What do you think?
Rate this book
A Summer Life
Gary Soto writes that when he was five "what I knew best was at ground level." In this lively collection of short essays, Soto takes his reader to a ground-level perspective, resreating in vivid detail the sights, sounds, smells, and textures he knew growing up in his Fresno, California, neighborhood. The "things" of his boyhood tie it all his Buddha "splotched with gold," the taps of his shoes and the "engines of sparks that lived beneath my soles," his worn tennies smelling of "summer grass, asphalt, the moist sock breathing the defeat of basesall." The child's world is made up of small things--small, very important things.
160 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
32 people are currently reading
244 people want to read
About the author
Gary Soto
133 books243 followersGary Soto is the author of eleven poetry collections for adults, most notably New and Selected Poems, a 1995 finalist for both the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the National Book Award. His poems have appeared in many literary magazines, including Ploughshares, Michigan Quarterly, Poetry International, and Poetry, which has honored him with the Bess Hokin Prize and the Levinson Award and by featuring him in the interview series Poets in Person. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. For ITVS, he produced the film “The Pool Party,” which received the 1993 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Film Excellence. In 1997, because of his advocacy for reading, he was featured as NBC’s Person-of-the-Week. In 1999, he received the Literature Award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, the Author-Illustrator Civil Rights Award from the National Education Association, and the PEN Center West Book Award for Petty Crimes. He divides his time between Berkeley, California and his hometown of Fresno.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
June 26, 2018
Gary Soto can spin a phrase. He can paint a picture in your mind, even if that moment in time took place over fifty years ago.
He is a master at 'show, don't tell," which is why my middle son's ninth grade English teacher used some of the vignettes in A Summer Life in her classroom writing instruction.
Gary Soto reminds me that we all have stories tucked away from our childhood. Waiting to have life breathed back into them with the stroke of a keyboard, we just have to begin breathing them into existence.
He is a master at 'show, don't tell," which is why my middle son's ninth grade English teacher used some of the vignettes in A Summer Life in her classroom writing instruction.
Gary Soto reminds me that we all have stories tucked away from our childhood. Waiting to have life breathed back into them with the stroke of a keyboard, we just have to begin breathing them into existence.
August 14, 2022
Eatin’ plums and smashin’ ants.
June 19, 2019
Gary Soto is brilliant at description! I could picture it all distinctly. This is a serious of vignettes from his boyhood in Fresno, CA where most of the time he was hot and in trouble. :)
December 17, 2021
A Summer Life by Gary Soto is a collection of 39 short essays written by Mexican-American author Gary Soto. This is something very cool that I have never seen, heard or even read of. It is very interesting how Gary Soto was able to put all of those essays together to create something this great. Comprising a mosaic of observations Soto as a child growing up in Fresno, California, the stories show the cultural memory and poetic possibility of Fresno’s sights and sounds from the perspective of a boy slowly becoming self-aware. A city built in large part by Latino and East Asian immigrants, Fresno is described as hopeful and creative. Soto’s essays reveal its constant hope, often indirectly, by focusing on the “small things” making up the young Soto’s world; that is, the fleeting occurrences that only a child would notice. The book has been praised for illuminating the rich texture of boyhood in a thriving immigrant community through references to everyday life. I really believe that you will enjoy and love this book everything about it is amazing.
April 30, 2014
A Summer Life is another great example of Gary Soto’s ability to write short stories and essays and compile them in an interesting manner. A Summer Life is a collection of 39 vignettes describing the life of Gary Soto and how he grew up in California and about the coming of age of his neighborhood. The thoughtful stories reflect his Latino background, and paint a picture of his life in the barrio. I enjoyed learning about the Hispanic background. I also noticed that it was interesting seeing the different perspective of growing up in a different era and how the opinions differ when children are on their summer vacations. This book lacked suspense and intense detail in comparison to Soto’s other books based on short stories.
January 24, 2019
My favorite Soto book. Timeless.
July 25, 2016
Summer reading. As a freshman dipping her toes into the unknown waters of Honors English EXPECTING lukewarm liquid, struggling through A Summer Life prior to even stepping foot in the classroom left my poor pinkies burned and my shy little self dreading orientation in August. After cracking open the book and thoroughly scanning a page or so, a bitter taste had already begun to take up residence in my mouth. By page fifty, I’d lost my faith in the school curriculum and was nearly contemplating whether dropping out of high school and taking to the open road at age fourteen was a plausible and/or sensible idea, and wrapping up the novel at page 150 today had me near tears. Not because of the content of the book, of course- they were happy tears, strictly the byproduct of unadulterated joy from completing this monstrosity. That, or sheer disappointment in my school system. Yeah, it was one of those books. So much pain in such a small package.
