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A review by billblume
The Last Summer of the World by Emily Mitchell
5.0
One of things I love about moderating panels for James River Writers is that the prep work often takes me out of my comfort zone as a reader. Emily Mitchell's THE LAST SUMMER OF THE WORLD definitely falls into that category.
LAST SUMMER is a brutal work, and I mean that as a compliment. Many times in reading Mitchell's novel, I found myself forced to put the book down. She holds back nothing as she explores photographer/artist Edward Steichen's troubled and doomed marriage to musician Clara Smith. The honesty with which Mitchell reveals why everything falls apart doesn't merely indict Edward or Clara but the way many of us approach our marriages and relationships. Many novels explore this subject matter, but what elevates this book is how Mitchell reveals the details amid Edward's experiences within World War I. THE LAST SUMMER OF THE WORLD not only shows how a husband and wife can fail one another, but when paired with the events of the first World War, you see how people and nations can fail each other even when acting with the best of intentions. It's a bold statement, and one Mitchell delivers with a well-placed gut punch to her readers.
I must confess that I started this book with some serious doubts. Over the years, I've heard many an agent groan about manuscripts which start with a person waking at the start of their day. It's overdone and cliché, and that's where Mitchell starts. We're introduced to Edward waking up in the midst of World War I where he is helping the British train their observers and pilots in aerial reconnaissance. Mitchell beats the cliché, though. The way Edward's day starts in the grim grip of wartime sets the scene for the novel.
Mitchell also tackles one of the toughest things to manage in a novel: the parallel storyline. Each chapter is split in two with the first half devoted to Edward's life within the war. The second half is set prior to the war where we slowly watch his romance with Clara blossom and discover all the people and events which will ruin it. Perhaps the most disturbing element to this dual storyline is how much I found Edward's time within the horrors of World War I easier to read than his life in peacetime where I found him almost completely unlikeable.
Very early in the book, we learn that Clara is convinced Edward had an affair with their friend Marion Beckett. Edward insists, even to himself, that there wasn't an affair and that his wife simply misinterpreted what she saw. We aren't told right away what happened, and I found it frustrating that I had to wait for that reveal. Ironically, once I'd accepted Mitchell was going to take her time revealing this scene, I was a little surprised to discover it two-thirds of the way in the book. Somehow, I'd expected to have it closer to the end, and I wasn't sure it was worth withholding so much about the scene early on if it was just going to be revealed that "early" anyway. In many ways, I think this was a byproduct of the duel storyline design to the novel, and after having been built up for so long, the moment fell a bit flat for me.
I read this book in five days, and I would not encourage reading this book that quickly. My review only scratches the surface of what Mitchell's novel has to say. This book will make you think not only about how Edward and Clara failed each other, but you will find yourself considering how people around the world treat each other and how the actions in your life have hurt and helped others. With that in mind, I suppose it's somewhat appropriate that I finished reading this book on the anniversary of 9/11. So much of this novel's message can be applied to that event and its aftermath.
Emily Mitchell will be speaking at the James River Writers Conference in Richmond next month. One of her panels will be the one I'm moderating which is called "The Art of War." The panel is all about how writers can successfully use conflict within their stories, and THE LAST SUMMER OF THE WORLD will give me ample material to discuss with her on that panel.
LAST SUMMER is a brutal work, and I mean that as a compliment. Many times in reading Mitchell's novel, I found myself forced to put the book down. She holds back nothing as she explores photographer/artist Edward Steichen's troubled and doomed marriage to musician Clara Smith. The honesty with which Mitchell reveals why everything falls apart doesn't merely indict Edward or Clara but the way many of us approach our marriages and relationships. Many novels explore this subject matter, but what elevates this book is how Mitchell reveals the details amid Edward's experiences within World War I. THE LAST SUMMER OF THE WORLD not only shows how a husband and wife can fail one another, but when paired with the events of the first World War, you see how people and nations can fail each other even when acting with the best of intentions. It's a bold statement, and one Mitchell delivers with a well-placed gut punch to her readers.
I must confess that I started this book with some serious doubts. Over the years, I've heard many an agent groan about manuscripts which start with a person waking at the start of their day. It's overdone and cliché, and that's where Mitchell starts. We're introduced to Edward waking up in the midst of World War I where he is helping the British train their observers and pilots in aerial reconnaissance. Mitchell beats the cliché, though. The way Edward's day starts in the grim grip of wartime sets the scene for the novel.
Mitchell also tackles one of the toughest things to manage in a novel: the parallel storyline. Each chapter is split in two with the first half devoted to Edward's life within the war. The second half is set prior to the war where we slowly watch his romance with Clara blossom and discover all the people and events which will ruin it. Perhaps the most disturbing element to this dual storyline is how much I found Edward's time within the horrors of World War I easier to read than his life in peacetime where I found him almost completely unlikeable.
Very early in the book, we learn that Clara is convinced Edward had an affair with their friend Marion Beckett. Edward insists, even to himself, that there wasn't an affair and that his wife simply misinterpreted what she saw. We aren't told right away what happened, and I found it frustrating that I had to wait for that reveal. Ironically, once I'd accepted Mitchell was going to take her time revealing this scene, I was a little surprised to discover it two-thirds of the way in the book. Somehow, I'd expected to have it closer to the end, and I wasn't sure it was worth withholding so much about the scene early on if it was just going to be revealed that "early" anyway. In many ways, I think this was a byproduct of the duel storyline design to the novel, and after having been built up for so long, the moment fell a bit flat for me.
I read this book in five days, and I would not encourage reading this book that quickly. My review only scratches the surface of what Mitchell's novel has to say. This book will make you think not only about how Edward and Clara failed each other, but you will find yourself considering how people around the world treat each other and how the actions in your life have hurt and helped others. With that in mind, I suppose it's somewhat appropriate that I finished reading this book on the anniversary of 9/11. So much of this novel's message can be applied to that event and its aftermath.
Emily Mitchell will be speaking at the James River Writers Conference in Richmond next month. One of her panels will be the one I'm moderating which is called "The Art of War." The panel is all about how writers can successfully use conflict within their stories, and THE LAST SUMMER OF THE WORLD will give me ample material to discuss with her on that panel.