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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
4.5 stars.
Weaving seamlessly between the 1960s and 1970s, The Myth of Perpetual Summer by Susan Crandall is an engrossing coming of age story full of family secrets and heartrending dysfunction.
Tallulah James and her siblings, Griff, Walden and Dharma live in the small town of Lamoyne, MS with their parents, Drayton and Margo. Tallulah is close to her grandmother who is the epitome of a traditional of Southern woman. Margo and Drayton's relationship is turbulent and they frequently engage in screaming fights that are often precipitated by Drayton's wild mood swings and Margo's frequent absences due to involvement in many causes and social activism. With Margo often flitting off to her next cause and Drayton sinking into dark depressions, Tallulah is tasked with raising the twins and with Griff's help, keeping food on the table. Following a series of heartbreaking events, Tallulah sets off for California where she remains until a family crisis brings home.
Tallulah has an overdeveloped sense of responsibility where her family is concerned and she often blames herself when things go wrong. She is frustrated with Margo's ease in leaving her family as she joins one cause after another. Equally troubling is the extreme unpredictability of Drayton's moods which veer from extreme highs to debilitating depression with bouts of normality in between. As she and Griff grow older, the duties at home mostly fall on Tallulah as Griff becomes involved in activities that keep him away from their dysfunctional family life.
Although Tallulah leaves Lamoyne, she cannot quite escape the effects of her childhood. She is closed off and finds it very difficult to open up about her past. Tallulah has managed to carve out a successful career that she dearly loves. However, it is not until she returns home after her brother ends up in serious trouble that she realizes how empty her life in California is. Upon her return to Lamoyne, Tallulah discovers disconcerting information that her grandmother has kept hidden and it is not until she presses her for answers that both women can begin healing.
The Myth of Perpetual Summer is a multi-generational novel that is absolutely compelling. Tallulah is a sympathetic character who is forced to grow up much too fast due to her chaotic home life. Her grandmother is quite dignified but her habit of sweeping problems under the rug is detrimental to herself and everyone around her. Throughout this captivating novel, Susan Crandall sensitively explores the long-term effects that undiagnosed mental illness, disinterested parenting and family secrets can have on family members. This glimpse of life during an oppressive and tumultuous time in the South will linger in readers' hearts and minds long after the last page is turned.
Weaving seamlessly between the 1960s and 1970s, The Myth of Perpetual Summer by Susan Crandall is an engrossing coming of age story full of family secrets and heartrending dysfunction.
Tallulah James and her siblings, Griff, Walden and Dharma live in the small town of Lamoyne, MS with their parents, Drayton and Margo. Tallulah is close to her grandmother who is the epitome of a traditional of Southern woman. Margo and Drayton's relationship is turbulent and they frequently engage in screaming fights that are often precipitated by Drayton's wild mood swings and Margo's frequent absences due to involvement in many causes and social activism. With Margo often flitting off to her next cause and Drayton sinking into dark depressions, Tallulah is tasked with raising the twins and with Griff's help, keeping food on the table. Following a series of heartbreaking events, Tallulah sets off for California where she remains until a family crisis brings home.
Tallulah has an overdeveloped sense of responsibility where her family is concerned and she often blames herself when things go wrong. She is frustrated with Margo's ease in leaving her family as she joins one cause after another. Equally troubling is the extreme unpredictability of Drayton's moods which veer from extreme highs to debilitating depression with bouts of normality in between. As she and Griff grow older, the duties at home mostly fall on Tallulah as Griff becomes involved in activities that keep him away from their dysfunctional family life.
Although Tallulah leaves Lamoyne, she cannot quite escape the effects of her childhood. She is closed off and finds it very difficult to open up about her past. Tallulah has managed to carve out a successful career that she dearly loves. However, it is not until she returns home after her brother ends up in serious trouble that she realizes how empty her life in California is. Upon her return to Lamoyne, Tallulah discovers disconcerting information that her grandmother has kept hidden and it is not until she presses her for answers that both women can begin healing.
The Myth of Perpetual Summer is a multi-generational novel that is absolutely compelling. Tallulah is a sympathetic character who is forced to grow up much too fast due to her chaotic home life. Her grandmother is quite dignified but her habit of sweeping problems under the rug is detrimental to herself and everyone around her. Throughout this captivating novel, Susan Crandall sensitively explores the long-term effects that undiagnosed mental illness, disinterested parenting and family secrets can have on family members. This glimpse of life during an oppressive and tumultuous time in the South will linger in readers' hearts and minds long after the last page is turned.
book club read: a powerful story about family trauma/mental health and finding love & achievement in self recovery (in the 60s/70s Deep South setting). looking forward to reading Crandall’s other novels.
