Clarissa Granville is a naïve dreamy girl who has lived an idyllic and isolated childhood at Deyning Park, the familys estate in the English countryside. The Last Summer begins in 1914 when she is sixteen years old and falling in love with Tom Cuthbert, the housekeepers son. An innocent summer of romance and parties ends with the beginning of World War One, when Tom and Clarissas brothers ship out to the battlefields.
The narrative unfolds over the next sixteen years - from the horrors of war and the crumbling of Englands class structure to a country recovering from war and a changed society with independent women. First and foremost, though, this is Clarissa and Toms story. The intoxicating days of first love. The reality that they cannot be together because of their different backgrounds. The miscommunications and the misunderstandings. The choices that lead them in different directions and the force of destiny that keeps bringing them together again.
The Last Summer is one of those odd books that floats in that grey area between literature and genre fiction. Its well written, but really its a simple book with a rather predictable plot and conventional characters. Theres something compelling about that simplicity, though...something unexpectedly captivating about a happy-ever-after love story. I have to confess that the time I spent with Clarissa and Tom was an unexpected delight.
The narrative unfolds over the next sixteen years - from the horrors of war and the crumbling of Englands class structure to a country recovering from war and a changed society with independent women. First and foremost, though, this is Clarissa and Toms story. The intoxicating days of first love. The reality that they cannot be together because of their different backgrounds. The miscommunications and the misunderstandings. The choices that lead them in different directions and the force of destiny that keeps bringing them together again.
The Last Summer is one of those odd books that floats in that grey area between literature and genre fiction. Its well written, but really its a simple book with a rather predictable plot and conventional characters. Theres something compelling about that simplicity, though...something unexpectedly captivating about a happy-ever-after love story. I have to confess that the time I spent with Clarissa and Tom was an unexpected delight.
