Indian Summer

by John Knowles

Cleet Kinsolving, a young many without money in the world of the very rich, returns from the Second World War with no prospects, few plans, and a deep and so far thwarted ambition: to make the best of himself, to live life on his own terms.

After an idyllic time working around airplanes in Kansas, Cleet is drawn, with deep reluctance, back to his home town in Connecticut by an enormously rich and powerful family who have always magnetized everyone and everything around them. The Reardons live in a huge Victorian mansion, High Farms, and it is there that the family power challenges Cleet. For the Reardons, led by the son and heir, Neil, have always succeeded in twisting those around them to their own purposes: Cleet himself; Neil's wife, Georgia, bubbling over with the gaiety of riches she does not believe in; her sister Lynn, terrified of the Reardons and of her own awkwardness; their ne'er-do-well parents - winning, alcoholic Ken and loud, warmhearted Genevieve - who come to High Farms for the great annual ball which is at the climax of the novel. Among the vast rooms and grounds of High Farms all these people struggle against a most common human dilemma: they live their lives out of season, like actors performing last week's play in front of this week's sets. In his struggle against the Reardon world, Cleet stakes everything he values on meeting the Reardon challenge.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Novels

243 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1966

About the author

John Knowles was an American novelist best known for A Separate Peace (1959).

Reviews

[Lobstergirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is realistic fiction similar in style and tone to other mid-century male writers such as William Styron, Walker Percy, late John Steinbeck (The Winter of Our Discontent), Peter Taylor.

World War II is over and the unfortunately nicknamed Harold "Cleet" Kinsolving has just arrived back in the U.S. after serving in the Army Air Force. Carrying nothing but his duffel bag, he gets a job at a crop dusting operation in Kansas, talking the owner into letting him fly planes even though he has minimal experience. He happens to run into his best friend growing up, Neil Reardon, who has written a book and is giving a talk nearby. Neil offers Cleet a job as his assistant, which hardly sounds appetizing, but at much higher pay than the crop dusting operation. Cleet reluctantly accepts, hoping that the enormously wealthy Reardon family can loan him money to start an air freight business between the Pacific coast and Alaska. They head back to their hometown in Connecticut, which is ruled over by the Reardon clan. The Reardons draw people into their orbit, who then revolve around them like satellites.

It's never clear what united these two in friendship. In fact, Cleet is somehow Neil's only friend. Cleet is one-fourth Indian, an orphan with a wild streak and no money. In the Army Air Force, he was demoted one rank for insubordination. Neal is Irish Catholic and has just married lower middle class Georgia, who is now pregnant and enrolled in catechism classes. Cleet at first dislikes Georgia, but then grows to appreciate her.

Cleet becomes increasingly dissatisfied with the menial tasks Neil assigns, such as driving after Georgia and her sister who have disappeared hitchhiking, and babysitting Georgia's drunk father at a party. He confronts Neil about getting the loan for his air freight business, but Neil and his father have decided it's not a worthy project after all. In a fury, Cleet gets his revenge by basically raping Georgia, who loses the baby. He heads back to Kansas and crop dusting.

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pp. 115-116: "And he sensed, more and more every day that he spent among those archdoers, the Reardons, that being yourself was not enough. Nobody gave you anything in exchange for that; you couldn't get anything for it. Nobody wanted it. It was the thing he valued most in himself, but life was exchange. You had to be very good at doing something, whether it was splitting the atom or crooning. What a strange world, where no one paid any attention if you said, "I am"; they only listened if you said, "I do." The first question new acquaintances asked him was invariably, "What do you do?" always with a winning smile, since for all they knew he might answer, "I am a violin virtuoso earning two hundred and eighty thousand dollars a year." They wanted to know first and foremost what he did. And the next thing they wanted to know was how well he did it."

There's some wonderful descriptive writing about the very rich:

"The Reardons played games morning, noon, and night. Mr. Reardon thought certain kinds of games built character, Mrs. Reardon found they reduced what she called "bickering," and Neil took grim joy in anything competitive and Geraldine found games full of rich opportunities for arguing. At High Farms they played word games at breakfast, Identities at lunch, and Essences at dinner. They played croquet, softball, football, badminton, tennis, bowls, tag, red rover, chess, bridge, poker, checkers, and when all else failed, a lone Reardon played solitaire. They were never unoccupied. They felt that in being unoccupied they were not being true to their money, they were insulting its creativity. No one who was rich had a right to be bored. They read only in impatient snatches, reading being too passive. Neil was once described by Geraldine as the only writer in history who had written more words than he had read. They did not sit still or mope or contemplate or waste time or fidget or vegetate or mull; when Neil had twiddled his thumbs after both Georgia and Cleet eluded him it had been the burlesque of an action he could never have performed naturally. Mr. Reardon could not have recalled spending one unoccupied afternoon in his life. Mrs. Reardon was the high priestess of the telephone, maintaining a network of communications with friends and interests from coast to coast, with deep penetrations into Mexico and active bureaus in Europe. Except during the wartime restrictions on travel, Geraldine's social calendar left her little time for High Farms. She used it principally for changing clothes.