I should have been reading this on my front porch swing with an ice cold cola and my dog at my feet but I wasn’t but that is the exact type of feeling this book does give you. It's enjoyable how this book goes through its telling of the story by jumping through the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s you get a little insight of each decade.
Tallulah is growing up in a small southern Mississippi town and is
actually having to raise her younger siblings with a bit of help from her Gran and no help from her mentally unstable father.
We have a perfect setup of a southern gothic story of a dysfunctional family, murder, family secrets, juicy gossip and a touch of mental
disturbance of family members.
What else do you need in a deep southern book?
Tallulah is growing up in a small southern Mississippi town and is
actually having to raise her younger siblings with a bit of help from her Gran and no help from her mentally unstable father.
We have a perfect setup of a southern gothic story of a dysfunctional family, murder, family secrets, juicy gossip and a touch of mental
disturbance of family members.
What else do you need in a deep southern book?
“Words are the weapons of great men, so we should always choose them carefully.”
“Regrets are the monsters under the bed.”
“When obstacles keep landing in your way, it’s God telling you you’re on the wrong road.”
“I will move through the world according to my judgment alone. I will not form myself to fit someone else’s mold.”
So many great life lessons in this beautiful story about a broken family and how it affects four children born into a maze of mental illness, Southern drama, and a selfish mother. You will fall in love with Grandma and want to unveil the secrets of her past and traditions. Tallulah, the protagonist, wins your heart and you root for her to find her way through the maze. Read this! It’s a great story that flashes back between the sixties and seventies in a rural Southern town that loved gossip and picking on the broken family in town.
“Regrets are the monsters under the bed.”
“When obstacles keep landing in your way, it’s God telling you you’re on the wrong road.”
“I will move through the world according to my judgment alone. I will not form myself to fit someone else’s mold.”
So many great life lessons in this beautiful story about a broken family and how it affects four children born into a maze of mental illness, Southern drama, and a selfish mother. You will fall in love with Grandma and want to unveil the secrets of her past and traditions. Tallulah, the protagonist, wins your heart and you root for her to find her way through the maze. Read this! It’s a great story that flashes back between the sixties and seventies in a rural Southern town that loved gossip and picking on the broken family in town.
Tallulah James has come home to Mississippi after a long absence and estrangement from her family. The family she has struggled to understand throughout her young life is facing another crisis and it is left to Lulie to help pick up the pieces. During her trip home Lulie reflects on her past as a young teenage girl growing up on a pecan grove in rural Mississippi in the 60s. She is the 2nd of four kids in a dysfunctional home where her mother was constantly gone and her father was battling emotional issues. Her parent's relationship was tumultuous. Lulie's lone source of stability has been her grandmother who holds to southern manners and rules. Granny James, however, is holding some family secrets that could explain her father's erratic behavior and her broken family.
This is another coming of age story by Susan Crandall who wrote [b:Whistling Past the Graveyard|16058610|Whistling Past the Graveyard|Susan Crandall|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1360518751s/16058610.jpg|21845047]. It holds up against Crandall's earlier works but is much darker. Its overall message seems to be to resolve the burdens of the past so that they don't carry emotional weight throughout life. It is not my favorite of Crandall's books that I have read so far but was still worth the read.
This is another coming of age story by Susan Crandall who wrote [b:Whistling Past the Graveyard|16058610|Whistling Past the Graveyard|Susan Crandall|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1360518751s/16058610.jpg|21845047]. It holds up against Crandall's earlier works but is much darker. Its overall message seems to be to resolve the burdens of the past so that they don't carry emotional weight throughout life. It is not my favorite of Crandall's books that I have read so far but was still worth the read.
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This story goes back in time to witness what caused Tallulah’s family to disintegrate in the 1950s and 1960s south. The characters were well-developed and I always love the particular and peculiar southern perspective. My only complaint was that the book almost tried to cram too many issues into the story - mental illness, racism, war, social protest, civil rights and coming-of-age. Overall an emotional and enjoyable southern story.
I am baffled by all the good reviews this book has generated. I read it for a book club, and it was very popular with all the other participants. I found the characters to be flat, two-dimensional, and overly mannered, and the plot contrived and frequently implausible. The dialogue was especially hackneyed and overwrought. There is some good stuff buried in here about dysfunctional family dynamics, untreated mental illness, and generational trauma, and the writer is not a bad prose stylist, but I was not impressed.
