Summer Sisters: A Novel
Judy Blume first won legions of fans with such young adult classics asAre You There  God? It's Me, MargaretandForever, in which she tackles the cultural hot button of  teenage sexuality. InSummer Sisters, her third novel for adults, the author again explores  the ramifications of love--and lust--on two friends. Initially, the differences between Caitlin Somers  and Victoria Leonard (or "Vix," as Caitlin christens her) draw them together: privileged  Caitlin is wild and outspoken, beautiful but emotionally fragile, while working-class Vix is shy,  reserved, and plain in comparison. After Caitlin selects Vix to accompany her to her father's home  in Martha's Vineyard for the summer, the two become inextricably connected as "summer  sisters."On the Vineyard, Vix and Caitlin first find love, then sex--and lots of it. Yet Blume soon moves  beyond hot fun in the summer sun, tracing the romantic and familial travails of the two from  pre-adolescence to adulthood. Solid Vix evolves into Victoria, an equally solid, Harvard-educated,  Manhattan public-relations exec. Unpredictable Caitlin opts out of college and travels to Europe,  where she has a string of short-lived affairs with a series of intriguing (in every sense of the word)  foreigners. It is only after she returns to the Vineyard that Caitlin does the unthinkable, forever  changing both her friendship with Vix and their lives. Blume once again proves herself a master of  the female psyche, andSummer Sistersis likely to entertain both her postadolescent and  more mature readers.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.