It was as though the energy which created the fortune burned as fiercely in the new generation as ever, but with no goal now, and where it had before pursued the next deal, it pursued a fox or a stag, the genius for investment gambling was turned to poker, the family tenacity transferred from commerce to tennis, the gift for grasping the moment's opportunity shifted from finance to tourism, the ability to organize complex situations quickly and efficiently passed from the world of business into the world of friends and picnics. All of the Reardons had excellent minds, and often the sense of waste was glaring, as these sharp intelligences focused all of their acumen on badminton strategy, or on how to lay out the new garden. They were beautifully equipped to earn a fortune, now that the fortune had been already earned." (p. 165-66)

p. 213: (Ken is Georgia's heavy drinking father.) "Ken now began to gather a personal dusk about himself, a soft and silvery cloud through which others were seen in a flattering, glowing blur, flattering not to him but to them."

[Dale Bohnert]

The description above is for the wrong “Indian Summer.”

[Ada Wang · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think the author has done a good job to build the character: Neil. He is a typical abuser. He tries to control everything and is a coward at the same time. win, to win, winning. he has nothing to think about life, no enjoyment. He doesn't know how to love, how to treat other people in his life. he can only communicate with children, because they pose no threats to himself. in the end, the author punishes him. he will have no children, no love, no divorce(his religion). nobody will help him any more all because of his inability to love due to the way he was raised.

[Tom Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book kind of sneaks up on you. in the beginning, Cleet kind of comes off s a bit of a dimwit. By the end of the book, Cleet has stood his ground and is really the only winner. I like Knowles writing style, he sometimes goes off into tangents that eventually come around to flavor not only the plot but the messages that are such a large part of the novel. " Always be yourself and don't let others control you."

[Kevin Wilhelm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up at the used bookstore remembering how much I enjoyed "A Separate Peace". This book was published in 1966 and recounts the struggle of a young man returning from WWII. He wants to follow his own dreams but is pulled back to his New England hometown by his wealthy best friend. I highly recommend.

[Amy Krohn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not interesting enough to keep reading. Sorry Mr. Knowles. I love some of your books, but not this one.

[Bob Box · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in 1973. Probably a novel about youth.

[Stephen Leonardo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it in high school and recently re-read. Just as good as the first time.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading A Separate Peace and Peace Breaks Out, I expected more from this book. It is literally Meh in literary form.

[Tony · Rating 1 out of 5]

Before reading this, I would of said you can’t go wrong with stories about friendship between two guys. Boy was I wrong. Of course, it was the ending that really brought it down to a one star review. It’s hard to believe that this book supposedly about male friendship came from the same author of A Separate Peace, probably the greatest novel about male friendship ever.

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was readable, but had too many potential (and subsequently unfulfilled) themes. The main character, Harold "Cleet" Kinsolving has just returned from naval service in WWII. He settles in Kansas with a sense of destiny, determined to live by his own means and for his own ends. He is relieved to escape from the affluence of his childhood, and yearns for a stronger connection with his Native American heritage. Enter his childhood best friend - millionaire, published author, expectant father - who lures Cleet back to his hometown to help keep his own life organized.

As the cast of characters expands to include Neil's parents, wife, and in-laws, the layers, and ideas, accumulate. The title may be a reference to Cleet's bloodline, or, as one reviewer suggested, summer's last gasp before winter settles in - implying a final attempt at....what? Going home? Building a life?

There are interesting conflicts in the story that the reader is left to sort out. Cleet firmly plants his trust with Neil, only to find that the concept of friendship can vary to the point of incompatability. (Has Neil changed, or has Cleet?) The characters struggle with issues of religion, Cleet's perspective being a god of benevolence and tolerance, while the others try to squeeze themselves into an acceptance of Catholicism. Sex is a topic on everyone's mind, relative to the religious confusion; Cleet believes it to be man's greatest joy and expression of love, but he ultimately uses it as a weapon. And perhaps the most consuming issue deals with self-respect and living a "good life".

Lots of provocative potential, but vaguely disappointing.

[Lisbeth Solberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bought used for 49 cents, this has sat on my shelf for decades.

What I liked about it? The essential quest of the protagonist to discover his life path. The metaphor of "Indian summer." Neil in the steam bath box--it gave me something to think about during my MRI. Cleet's bar conversation with Mr. Sommers, and in general, the portrait of Mr. Sommers whose "life was like a dam breaking."

What I didn't like: Too much architectural/interior design/landscape description. And at the end, all the characters disappoint.

[Sheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

I truly love this book and can relate to it on so many levels. It has been the wind beneath my wings that propelled me to begin my own 17+ country journey. I love this book. The prose it great and the drama is perfectly paced throughout this remarkable novel. Everyone coming into adulthood should read this (and any of the other books by John Knowles) to better understand being true to oneself and to one's journey.

[Christie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chet has just returned from fighting WW2; his best friend Neil hires him
as an assistant. Old money and fallen money versus class struggles; The
post war era has begun and Knowles is interested in how the old American
aristocracy will succeed, if it will.

[Heidijo · Rating 3 out of 5]

"A Separate Peace" is my favorite book, so I was very excited when I ran across "Indian Summer". "Indian Summer" was neither great nor terrible, it was just kind of bland all the way through. If you have not read any of Knowles's books, read "A Separate Peace", not "Indian Summer".

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another great read!

[Andrea Sachs]

quit