PROS:
-Warm and adequate writing that left you with a vaguely nostalgic and dreamy feeling if left on the brain for a while.
-Anecdotes such as “The Rhino”, “The Babysitter”, and “The Beatles” were fairly entertaining. They weren’t Spielberg level or anything, but I wasn’t tempted to file a lawsuit on my English teacher for forcing such utter drivel upon me.
CONS:
-The timeline. Oh God, the timeline. Essentially, A Summer Life is a series of uncategorized stories from author Gary Soto’s childhood. Most of the stories are presented by Soto as a young boy, usually between four to twelve years old with a rare few stretching through to seventeen and beyond; this is fine, but the novel is made an almost unbearably tiresome and tedious read due to the fact that next to none of the stories are placed in chronological order. The order of the narratives is, in fact, completely random, with tales of a six-year-old Soto sucking cherry Kool-Aid cubes in his backyard being shoehorned between two stories about Soto in Catholic school discovering sin and the occasional backlash of religion. Granted, the majority of essays with an older Soto as the star are clumped towards the end of the book, but there are one or two placed rather abruptly in the middle of the book preceding other stories concerning Soto in his sunshine-soaked youth rather than his troubled transition into adulthood. The whole effect is rather dizzying and does nothing to make the novel any less agonizing.
-I suppose this ties in rather neatly with the chronological complaints, but the fact that this book goes from the carefree reflection of a little boy on the attitude of weather in Fresno to a story about Soto and his pal parking their shabby car in their teacher’s driveway- by the way, they obtained her address by searching for it at a “filthy gas station” in the dead of night- and having “wild thoughts” about her and her husband disgusts me just a bit too much for my taste. Story order is important, kids.
-Here’s a little heads up for English teachers: if you’re going to assign a piece of literature for your students to read, especially if this assignment will take place over the course of summer vacation, please select something that will contribute to a healthy education rather than provide nothing but a senseless, time-wasting read to make professors feel like they’re “preparing children for the hardships yet to come” when they’re really just too lazy to create productive assignments and instead drowsily distribute whatever book is lying closest to them. The main themes of A Summer Life are sparingly touched upon in the book, and when they are, they’re practically beaten into you with a proverbial hammer.From what I can gather, this novel sheds light on the inner turmoil of a child growing up and exploring the harsh reality of mortality, religion, and the cruel nature of humanity as a whole. And by “what I can gather”, I mean “what I can scrape up into a tiny petri dish and examine using the strongest microscope known to man”. Only seven or eight stories out of thirty-nine actually give some clue as to why in the world Gary Soto decided to compose this piece of literature, and these select few smother you in a sauce rich in superimposing religious undertones and sugary (yet not very sweet) images of life’s ultimate raison d’être. To make it simple, A Summer Life is a three-course meal that could stand to be just an appetizer- the meat of the book seldom focuses on the true lesson of the novel, therefore it’s meaningless. If you’re going to write a so-called “thought-provoking” book, you should dish out something that screams your pretentious themes as opposed to serving me a one-hit-wonder starter. Not enough of the book focuses on the main themes, which makes it out to be a needless and mindless read for students looking to write ground-breaking essays on the meaning of life. If you aspire to be the next Socrates, look elsewhere.
FINAL RATING: 1.5 STARS (paraphrased, “If you aren’t reading this book strictly because some old hag of an English teacher shoved it down your throat, run. For the love of God, RUN.")
PROS:
-Warm and adequate writing that left you with a vaguely nostalgic and dreamy feeling if left on the brain for a while.
-Anecdotes such as “The Rhino”, “The Babysitter”, and “The Beatles” were fairly entertaining. They weren’t Spielberg level or anything, but I wasn’t tempted to file a lawsuit on my English teacher for forcing such utter drivel upon me.
CONS:
-The timeline. Oh God, the timeline. Essentially, A Summer Life is a series of uncategorized stories from author Gary Soto’s childhood. Most of the stories are presented by Soto as a young boy, usually between four to twelve years old with a rare few stretching through to seventeen and beyond; this is fine, but the novel is made an almost unbearably tiresome and tedious read due to the fact that next to none of the stories are placed in chronological order. The order of the narratives is, in fact, completely random, with tales of a six-year-old Soto sucking cherry Kool-Aid cubes in his backyard being shoehorned between two stories about Soto in Catholic school discovering sin and the occasional backlash of religion. Granted, the majority of essays with an older Soto as the star are clumped towards the end of the book, but there are one or two placed rather abruptly in the middle of the book preceding other stories concerning Soto in his sunshine-soaked youth rather than his troubled transition into adulthood. The whole effect is rather dizzying and does nothing to make the novel any less agonizing.
