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Two Summers
A pair of novellas, set over two pivotal summers in the lives of two young men from Belfast, recall the constraints of the place where they were born and the times in which they are living.
Summer on the Road
It's 1980 and in the last summer before his A levels Mark lands a job he didn't even know he had applied for, sweeping streets for Belfast City Council. Called 'binman' by his schoolfriends, 'snooty' by his workmates, he can't imagine anything less like a holiday. Day by day, though, navigating bomb scares, punishing hangovers, broken television sets and a loving but chaotic home life, he begins to glimpse a path all his own, even if he can't see yet where exactly it is going to lead.
Last Summer of the Shangri-Las
Three years earlier Gem has driven his mother to the brink. She packs him off to stay with his aunt in New York during the infernal heat of the summer of 1977. It's the summer too of disco, of punk, the summer of Sam, and Elvis dead on the bathroom floor. For Gem though it will forever after be the summer he met Vivien – as rooted in the city as he is adrift; the summer he stumbled on Mary, Liz and Margie, three-quarters of the greatest New York group of all (and they'd fight anyone who said otherwise); the summer he learned how to go home.
Capturing the innocence of adolescent boys, their passion, confusion and yearning, Two Summers is for anyone who has ever been young.
Summer on the Road
It's 1980 and in the last summer before his A levels Mark lands a job he didn't even know he had applied for, sweeping streets for Belfast City Council. Called 'binman' by his schoolfriends, 'snooty' by his workmates, he can't imagine anything less like a holiday. Day by day, though, navigating bomb scares, punishing hangovers, broken television sets and a loving but chaotic home life, he begins to glimpse a path all his own, even if he can't see yet where exactly it is going to lead.
Last Summer of the Shangri-Las
Three years earlier Gem has driven his mother to the brink. She packs him off to stay with his aunt in New York during the infernal heat of the summer of 1977. It's the summer too of disco, of punk, the summer of Sam, and Elvis dead on the bathroom floor. For Gem though it will forever after be the summer he met Vivien – as rooted in the city as he is adrift; the summer he stumbled on Mary, Liz and Margie, three-quarters of the greatest New York group of all (and they'd fight anyone who said otherwise); the summer he learned how to go home.
Capturing the innocence of adolescent boys, their passion, confusion and yearning, Two Summers is for anyone who has ever been young.
- GenresFiction
177 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 18, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 9, 2025
Easy read but I'd say easy forgot
August 16, 2024
Loved the second story. Wanted to love the first
Read
December 21, 2024Absolutely loved Summer on the Road. Wry, painful, a gut punch of an ending with just the right amount of ambiguity.
December 29, 2025
Glenn Patterson has an acceptional ability to accurately convey the livelihoods and mannerisms of not just those who live in Belfast, but of the city itself as its own entity.
His ability to expertly relay how the city is intricately woven into the lives and backgrounds of not only those who live there, but also those who no longer do, is masterful and reflects the city's nature for those within Northern Ireland.
The two stories of this novella not only flesh out and create a vivid image of Belfast for those who live there (from street names to civillian searches), they provide an amazingly accurate insight into the psyches and personalities that apply to so many that call the city home.
This is the first of Patterson's work that I have read - and it surely won't be the last! Truly an impeccable and fun piece of fiction and one that places Patterson among my favourite authors.
His ability to expertly relay how the city is intricately woven into the lives and backgrounds of not only those who live there, but also those who no longer do, is masterful and reflects the city's nature for those within Northern Ireland.
The two stories of this novella not only flesh out and create a vivid image of Belfast for those who live there (from street names to civillian searches), they provide an amazingly accurate insight into the psyches and personalities that apply to so many that call the city home.
This is the first of Patterson's work that I have read - and it surely won't be the last! Truly an impeccable and fun piece of fiction and one that places Patterson among my favourite authors.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews