Borrowed Summer

by Elizabeth Enright

From the jacket flap:

These beautifully fashioned and haunting tales are the work of a writer who has important things to say in more than one of the categories into which writing is arbitrarily divided. Elizabeth Enright has long been famous for the intuitive apperceptions of childhood which have made her books, beginning with KINTU and THIMBLE SUMMER, living creative art.

Now in these mature tales there are subtlety, strength and emotional wholeness which are very rare; they call to mind comparisons as diverse as the stories of Katherine Anne Porter and Dorothy Parker's BIG BLONDE.

In this volume are real people, some nice, some nasty, some neurotic, some normal, but all of them human beings going about their business, worthwhile or otherwise. There is a variety of stories from the sympathetic Sugar for the Old Horse, the frustrating Bureau of Lost and Found to the delicate picture of psychological escape, The Maple Tree. Many of the stories are about women, but not all; the fine title story tells of a man's- an embezzler's- perfect summer.

Miss Enright's observation is always acute and the honesty with which she deals with human beings is uncompromising. In a field of writing which is one of the most demanding on the author and most rewarding for the reader- the short story- here is a shining and memorable talent.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

275 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1946

About the author

Elizabeth Wright Enright Gillham was an American writer of children's books, an illustrator, writer of short stories for adults, literary critic and teacher of creative writing. Perhaps best known as the Newbery Medal-winning author of Thimble Summer (1938) and the Newbery runner-up Gone-Away Lake (1957), she also wrote the popular Melendy quartet (1941 to 1951). A Newbery Medal laureate and a multiple winner of the O. Henry Award, her short stories and articles for adults appeared in many popular magazines and have been reprinted in anthologies and textbooks.
In 2012 Gone-Away Lake was ranked number 42 among all-time children's novels in a survey published by School Library Journal, a monthly with primarily U.S. audience. The first two Melendy books also made the Top 100, The Saturdays and The Four-Story Mistake.

Reviews

[Susann · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's always a pleasure to read more of Enright's work. Most of these stories deal with the lonely and a good many lean toward the bitter end of the bittersweet continuum. The U.S. homefront during WWII is an important factor and moths and thunderstorms make their usual and very welcome appearances.

"Bertha tried to shake away her mood and reflected that the trouble with making cornbread, as with most of her occupations, was that it didn't give you enough to think about. You were at the mercy of your own mind. If she'd been making fruitcake, now, or a smooth boiled icing!" -- [from "A Ton of Pitchblende"]

"Raymond studied her. She took a great stiff bite out of the apple in her hand and chewed with her mouth open. Her ear moved slowly as she chewed, and she waggled one foot comfortably. The toes were bare and dusty and on her shins were bruises like blackberry stains and a long vertical scratch. Her chest beneath the faded bodice of her dress was flat as a board, and her neck above the collar rose like a stem from an angular clavicle. Freckles, burned nose, straight brown hair. She was exactly what she was at this moment, he could read no prophecy in her. She was the hard green husk of bud which does not even hint at the coming color of the petals." -- [from the title story, "Borrowed Summer"]

[Anna Katharine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elizabeth Enright's Gone-Away Lake books were arguably my favorites as a child, and I still reread them, and the five Melendy books, pretty frequently. Short stories aren't my favorite form, but since they're all Enright wrote for adults, I thought I'd give them a try. The 13 stories in Borrowed Summer were all published between 1940 and 1946, so WWII is always in the background, but it's only mentioned in passing. Instead, the stories mostly focus on a person (usually a women) struggling in some kind of bond; some find respite or release, some relapse, and some just recognize the shape of their bonds for the first time. All are portrayed with the same quiet gentleness as her children's books, and with the same beautiful descriptors and eye for nature that I fell in love with as a child. I can get lost in passages like "And beyond the pitted sand was smooth sand scalloped at the edges with weed and shell; marked with the dark ferrule-holes of sand hoppers. Then came the foam licking and breaking and twinkling; and then the sea. At that hour it was like milk and fire, and it had not entirely lost its night sound." Enright's descriptions of place are especially fun if you're familiar with the state of New York; in her children's books, she gives enough detail to locate Gone-Away Lake generally east of Rochester, and several of the Borrowed Summer stories clearly take place on the eastern reaches of Long Island, where potato farms once ruled. These narratives vary in length and detail, but they all present a small, complete, many-faceted world. The last of the volume, The Maple Tree, is both the most charming and most unsettling ghost story I think I've ever read. In all, I'd recommend this collection to anyone who enjoys female-driven narrative, descriptions of social norms in American in the 40's, and lush descriptions.

[CatholicBibliophagist · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elizabeth Enright was one of my favorite authors when I was a child. Having recently discovered that she also wrote for adults, I managed to track down this collection of short stories which originally appeared in magazines.

I was honestly disappointed. Published in 1946, most of them seemed intended to be literary -- lots of description and mood. Which is not a bad thing in itself. But the quality varied. And there was none of the lively timelessness of the books she wrote for younger readers such as The Saturdays or Gone Away Lake.

The two stories which I liked best were the first and last ones. "Borrowed Summer" is the story of a predictable man living a gray and dreary life. His only golden memory is of a week in the country when he was a child -- until the day when he unexpectedly embezzles $500 from his employers and catches a train to a rural area. There he spends a peaceful summer renting a room in a farm house (under the guise of being a writer) but actually having the most blissful time of his life pitching in to help with farm work. He becomes an esteemed and respected member of the community. But what will happen at the end of the summer? "The Maple Tree" is an eerie story of ghosts and a haunted house -- or maybe a haunting house -- and the woman who is renting it.

[Nguyễn Thanh Hằng · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quyển sách rất dễ thương và mang tính văn học, kể về cô bé Garnet chín tuổi rưỡi đã trải qua mùa hè đặc biệt của mình như thế nào.

Ở tuổi gần lên 10, cô bé Garnet với đời sống trang trại cũng trải qua những cung bậc mơ mộng và khám phá cuộc sống, bắt đầu nổi loạn nhưng cũng vô cùng tình cảm.

Văn phong mượt mà trong sáng, miêu tả thiên nhiên thật đẹp và sống động, câu chuyện đem lại cho độc giả cảm giá rất bình yên và an lành, thổi một cơn gió tuổi thơ đầy màu sắc và cảm xúc theo từng trang sách.

Quyển sách đưa ta đến với miền đất mới cùng những con người thân thiện, đồng thời cũng đưa ta về ký ức tuổi thơ của chính mình mà nhiều chi tiết trong ấy có lẽ là những điểm chung, đặc biệt là ký ức về tình thương yêu của gia đình.

[Melody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moving this back to the to-read shelf as I am saving it for emergencies.