An incredibly bitchy P.S.:
It drove me crazy in a very petty way that this book is set in the South and ostensibly told through a Southern character's POV and . . . the author seems to have just followed some random checklist of things to throw in to make it seem Southern rather than seeming to know anything about the region. The most egregious to me was the Mississippi-born and bred protagonist asking her Southern belle Granny if she wanted "sweet tea." I know other parts of the US are weirded out by the Southern fixation on sweet tea, but we don't find it weird. It's just tea! Everyone already knows it's sweet! If you need to clarify what kind of tea it is, it's iced versus hot, but nobody in their right mind drinks hot tea in Mississippi during the summer.
An incredibly bitchy P.S.:
It drove me crazy in a very petty way that this book is set in the South and ostensibly told through a Southern character's POV and . . . the author seems to have just followed some random checklist of things to throw in to make it seem Southern rather than seeming to know anything about the region. The most egregious to me was the Mississippi-born and bred protagonist asking her Southern belle Granny if she wanted "sweet tea." I know other parts of the US are weirded out by the Southern fixation on sweet tea, but we don't find it weird. It's just tea! Everyone already knows it's sweet! If you need to clarify what kind of tea it is, it's iced versus hot, but nobody in their right mind drinks hot tea in Mississippi during the summer.
Tallulah knows that there is something not right about her family. Her Father (Drayton) has episodes of “hurricanes” and “shadows.” He is bipolar but not much is known about the illness and how to treat it in1958.
Hurricanes describe his manic phases, when he is very energized, doesn’t sleep for days and his brain races with ideas. He also can be, paranoid, obsessive and impulsively buys things they can’t afford and don’t need.
In contrast, Shadows are the depressive phases when Drayton is feeling tormented, in agony, despondent and hopeless. Tallulah describes the shadow phase as “...the worst mood of them all” and also concedes that “he isn’t just moody, but broken.”
“His behavior. Hummingbird or slug. So full of energy you can’t scrape him off the ceiling, or buried in anguish so deep he won’t get out of bed.”
Talullah’s Mother has her children call her Margo. She hardly acts like a mother — instead, Margo is devoted to supporting causes like freedom for Algeria. Sometimes she abandons her family for months, which sends Drayton into shadow time. Tallulah can’t understand why Algeria is more important to Margo than her children.
“Griff says you can get used to a sharp stick in the eye if it’s there long enough. But I can’t get used to Margo not being around at all. I know it’s stupid to miss her, because she wasn’t home much and didn’t hardly do anything for us anyway.”
As a young child, Tallulah engages in wishful thinking, preferring to think that Margo’s devotion to these causes is a temporary phase which will pass. She is in denial of who her Mother is and has a fantasized vision of her transforming into the ideal mother. Tallulah dreams of Margo loving her, seeing her and genuinely caring about her.
“Someday the French will get out of Algeria and Margo can stop protesting and just be our Momma again.”
“I keep looking at the doorway, hoping Margo will come back, give me a big hug, tell me how much she missed me and promise never to leave for so long again. But the doorway stays empty.”
“If I can show Margo how much I need her, maybe she’ll not only stay home but she’ll also actually start seeing me.”
On the rare occasions when Margo is home and Drayton is “normal” (not in a hurricane or shadow time), they argue, fight and sometimes throw things. It is far from a peaceful household. In describing her chaotic household, Tallulah says “...there is no hand on the rudder of our family.”
“Truth be, Daddy and Margo can have some real window rattlers.”
She relies on two characters for support, her grandmother and her older brother Griff. Gran seems to be the glue that holds this family together. Her brother comforts her and guides her through the land mines that are her family. Tallulah and Griff both worry that they will become like their mother or father.
Tallulah dreams of escaping her dysfunctional family and being in control of her own life. She lives her life in the hope of experiencing that freedom. In a sense she lives in the future but her past haunts her.
She questions the role of family and wonders if it’s to choke or to bind. As a child, Tallulah just wants to escape from her family and never look back. But she wonders if family can be a positive influence and play an important role in her life.
I greatly enjoyed reading “The Myth of Perpetual Summer” and highly recommend it. It’s a coming-of-age story as well as a search for self. Tallulah, both as a child and an adult, is a strong and compelling character. I found her to be very likable and felt I really got to know her through these pages. Her inner dialogue is extremely revealing as she tries to cope with her family and the world. She contemplates issues of abandonment and isolation. As a child, Tallulah engages in wishful, magical thinking as a coping mechanism.