-I suppose this ties in rather neatly with the chronological complaints, but the fact that this book goes from the carefree reflection of a little boy on the attitude of weather in Fresno to a story about Soto and his pal parking their shabby car in their teacher’s driveway- by the way, they obtained her address by searching for it at a “filthy gas station” in the dead of night- and having “wild thoughts” about her and her husband disgusts me just a bit too much for my taste. Story order is important, kids.
-Here’s a little heads up for English teachers: if you’re going to assign a piece of literature for your students to read, especially if this assignment will take place over the course of summer vacation, please select something that will contribute to a healthy education rather than provide nothing but a senseless, time-wasting read to make professors feel like they’re “preparing children for the hardships yet to come” when they’re really just too lazy to create productive assignments and instead drowsily distribute whatever book is lying closest to them. The main themes of A Summer Life are sparingly touched upon in the book, and when they are, they’re practically beaten into you with a proverbial hammer.From what I can gather, this novel sheds light on the inner turmoil of a child growing up and exploring the harsh reality of mortality, religion, and the cruel nature of humanity as a whole. And by “what I can gather”, I mean “what I can scrape up into a tiny petri dish and examine using the strongest microscope known to man”. Only seven or eight stories out of thirty-nine actually give some clue as to why in the world Gary Soto decided to compose this piece of literature, and these select few smother you in a sauce rich in superimposing religious undertones and sugary (yet not very sweet) images of life’s ultimate raison d’être. To make it simple, A Summer Life is a three-course meal that could stand to be just an appetizer- the meat of the book seldom focuses on the true lesson of the novel, therefore it’s meaningless. If you’re going to write a so-called “thought-provoking” book, you should dish out something that screams your pretentious themes as opposed to serving me a one-hit-wonder starter. Not enough of the book focuses on the main themes, which makes it out to be a needless and mindless read for students looking to write ground-breaking essays on the meaning of life. If you aspire to be the next Socrates, look elsewhere.
FINAL RATING: 1.5 STARS (paraphrased, “If you aren’t reading this book strictly because some old hag of an English teacher shoved it down your throat, run. For the love of God, RUN.")
January 16, 2025
This is not the first Soto work I've read. As a language arts teacher I've introduced hundreds of kids to stories and poems by him. I enjoyed this memoir of Soto's early boyhood living in a large and loving Mexican-American California family.
Soto is a master storyteller with careful additions of sensory details. I could read more anytime.
Soto is a master storyteller with careful additions of sensory details. I could read more anytime.
February 23, 2023
Every sentence sings. Such an excellent study in craft at the line level. This is a collection of essays, so there is no plot or cohesiveness, but you still get a sense for Soto's childhood through the vignettes of story and his rich descriptions. Loved.
January 3, 2019
I like the suddenly change of event.
October 15, 2020
These short stories are cute and full of culture.
May 2, 2022
I really enjoyed these descriptive essays, particularly because they rang of my own Baby Boomer childhood in some ways.
December 6, 2025
Do you want to relive childhood, because that’s what Soto does with near lifelike memory detail. Every scene painted with vivid descriptions in an almost episodic fashion.
April 11, 2008
I like this book because it talks about real life thing like what people do at all ages,
At any age, people sin. Knowingly and ignorantly, preconceived and spontaneously, but as humans we are prone to sin, it is inevitable. Young Gary Soto recreated a childhood experience in his autobiography, A Summer Life. In this book, he shared his story about the time he stole a pie from the German Market. To emphasize the guilt he possessed as a young six-year-old, Gary Soto utilizes rhetorical devices such as contrast, repetition, pacing, diction, figurative language and imagery to recreate the unforgettable memory. Soto expresses his tone of remorse and guilt, causing the reader to delve into the mind of the young author and experience the mental torment he endured. After stealing the apple pie Soto relates it with the biblical image of “an apple got Eve in deep trouble with a snake.” He inadvertently contrasts himself with the first and original sinners, Adam and Eve, upon finding a connection between the two because of the apple. The coincidence scares him even more when young Soto realizes that they were punished for their action and so will he be. And so that’s why I like this book. And notice
At any age, people sin. Knowingly and ignorantly, preconceived and spontaneously, but as humans we are prone to sin, it is inevitable. Young Gary Soto recreated a childhood experience in his autobiography, A Summer Life. In this book, he shared his story about the time he stole a pie from the German Market. To emphasize the guilt he possessed as a young six-year-old, Gary Soto utilizes rhetorical devices such as contrast, repetition, pacing, diction, figurative language and imagery to recreate the unforgettable memory. Soto expresses his tone of remorse and guilt, causing the reader to delve into the mind of the young author and experience the mental torment he endured. After stealing the apple pie Soto relates it with the biblical image of “an apple got Eve in deep trouble with a snake.” He inadvertently contrasts himself with the first and original sinners, Adam and Eve, upon finding a connection between the two because of the apple. The coincidence scares him even more when young Soto realizes that they were punished for their action and so will he be. And so that’s why I like this book. And notice
October 21, 2009
I really enjoyed this book because it tells me about a mexican family in the summer and how Gary's life was so full of Joy and eximent. The part I mosted liked was when Gary's baby chicks died and he was so terribly sad and I felt so bad for him because he really liked his pets.The genre of this book is a memoir because it's about Gary Soto's past as a child. The main charter is really adventerous because he goes to L.A with his friend and has a blast. Also another way he's adventerous is because he went to Sarah St. when his told him not to, he went anyways and a little boy on a tricycle ran over his ankels. I'd compare this author to Francisco Jimenez because they make a peice of their life more interesting then it might've happened.
