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halfmanhalfbook 's review for:
Summertime
by Vanessa Lafaye
It is summer 1935. America has come out of the other side of the first world war and is in the midst of the depression. The brave men who fought in the great War have been abandoned by the government who have failed to keep their promises of pensions and other financial support. A large number of them placed in a camp near the tiny Florida community of Heron Key. This was the time of segregation and the tension in the town with so many soldiers nearby is raised further again.
After the July the 4th celebrations a white residents wife is found badly beaten and left for dead by a road. One of the soldiers is arrested for her attempted murder and the uneasy truce between the residents and the troops is shattered. As the pressures build in the community and residents are looking to take matters into their own hands, the barometer is dropping, fast. It is hurricane season, and whilst Heron Keys has suffered these before, no one has a single idea just what is coming in.
Lafaye has used a bit of artistic licence to bring together several threads and events that happened at broadly similar times. There is the frustration and anger of troops who were promised so much by politicians and received so little, there is the culture of segregation that was frankly poisonous and there is the looming presence of the hurricane that will bring disaster to the Florida Keys. I felt that the first 100 pages of so of the book dragged as the characters were introduced and the scenes were set. After that the book managed to raise the pace and was much better, with the swirl of trial and tribulations of the people of that small community. The description of the residents in the hurricane is pretty scary too as the storm releases its full power. The most terrifying thing is this that tale was all drawn from a set of true stories too. The plight of the troops was real, forced to work and not given the monies they were promised, the horror of segregation and the hurricane that decimated this part of Florida was one of the strongest recorded. Worth reading and a fitting tribute to those that died in this natural disaster.
There are pictures of the area, before and after, here: http://www.keyshistory.org/shelf1935hurr.html
After the July the 4th celebrations a white residents wife is found badly beaten and left for dead by a road. One of the soldiers is arrested for her attempted murder and the uneasy truce between the residents and the troops is shattered. As the pressures build in the community and residents are looking to take matters into their own hands, the barometer is dropping, fast. It is hurricane season, and whilst Heron Keys has suffered these before, no one has a single idea just what is coming in.
Lafaye has used a bit of artistic licence to bring together several threads and events that happened at broadly similar times. There is the frustration and anger of troops who were promised so much by politicians and received so little, there is the culture of segregation that was frankly poisonous and there is the looming presence of the hurricane that will bring disaster to the Florida Keys. I felt that the first 100 pages of so of the book dragged as the characters were introduced and the scenes were set. After that the book managed to raise the pace and was much better, with the swirl of trial and tribulations of the people of that small community. The description of the residents in the hurricane is pretty scary too as the storm releases its full power. The most terrifying thing is this that tale was all drawn from a set of true stories too. The plight of the troops was real, forced to work and not given the monies they were promised, the horror of segregation and the hurricane that decimated this part of Florida was one of the strongest recorded. Worth reading and a fitting tribute to those that died in this natural disaster.
There are pictures of the area, before and after, here: http://www.keyshistory.org/shelf1935hurr.html