The story alternates between Tallulah’s childhood (1958-1960s) and present day (1972-1974) in a seamless way. The writing is excellent and the story pulls you in, not letting go until the last page. I particularly appreciated Susan Crandall’s style of writing and her colorful, descriptive language:
“Granny told her to get down off her high horse before she got a nosebleed. In a polite voice, of course.”
“Dharma never hid when our parents fought, she made her own closet inside her head.”
“I feel better already, just being out of our house. Sometimes it feels so heavy I’m surprised it doesn’t collapse on us while we’re sleeping.”
Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Hurricanes describe his manic phases, when he is very energized, doesn’t sleep for days and his brain races with ideas. He also can be, paranoid, obsessive and impulsively buys things they can’t afford and don’t need.
In contrast, Shadows are the depressive phases when Drayton is feeling tormented, in agony, despondent and hopeless. Tallulah describes the shadow phase as “...the worst mood of them all” and also concedes that “he isn’t just moody, but broken.”
“His behavior. Hummingbird or slug. So full of energy you can’t scrape him off the ceiling, or buried in anguish so deep he won’t get out of bed.”
Talullah’s Mother has her children call her Margo. She hardly acts like a mother — instead, Margo is devoted to supporting causes like freedom for Algeria. Sometimes she abandons her family for months, which sends Drayton into shadow time. Tallulah can’t understand why Algeria is more important to Margo than her children.
“Griff says you can get used to a sharp stick in the eye if it’s there long enough. But I can’t get used to Margo not being around at all. I know it’s stupid to miss her, because she wasn’t home much and didn’t hardly do anything for us anyway.”
As a young child, Tallulah engages in wishful thinking, preferring to think that Margo’s devotion to these causes is a temporary phase which will pass. She is in denial of who her Mother is and has a fantasized vision of her transforming into the ideal mother. Tallulah dreams of Margo loving her, seeing her and genuinely caring about her.
“Someday the French will get out of Algeria and Margo can stop protesting and just be our Momma again.”
“I keep looking at the doorway, hoping Margo will come back, give me a big hug, tell me how much she missed me and promise never to leave for so long again. But the doorway stays empty.”
“If I can show Margo how much I need her, maybe she’ll not only stay home but she’ll also actually start seeing me.”
On the rare occasions when Margo is home and Drayton is “normal” (not in a hurricane or shadow time), they argue, fight and sometimes throw things. It is far from a peaceful household. In describing her chaotic household, Tallulah says “...there is no hand on the rudder of our family.”
“Truth be, Daddy and Margo can have some real window rattlers.”
She relies on two characters for support, her grandmother and her older brother Griff. Gran seems to be the glue that holds this family together. Her brother comforts her and guides her through the land mines that are her family. Tallulah and Griff both worry that they will become like their mother or father.
Tallulah dreams of escaping her dysfunctional family and being in control of her own life. She lives her life in the hope of experiencing that freedom. In a sense she lives in the future but her past haunts her.
She questions the role of family and wonders if it’s to choke or to bind. As a child, Tallulah just wants to escape from her family and never look back. But she wonders if family can be a positive influence and play an important role in her life.
I greatly enjoyed reading “The Myth of Perpetual Summer” and highly recommend it. It’s a coming-of-age story as well as a search for self. Tallulah, both as a child and an adult, is a strong and compelling character. I found her to be very likable and felt I really got to know her through these pages. Her inner dialogue is extremely revealing as she tries to cope with her family and the world. She contemplates issues of abandonment and isolation. As a child, Tallulah engages in wishful, magical thinking as a coping mechanism.
The story alternates between Tallulah’s childhood (1958-1960s) and present day (1972-1974) in a seamless way. The writing is excellent and the story pulls you in, not letting go until the last page. I particularly appreciated Susan Crandall’s style of writing and her colorful, descriptive language:
“Granny told her to get down off her high horse before she got a nosebleed. In a polite voice, of course.”
“Dharma never hid when our parents fought, she made her own closet inside her head.”
“I feel better already, just being out of our house. Sometimes it feels so heavy I’m surprised it doesn’t collapse on us while we’re sleeping.”
Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I loved this book. NO complaints at all. I read it in two days which is always an indication of how good a book is. I will read anything from this author.
This was an amazing book with complex characters and a raw, heartbreaking story about life, loss, love,friendships, and closure. I am definitely sharing this one with my book club!!