September 3, 2009
This series of essays record memories of Soto’s upbringing in 1960’s Chicano Fresno, California. The gentle anecdotes recreate the sights, sounds, things of a central California boyhood so vividly that the reader almost experiences it. I wonder if it is not a little too gentle for most teen readers. It would make a good companion to Dandelion Wine. Be warned about the vulgarisms and references to typical teen boy fantasies and preoccupations that might make the book a little strong for some readers. The book is episodic, with no real plot, but characterization and the use of concrete and specific detail to evoke a particular culture, time and place are strong
October 24, 2013
A Summer Life is another great example of realistic fiction written by well-known and award winning author, Gary Soto. A Summer Life is similar to Soto's popular book, Baseball in April. Instead of short stories, it is a compilation of descriptive narrative essays inspired by his youth as a Mexican Amercian growing up in Fresno, California during the summer. Each essay is written about various things of importance to a typical teenager at the time such as a haircut, shirt, and inner tube. I think this would be a great sequel book to Baseball in April since it's similar but at a higher level. It is geared towards 8th grade and the high school level.
October 14, 2009
I felt that this book was okay but it really wasn't full of suspense and detail. It was long and made of shot stories. If i were the author I would have added more detail and had it a little more geared toward younger people. This book reminded me of child times because there both memories. I understood that things got harder as Gary grow up and became more intelligent. There was some good parts of this book and some bad.
May 22, 2017
This book, frankly, was unbelievably boring. I have read enjoyably calm books before, but this was so boring it took all of my energy simply to keep my eyes on the page and I took 3 days on it when a book this size should take an hour. I can't believe an English class could require such simple, stupid, pointless reading. There is no plot to speak of, flat characters, exactly 150 pages, and a very monotonous style of writing.
July 8, 2015
You really can't judge a book by its cover. The front cover of this book shows a nice painting of a happy family on the porch of their neat house sharing watermelon on a summer evening. The back cover has reviews with words like "joyous book" and "vibrant". A Summer Life was none of these things to me. It was mostly dirt and want and not at all joyful. It's not the book I had hoped for, but I'm sure it was honest.
July 4, 2017
This is the young adult collection of Soto's excellent short stories. California barrio life is tangible, and teenagers everywhere naturally empathize with the young people in Soto's tales. Excellent stories show us Latino culture, yet help us understand how we are all the same, deep inside. For younger readers, Baseball in April is just as good.
November 22, 2011
In the lovely collection of short vignettes, Gary Soto takes us inside the mind of a young boy growing up in California in the 50's. It has a lot of validity for small-town life in any era and in any geographical location. I could easily visualize a friend of mine who grew up in Cimarron, NM, in the early 60's...living these stories. Beautifully written, also. A good read.
May 26, 2015
Loved these childhood vignettes of a young Mexican boy growing up in Fresno California in the 60s. A childhood largely untended as his mom was often away at work and he and his sister were in charge of the younger baby. Amazing visual writing, it reminds you of how much ambition and self-seriousness kids have for their dreams.
March 21, 2014
Really wild to read as a modern parent bc Soto's descriptions of childhood are from another era...baby's untended, five year olds exploring railroads, etc. Nice sparse language, bold images and fantastic complex descriptions of Fresno life.
August 13, 2008
A wonderful collection of short stories that are drawn from the author's memories growing up as a latino in an immigrant neighborhood in Fresno, CA.
Read
September 22, 2012This book is great! It hits so close to home for me because I also grew up where Soto did. All of his stories are very good and some are even funny!
September 16, 2010
Gary Soto takes us back to his childhood in Fresno, California from about age 5 till he reached 17. These stories are short vignettes about life in the summer time there.
March 17, 2011
I read this years ago. All I really remember was that he hated working at an auto tire shop.
December 28, 2017
The beautiful writing and story-telling make up for the lack of tension or suspense for me. This is an awesomely written book.
September 8, 2014
A book read for an English class (as for many reviewers it seem) that still lives me with a strong feeling like the smell of wet concrete on a hot summer day some 15 years after I read it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews