Gwen and Quentin were together as a couple now, and Gwen was as attentive to her friendship with Isobel as ever. Isobel knew all too well how hard it must be on her at times, juggling two important emotional priorities—but at least in this case, Isobel and Quentin actually liked and respected each other!
Flynn and Catherine were spending much of their time together, too, though Catherine had declined to say if he was “the one.” “It doesn’t seem to matter so much anymore,” she had told Louise and Isobel. “Flynn is a great guy, and we enjoy each other’s company. That’s fine for now. Maybe it will be fine for always.”
James and Jim, Isobel’s Knights in Shining Armor, had gone home to their castle (that’s how Isobel liked to imagine it) in the Hudson Valley, with reassurances that they would return the following summer. A sizable deposit had sealed that promise. They kept in touch via e-mail and had invited Louise and Isobel to pay them a visit at Christmastime.
And Jeff Otten? He was still in Colorado, causing who knew what sort of trouble. But even if he came back to town, he could never hurt Isobel again because she had changed—she had!—and she would no longer let anyone treat her with such disrespect. Sometimes, alone in her bed in the middle of the night, it still surprised her that a person—only a person, not a demon—had been able to achieve so much power over her, and in such a short period of time.
A person who had been born of a mere woman. Isobel often thought of the time in early October when she and her mother had seen Mrs. Otten in the produce section in Hannaford. Isobel didn’t recognize her, never having met her, but Louise had met her, once, and her face had taken on a strange look.
“Jeez, Mom,” Isobel had asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Except that’s Mrs. Otten, over by the oranges.”
She was a pretty, slightly plump woman somewhere around Catherine’s age, Isobel guessed, dressed expensively and conservatively in a tweed skirt suit. She didn’t look like a victim, but what did that mean? She also didn’t look like a conspirator, and yet, that’s what she was, aiding and abetting her son in his crimes.
Part of Isobel had wanted to walk right up to Mrs. Otten. “Hi,” she would say. “I’m Isobel Bessire, your son’s latest victim.” But she didn’t have the nerve or the level of hate it would take to confront Jeff’s mother in that way. Isobel had just watched Mrs. Otten choose some fruit and walk away.
Isobel, as a survivor, was learning how to be aware of toxic people, but at the same time to retain a healthy degree of trust in humanity’s innate goodness. It wasn’t always easy, but if her mom had learned to do it, so could she. If bazillions of people through history had learned, then so could Isobel Amelia Bessire! And she was learning to accept that even a smart and savvy person could make a mistake in judgment, and that it shouldn’t be a cause for self-loathing. Next time she had the slightest doubt about someone’s behavior toward her, she would tell, because talking was good . . . almost as good as writing!
Isobel sat at her desk and opened her laptop.
Greetings, Fellow Style Seekers!
Today I want to talk about scarves . . .
CityMouse was back with a vengeance!
Please turn the page
for a very special Q&A with
Holly Chamberlin!
Q. The Summer Everything Changed is very much a story about a mother and daughter, a topic you have visited in several other novels, for example, Last Summer and Tuscan Holiday. Is this a subject you intend to return to in the future?
A. Oh yes. The mother-daughter dynamic is a rich and varied one; I could write a story a month for the rest of my life and never repeat a detail. Fortunately, I have a good relationship with my mother so I have no personal ax to grind or demons to put to rest—we’ve battled it all out long before now! The novels allow me to explore—at a safe distance—a relationship that is classically fraught, complicated, and sometimes painfully intimate.
Q. Was it difficult to write about the topic of teenage domestic violence?
A. Yes, it was an emotional drain; there were times I wanted to snatch Isobel from her abuser’s grip and had to keep reminding myself that it was all a fiction and that I was, in fact, in charge. Talk about characters taking over an author! And writing this novel was a challenge in another way. I had to figure out how to tell a story that would engage the reader and keep her engaged—and not unduly depressed—while it was becoming increasingly dark and dangerous. Hopefully, I met this challenge successfully.
Q. Isobel, your teenaged heroine, is an interesting combination of sassy and secretively fearful, of spirited and secretly hesitant. Do you think she is unusual, or do you find that many teenaged girls are not as confident and as self-assured as they seem?
A. I believe that all too many adolescent girls and young women are a painfully mixed-up bundle of contradictory beliefs and behaviors. In portraying Isobel as intellectually independent at the same time she is emotionally dependent and even naïve, I think I portrayed quite a common—and unfortunate—type. Frankly, I drew on my own experience to create her. As a teen, I could ace a test and write a great paper, but at the same time I was intimidated by intimacy, full of self-doubt, and fearful of identifying and speaking my needs lest I be rejected or considered somehow bad or wrong or troublesome. Women have come a long way—but not far enough.
Q. Did you relate at all to Louise, Isobel’s mother, or to Catherine, Louise’s friend?
A. To some extent a writer “relates to” or has a relationship with every single character, if only to say, “God, what an awful person she is; I’m not at all like that!” In this case, feeling some sympathy toward two adult women wasn’t so difficult. For example, like Louise, who among us hasn’t ignored a crisis in our own home because of laziness or stress or some deep-seated psychological reason we’d rather not acknowledge? And, like Catherine, I am middle-aged and don’t have children, so there is some of my own angst in her story. That said, every character in the book is just that—a character, not me, not my mother, not my friend, not anyone else who lives and breathes.
Q. Can you tell us what’s next for Holly?
A. Well, I’m currently writing a novella that will be published as part of a collection along with a few other writers. And I’m working on another novel. Like The Family Beach House, Summer Friends, Last Summer, and The Summer Everything Changed, the story is set in Maine—but that’s all I’m telling you! Okay, and it involves mothers and daughters—that’s no surprise.
A READING GROUP GUIDE
THE SUMMER EVERYTHING CHANGED
Holly Chamberlin
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The suggested questions are intended to enhance
your group’s reading of Holly Chamberlin’s
The Summer Everything Changed.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. When we meet Isobel we learn that she is a notoriously open and honest person. Not long after, we see her begin to keep secrets from her mother, a new habit that takes even Isobel by surprise. Louise decides that this is merely a sign of her daughter’s increasing independence. Does this view have some merit? Or do you think Isobel’s keeping secrets from and then lying to her mother is an unconscious indication of anger or frustration? Is it perhaps an unconscious indication of a need for some control over her life after the divorce and move to Maine?
2. Isobel’s dear friend, Gwen, comes from a stable home environment, albeit after years in the foster care system. Isobel attributes Gwen’s good sense and judgment to her early childhood experiences; Gwen might argue that being the daughter of two loving and committed parents has helped make her strong. Talk about how the girls are different and yet alike, and about how nature and nurture have each played a part in forming their characters.
3. Catherine mourns the fact that she never had a child. She also feels angry about the insensitive and judgmental remarks various people have made regarding her personal choices. Talk about how having a child or not can, and often does, deep
ly determine a woman’s sense of purpose or fulfillment. Do you sympathize with Catherine’s decision (in some ways very practical) not to have a child without also having a loving husband?
4. Louise deliberately puts off facing her sense of something being “wrong” in her world until after the celebrity wedding, an all too common and understandable—if unfortunate—way of coping with undue stress. Later, Louise harshly criticizes herself for being blind to the truth about her own daughter while being acutely wrapped up in the troubles of others. Discuss Louise’s culpability—and/or her innocence—in her daughter’s distress.
5. Consider Isobel’s natural exuberance; her native trust in people’s goodness; her habit of avoiding and minimizing her pain; her fear of risking someone’s displeasure by displaying anger, even when she feels she has a legitimate complaint. How much of her complex personality might be attributed to her family’s changing dynamics? When are parents not to blame or to be held responsible for a child’s mental and emotional habits and character? In other words, when does a child become responsible for her own responses to the world?
6. Talk about the role of a father in a daughter’s life, especially during the confusing years of adolescence. In what ways can a father help or hurt his daughter’s burgeoning sense of self and independence? In particular, talk about how Andrew’s relationship with Isobel might have contributed to her falling victim to Jeff’s attentions and eventually, to his bullying. Should Louise have taken a more active role in compelling her ex-husband to be a more attentive parent? Or was this not her responsibility? What about Vicky’s responsibility—if any—to her stepdaughter?
7. It is said that a sense of self-esteem comes from what we achieve, not from the compliments we receive. By belittling Isobel’s efforts with CityMouse, a project that has great meaning for her, Jeff attacks Isobel in a very vulnerable place. It could be argued that the most violent damage Jeff inflicts on Isobel is psychological. Referring to your own experiences or those of friends and family members, talk about the various forms of abusive or bullying behavior to be found in a domestic relationship.
8. Isobel’s blog entries often speak to her strong belief in the importance of individualism, yet under pressure from Jeff, Isobel is led to betray herself and her own uniqueness. To this day, many otherwise strong and intelligent women fail to be true to themselves and their own beliefs when confronted with bullying tactics both at home and in the workplace. Considering your own experiences, what one piece of advice would you give to girls on the cusp of becoming young women?
9. The shame of being identified as a victim prevents many people, both men and women, from speaking out about an abusive situation. Can you understand Quentin’s cousin Lara’s reluctance to reveal Jeff as her abuser? Can you understand why her parents accepted money in return for keeping quiet? Can you understand Isobel’s fear that exposing Jeff as a bully might put those she loves in danger? Bullying is the abuse of power. What other reasons (real or imagined; practical or fantastic) might an abused person claim for keeping silent?
10. After Jeff has been arrested and the truth about his treatment of Isobel has come out, Louise and Isobel speculate about Jeff’s mother and the role she played in his career as a bully and an abuser. Talk about the part Sally Owen might have played in forming her son’s character. Is she perhaps partly to blame? Is she possibly blameless? What do you think she hoped to accomplish by sending Isobel the note, in which she acknowledges but fails to apologize for her son’s behavior?
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2013 by Elise Smith
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
ISBN: 978-0-7582-7534-9
eISBN-13: 978-0-7582-7535-6
eISBN-10: 0-7582-7535-8
First Kensington Electronic Edition: July 2013
The Summer Everything Changed Page 33
