My Summer with George: A Novel of Love at a Certain Age

by Marilyn French

An unapologetically romantic novel about a woman who finds love in middle age
After four marriages and numerous affairs, famed author Hermione Beldame doesn't expect real life to play out like her bestselling romance novels. So she's stunned when she meets George Johnson at a party and the Louisville journalist sweeps her off her feet. The handsome, seductive younger man is the epitome of southern charm. Suddenly, Hermione, who never believed in happily-ever-after, is passionately, obsessively in love.
During this game-changing summer, as she shuttles between Manhattan and the Hamptons, Hermione--born Elsa Schutz--looks back on her life and the choices that brought her to this crossroad. Consumed by an erotic longing she's never felt before, she sets out on a quest to understand her past, her present, and her future, set in motion by this maddening, elusive, ultimately unknowable man.

Genres: Fiction, Romance, Novels, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Roman

243 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

She attended Hofstra University (then Hofstra College) where she also received a master's degree in English in 1964. She married Robert M. French Jr. in 1950; the couple divorced in 1967. She later attended Harvard University, earning a Ph.D in 1972. Years later she became an instructor at Hofstra University.

In her work, French asserted that women's oppression is an intrinsic part of the male-dominated global culture. Beyond Power: On Women, Men and Morals (1985) is a historical examination of the effects of patriarchy on the world.

French's 1977 novel, The Women's Room, follows the lives of Mira and her friends in 1950s and 1960s America, including Val, a militant radical feminist. The novel portrays the details of the lives of women at this time and also the feminist movement of this era in the United States. At one point in the book the character Val says "all men are rapists". This quote has often been incorrectly attributed to Marilyn French herself. French's first book was a thesis on James Joyce.

French was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 1992. This experience was the basis for her book A Season in Hell: A Memoir (1998).

She was also mentioned in the 1982 ABBA song, "The Day Before You Came". The lyrics that mentioned French were: "I must have read a while, the latest one by Marilyn French or something in that style".

French died from heart failure at age 79 on May 2, 2009 in Manhattan, New York City. She is survived by her son Robert and daughter Jamie.

Reviews

[Ilona · Rating 3 out of 5]

How does a woman get to be in her sixties and still respond to attraction and lust like a brainless, hormone-addled 14-year-old? I'd call this woefully discouraging were I not a sexually confident woman in my fifties, who knows from direct experience that many of us manage our libido with a tad more skill than the rather pathetic Hermione. It's not that she lacks intelligence, but that she seems completely unable to apply that intelligence to a sexual/emotional situation.

Hermione is quite clear about what causes her initial attraction to George, and while I found her reasons far less than compelling -- in fact, they would have had me fleeing instantly -- this is her story, not mine. As her 'summer' unfolds, however, I became increasingly incredulous that she would continue to find him attractive. He's inconsistent, disrespectful, belittling, and, though she is eaten up with lust for him, he is eaten up only by ambivalence.

In short, he's an ass, and her continued panting after him, with next to no encouragement from him, borders on farce. (Though it's exceedingly low-brow for the erudite Hermione (and, really for this book) I am amused to note she would have been well served had one of her friends lent her a copy of "He's Not That Into You".)

When she continues in unabated lust and adolescent yearning for his time and attention after he's told her he hates women, I was a heartbeat away from tossing the book aside in exasperation.

Why did I give it even as many as three stars, then? In part because it's well-written. I may not appreciate the plot and the conclusions about sexuality, lust, and romantic love that are drawn, but I can appreciate a well-crafted book. Why, after all, did I respond so strongly to the story? Because Hermione, her situation, her life, and her friends, were presented so very well. Even more than that, however, the book was saved for me by the secondary plot thread, the gradual unveiling of Hermione's most interesting life.

So, while I was appalled at the main plot, and truly just wanted to give the silly woman a good shake, I did enjoy discovering her history.

An interesting book, and one I would recommend, to certain people, with certain caveats.

[Zoë · Rating 1 out of 5]

Picked this book up without knowing much about it–turns out it's not really a young person's book. I don't think anyone who is younger than 50 would enjoy this book no matter what: it's about a sixty-something-year-old woman, romance writer Hermione Beldame, who is discovering how she feels about love, desire, and sexuality related to her age. However, not too far in I started to think that even people Hermione's age, who can relate to her, would like this–mostly because all the characters are so unlikable. Hermione is one of the most pretentious, irritating narrators I have ever had the displeasure of reading: you really want to reach into the pages and smack her soundly across the face. Then there's George, who Hermione falls in love with for some reason I can't fathom. He shows pretty much no interest in her, yet even coupled with the fact that he hates women (something he announces with a sort of pride), Hermione is head over heels for this jerk. It's just too unbelievable.

