Book Review of Laura Lee Anderson’s “Song of Summer”
Ever since I adopted a deaf cat last fall, I have been trying to learn more about deaf culture. When I saw Song of Summer by Laura Lee Anderson come up for review on Netgalley, I was very eager to get a hands on a review copy just based on the premise alone: a summer romance featuring a deaf young man and a hearing young woman.
Music was listed as a big theme, and I usually love fiction that incorporates topics about music (Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad, for example). So I was overjoyed when the publisher, Bloomsbury, granted me access to an advanced review copy of this novel, which is published today, July 7th, 2015. Thanks Bloomsbury!
Onwards to the review (spoiler free)!
Premise
Robin lives in an upstate New York community favored by vacationers from New York City. Robin’s greatest passion is music, and she plays many instruments, jams with fellow musicians, and performs solos with her church’s music programming. Music is so deeply ingrained in Robin’s body, mind, and soul that her coworkers at the diner where she waits tables include “Good with music” on a list of qualifications for “Robin’s perfect man” tacked up in the staff wings. As Robin herself says:
“‘He has to rival my taste in music.’
If he’s going to tour with me after I graduate next year, he’s got to be good. I could never date a nonmusician.”
Robin certainly thinks that, until total babe Carter walks in the door. But her first interactions with Carter are confusing and strange until she learns that he is deaf. However, Robin is so smitten with Carter that she wonders about him even after he leaves and makes an effort to learn sign language.
On vacation with his nearly entirely deaf family, Carter is Profoundly Deaf, meaning that he cannot hear anything (by choice), and he also feels like a hearing person would never understand his world. Yet he is similarly smitten with Robin and returns to the restaurant to ask her out. The two strike up a summer romance that is fraught with miscommunications and beautiful connections. But can they really have a sustainable relationship when it seems that odds are against them? Can they overcome the absolutes they swore to themselves before they met? Does love have the power to inspire you to change something as big as your hearing? These are questions that Robin and Carter must grapple with over the summer.
Review
Anderson knows how to write a memorable story peppered with really great lines that stop you in your tracks.
Some of my favorites:
Robin on Carter’s laughter: “Not like the ‘ha-ha’ laughter of somebody who’s spent their whole life listening to laugh tracks. It sounds… pure. Like music.”
Another one…
Carter on Robin saying she loves him: “I’m surprised that it came so soon. I’m surprised that it took so long.”
Let’s hear from Robin…
Robin narrating their first kiss: “His long eyelashes brush against his cheeks and his perfect mouth reaches for mine and we’re kissing. It feels like breathing.”
…and just one more. I don’t want to give these all swoon-worthy moments away.
Carter on feeling Robin’s heart beneath his hand: “It beats a rhythm that shouldn’t be familiar but somehow is. It beats a rhythm that feels like mine.”
I loved the prose. I also loved that it alternated perspectives. I thought that was really important, to give you a look at each character’s thoughts and opinions in any relationship, and certainly one where the characters have difficulty communicating. I think the best scenes were the ones where Carter went over to Robin’s house and had dinner with her family and alternately where Robin went over to Carter’s house to experience a meal with his family where almost everyone is deaf. Getting to see how an “outsider” encounters life with a family who is abled or differently abled is really important. To that end, I also liked the time Robin spent with Carter and his deaf peers. On the flip side, it was heartbreaking and eye-opening to see Carter treated like he was stupid or ignored altogether when it came to people not knowing how to deal with his deafness.
Although I liked this story, and I really do think it is important and adds value to differently abled fiction and romance in general, I do have some reservations. Carter is frequently described as being extremely good looking, beautiful, drop-dead-gorgeous, etc. This made me think of Cammie McGovern’s point that sometimes authors tend to overcompensate for someone’s disability. So they might make someone who has Tourette’s a genius, someone who is in a wheelchair a witty and clever speaker, essentially to over-intellectualize. I felt that “Song of Summer” walked a thin line in this respect. What’s the point? That, oh by the way, did you know that someone who is deaf can also be hot? Does that explain Robin’s attraction to him? Seems like more of a device than a sincere writing choice.
Also, I didn’t love that the end kind of just melted away. (SPOILER ALERT!) Things started to go downhill after Robin’s concert that Carter attends. Her behavior seemed pretty immature and not consistent with how she had been acting so far. Given that, I totally got why Carter just drifted away from her. She was not the person he thought she was. Finally, the last few pages were a let down. I suppose it has echoes of Eleanor and Park, but that felt satisfying, hopeful, bittersweet, whereas in Song of Summer it felt like a waste of time.
Overall this is a good title to add to a collection of differently abled fiction. It certainly opened my eyes and made me rethink how I thought about communication. Okay, and also my deaf cat.
Discussion Questions
- Whose perspective interested you the most? Why?
- How did this contribute to your understanding of deaf culture and the deaf experience? What did you learn? What surprised you?
- How did Robin and Carter struggle to communicate beyond the obvious obstacle of hearing? In what ways did they succeed? In what ways did they fail?
- What do you think these characters’ futures look like? Do you think they will be together again?
