remember is how the younger sister (thank you for reminding me that her name is Meg) lives a life apart and independent of her sister dying. She has her own relationships and life goes on for her, even as her sister consumes their parents' attention. I also remember that at one point she says that she thinks she doesn't want to have children, and instead of clucking at her indulgently, the adults accept that it is her decision to make. Not to make it all about the thread down the page on Jez today, but that passage was what let me know that it was okay to be an adolescent girl and not be planning a family.

Sidebar: another Lois Lowry fave of mine was "Find a Stranger, Say Goodbye" about a teenage girl who tracks down her birth mother (and runs around staying in motels and stuff by herself at 17 - were teenagers just more mature then, as you suggest?).
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Edited by Flackette Goes Retro at 07/31/09 3:19 PM

CatherineSloper
07/31/09

In reply to A Summer To Die: The Nature Of Unleaving
Oh. My. God. Inspired by the teen diaries entry, I was just looking through my journal from when I was 13 and found this entry, from 4/8/91: "Reading a really good book, Summer to Die, Lois Lowry, about a girl whose sister has leukemia."

Also, in reference to that other venerable Lois, from 3/23/91: "I feel like reading. The Twisted Window by Lois Duncan. Good-bye....Omigod! I just finished T.T.W., and it leaves me breathless! It is about this guy, and a girl [crossed out]. Forget it. It's to hard a book to explain [sic]."

I don't remember a damn thing about either of these books, now, but maybe I should re-read them.
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Zombie Ms. Skittles
07/31/09

In reply to A Summer To Die: The Nature Of Unleaving
Oh sure. It's always the BLONDE who has to suffer. What'd the blonde ever do besides being blonde (and stealing the boyfriend in Jacob Have I Loved)?
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Plum-Pie
07/31/09

In reply to A Summer To Die: The Nature Of Unleaving
Oh dear God. I'm going to be sobbing all evening now - I borrowed this repeatedly from my secondary school library and have been waiting for you to do it justice.
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Spaceman Bill Leah
07/31/09

In reply to A Summer To Die: The Nature Of Unleaving
These Death books always made me live in fear of nosebleeds. That was always the first indication that the blond was about to bite it.

Like, I'd get hit in the face with a softball and be all, "Oh noes!, I have leukemia!!!"
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Edited by Spaceman Bill Leah at 07/31/09 3:16 PM Spaceman Bill Leah was starred

rocknrollunicorn
07/31/09

@Spaceman Bill Leah: Personally I was really, really impressed with my nosebleed-leukemia knowledge after reading this book. I probably gravely diagnosed a few people.
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ides
07/31/09

In reply to A Summer To Die: The Nature Of Unleaving
I was thinking about this book just this morning. I was remembering the scene when Ben and Maria are showing Meg various places and objects around the house and explaining what they'll use them for when the baby arrives. The poignant part of the scene is when Ben takes Meg outside and says, "This is the spot where we'll bury our child if she doesn't live."

What I was trying to remember is if Ben grabs Maria's breasts and says, "This is what we'll use to feed our baby," or if Maria does, or if I'm just imagining hippies would do and say that.

I loved this book and wept, wept, wept when Molly died. Thanks for bringing it back to my consciousness!
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lilbobbytables
07/31/09

In reply to A Summer To Die: The Nature Of Unleaving
EVERY TIME YOU MENTION BRIDGE TO TERABITHEA I CRY FOR EIGHT HOURS. I AM SOBBING RIGHT NOW! That book destroyed me in fifth grade. Absolutely shattered. Which was a spoiler for the rest of the class, seeing as how I finished it first.
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NellMood
07/31/09

@lilbobbytables is a la-di-da feminist: I remember those fifth grade tears. I really want to reread it because it's been about 17 years, but I'm afraid of all the inevitable sobbing. The same goes for Jacob Have I Loved.
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Flackette Goes Retro
07/31/09

@lilbobbytables is a la-di-da feminist: I felt like a terrible person because I was the only girl in my fifth grade class who did not cry at the end of Terabithia. I mean, I got that it was sad, but crying just wasn't my response. Come to think of it, I never ever cried at any fiction until I was 19 and on the Pill for the first time.
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