Then Hermione's revelations about herself are squished into the last two or three pages; it was very rushed and so the reader never gets to see any facets added to Hermione's character. She unfortunately stays a haughty, holier-than-thou New Yorker. Ugh.

Very disappointing on the whole.

[Mahayana Dugast · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being in my mid-fifties and having gleaned a wealth of life wisdom regarding men (lol), I found the story challenging—even for a fictional tale. However, the well-written narrative encouraged me to continue reading, anticipating a shocking revelation... Sadly, it did not occur. 

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 2 out of 5]

My Summer with George should have been an enjoyable read. Marilyn French writes well, creates interesting characters and believable situations. Her insights into the process of writing were fascinating. Unfortunately the character giving the advice was otherwise so selfish and insecure that I couldn't care for her.

Hermione, the romance writer protagonist, has made a good life for herself. One summer she meets up with a nice man about her age named George. He's thinking of moving to New York to follow a job offer. Unfortunately Hermione doesn't know how to compromise or how to trust. She spends the entire book clinging on to George, waiting for every word, being horribly disappointed if he can't make an appointment, and so forth.

As Hermione pines over her newest love she reveals secrets of past marriages and affairs. These flashbacks undermine Hermione's credibility as a sympathetic protagonist. She comes off instead as immature and silly. So when things ultimately don't work out for Hermione, I could only side with George.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

First of all - That Hermoine would be so attracted to George is just unbelieavable. The character of George comes off as unsumphathetic in every way, and you end up disliking Hermoine because she keeps on pursuing him.

Secondly - There is no need to tire us with endless accounts of the Manhattan and Hampton homes, the hired help, the parties, the restaurants... OK we get it: Hermoine is a rich self-made woman! Rather than an assertion of independence it comes off as bragging.

I was dissapointed with this book and would not recommend it to anyone.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I expected from this author. I picked it up because I was looking for The Women's Room and it was not available. I stuck with it thinking that it would conclude with something insightful or surprising, but I found neither.

[Bige · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deeply touching, awakening, smarting on ideas and dreams of "happily ever after". My first experience of French and it did not disappoint.

[Courtney · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can understand exploring the tight hold the belief in fairytale romance has on women, even feminists who, as French says, invent themselves. Yet George never rises beyond the level of an asshole and instead remains unbelievable as the object of any woman's fantasy (would he have seemed desirable to older readers twenty years ago?). As a result, Hermione seems idiotic and the book feels like a political platform for French and her second wave beliefs. While I also share these beliefs, I wondered if there was a way to go into the lives of the characters further (or eliminating the names of all the minor characters) and show me why some things are still a struggle for Hermione, even though she had already lived through a lot of BS and grew from those experiences. All of this makes me wonder if political beliefs are a way to cushion us from truly understanding someone else. Instead of hearing more about Hermione, for example, I heard more about her beliefs. I think I do this with my life and this type of shorthand leaves me just scraping the surface of myself, which is what I thought with this book: it was compelling, yet shallow.

[Faith · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Summer with George is a book I found in my mom's bookcase... and it wasn't really what I had expected it to be, for the better and for the worse.

It is about Hermione Beldame, a successful romance writer, who lives a luxurious life in NYC, but who's love life is, well problematic, her being both divorced and widowed twice... Now she is around 60 years old, but the best parts of the book are the glimpses into her past, which wasn't all that glamorous her coming from a poor background.

Well, I don't really know if I liked the book or not. SOMEHOW it was just a big nothingness that ended up nowhere... But one thing is clear: I will never read any more romances...! They are just mass-produced crap. How could I even think that I would read though all of Danielle Steels production or even touch anything by Nora Roberts was it set in Baltimore or not. But actually I wonder what kind of writer Marilyn French herself is...? Is she some kind of romance writer also? I'm probably not going to find out.

[Marilyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Being of similar age as the protagonist, I thought this would be a wonderful read, filled with joy and new-found love etc. Wrong! It is hard to explain where the book went wrong; possibly the entire premise of older women are still lovable and can find "love ever after" in a younger man. Disappointing.

[Umi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lagi buku keren Marylin French tentang perempuan matang, setengah baya yang 'jatuh cinta' dan mengalami berbagai peristiwa. Dalam novelnya Marilyn selalu dengan cantik menggambarkan persahabatan dan cinta.

[Heather Ormsby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Through a mostly imaginary summer romance, a woman in her 60's rediscovers youthful feelings of romance. I wasn't at all impressed with her crush, but I did enjoy the story of how she survived poverty, moved to New York and became a romance novelist.

[Carol Rizzardi · Rating 3 out of 5]

When a woman of a certain age, as the New York Times calls us, meets a man who is charming and attentive yet brusque and aloof, she reexamines her life and loves. Lots of NY and Long Island color. I enjoyed it, but I'm no sure someone in their 20s or 30s would.

[Janet Harrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved Marilyn French's early books, so was happy to find one I hadn't read at a local bookstore. Unfortunately, I didn't get much past the first chapter. One of my pet peeves is predictable rich people dinner parties full of name-dropping. What a disappointment.

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved Marilyn French's early books, so was happy to find one I hadn't read at a local bookstore. Unfortunately, I didn't get much past the first chapter. One of my pet peeves is predictable rich people dinner parties full of name-dropping. What a disappointment.

[Sarahliz · Rating 2 out of 5]

This made me wonder if I'm misremembering the caliber of the women's room or if this just wasn't anywhere near as good. The last 20 pages finally made me not hate every single one of the characters.

[Kiessa · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not French's best work. She didn't exactly go all-out on the title either, which might have been my first clue.

[Gabrielle]

mijn zomer met George

[Sue Kozlowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author of the famous book, "The Women's Room". Quick Read. Author of romance novels falls in love and has a crush but the man doesn't love her back.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A superfast read...

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent story. Well written. Interesting insight and perspective.

[Rachel O Regan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant feminist novel disguised as a romance. Marilyn french never fails. Genius

[Lisa Gear · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has been on my shelf for many years. I picked it up at a used book store because I remembered what a profound impact her previous book The Women's Room had on me. I read it the year after I graduated from high school and it had a huge feminist impact on me.
My Summer With George, although well written, was the total opposite. This is the story of a very successful, self-made author of romance novels who becomes head over heels in love with a man who basically wants nothing to do with her romantically. He is a writer for a newspaper who comes to New York every so often and calls her for lunch or a show, but never gives her his phone number. Instead he leaves her with a casual "I'll call ya", and then doesn't. Even after he balks at her trying to kiss him goodnight, flat out tells her over and over that he hates women and leaves her hanging for weeks on end, she is still inexplicably crazy about him. It really made no sense to me. Is he married? Gay? Asexual? You never find out.
I did enjoy her conversations with female friends who all try to give her advice after her traditional opening statement "I met a man". Most wisely told her to forget him, but others encouraged her to keep trying. I'm a huge believer in the power of strong, intelligent female friends, and they do help her through whatever craziness got into her. I also enjoyed reading about how she went from a young wife in a loveless marriage to a novelist, publishing 87 novels under 3 different names.
Although many times I wanted to jump into the book and strangle her, she was an interesting character and the book did hold my interest.

[Rosalie Gude · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a meh for me. The actual writing style is okay and I found it interesting that it is a romance involving an older woman because there are few out there. However it came across very man hating which grew tiring after awhile, not all marriages are the man's fault. Also the author lost me on the suspension of disbelief. She had me going for a bit , but the main character became far too obsessive far too quickly to be realistic. I mean she was saying that she thought this guy was the one after hanging out with him three times and him barely showing interest in her. Maybe that was the point of the plot, but it lost my interest and trust in the narrator. Not worth the read in my opinion.

[Evelyn Logghe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure what to make of this book. It is well written so that kept me going but eventually it kind of leads to nowhere, not a plot twist, nothing.

The backgroundstory of the main character was interesting but eventually not fully explained and rushed in the last pages. It would have been a far more interesting story if it was about how Hermoine made it from a poor family to a bestseller romance writer who lives this fancy live in NYC.

The character of George doesn't add anything to the book, and since they eventually don't have a romance, he doesn't have any role in her livestory either.

[Gail · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the library looking for a Tana French to reread, nothing there, but Marilyn French, someone I read twenty years or more ago, sitting on the shelf. This felt like an academic treatise couched in fiction, to examine how women stay fixated (for life? ugh) on ideas of perfect marriages, true love. A depressingly pathetic main character, attracted for unfathomable reasons to a disinterested man...definitely not a book for anyone under 50, and even then, read something else by the author.

[Sidsel Sander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Det ligner en kærlighedsroman og det lyder som en kærlighedsroman, men det er ikke en kærligheddroman. Dét, det er, er en velskreven blanding af pastice, en omvendelse af genren, en interessant beskrivelse af en ældre kvindes seksualiet samt en følsom kritik af ideen om den eneste ene.

[Irene Paiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it very much. Dedicated to senior women.

[Marjo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightful.

[Gemma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointingly failing pastiche on classic female romanticism only shows French at her best in the background family story.