Summer Light

by Roxana Robinson

Roxana Robinson's great gift for the telling detail and strong sense of the emotional shoals lurking just beneath even the calmest surface have inspired comparisons to literary greats like John Cheever, Henry James, and Edith Wharton. In her first novel, we meet Laura, a 29-year-old wife, mother, sister, friend, lover, and erstwhile photographer whose life is painfully out of focus. A month's vacation on the Maine coast with her son, her lover, Ward, and her sister's family is supposed to be an idyllic period of sustenance and calm, but for Laura, who believes that "entropy governed the world, the universe, and the dinner hour," it turns into the ultimate test of her ability to trust herself and others. With trademark intensity and a deft touch for character and place, Robinson creates a perceptive, believable, and gently humorous portrait of an individual "waiting for something that would set her life in order." Laura is as much a study of light and shadow as the photographs she takes. Beautiful but insecure, talented but unwilling to take risks, loved but unable to make a commitment, she is paralyzed by fear and locked into a stasis that Ward is no longer willing to accept. "You don't dare take a stand on anything," he tells her. “You're so terrified of failure you don't dare do anything.” When her estranged husband arrives for a weekend visit, however, the emotional collision rocks Laura's inaction, causing a tiny shake of the kaleidoscope that creates a vastly different pattern. The image is razor sharp at last: "As though she were changing lenses, as though she had suddenly discovered another light source," she sees that her life is her own. That new understanding empowers her to make a symbolic -- and a literal -- leap of faith that saves her own life and the lives of those she loves.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction

211 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1988

About the author

Roxana Robinson is the author of eight works of fiction, including the novels Cost and Sparta. She is also the author of Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life. A former Guggenheim Fellow, she edited The New York Stories of Edith Wharton and wrote the introduction to Elizabeth Taylor’s A View of the Harbour, both published by NYRB Classics. Robinson is currently the president of the Authors Guild.

Reviews

[Corey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely and emotionally acute.

[Fredsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roxana Robinson makes me very happy that I have never been divorced. This novel makes a fine mess out of a summer spent with family in a rented house on an island in Maine. The central character is a beautiful woman whose biggest fear is that she is nothing more than that. She manages to allow her obnoxious ex-husband to visit their son and stay over the weekend at the summer house with her family and boyfriend, who is paying for the place. Terrible things happen! This woman does not deserve to have a son, a boyfriend, a cat! Don't read this if you are a single mother or engaged to be married.

[Suanne Laqueur · Rating 2 out of 5]

A one-sitting read I neither loved nor hated. The ending was abrupt and open-ended, resolving little of the tensions between the protagonists. Well-written, but not much staying power.

[Carrie Cantalupo-Sharp · Rating 5 out of 5]

I now have a new favorite author to add to my list. She has an uncanny way of seeing/feeling inside people with all their inconsistencies, frailties and strengths. Powerful stuff.

[Ann J · Rating 3 out of 5]

I believe this was author Roxana Robinson’s first novel. This is only the second time I have read the author. The first was 2024’s Leaving. I am so looking forward to reading more of her backlist. She will definitely be a repeat author for me.

The writing is an absolute pleasure. You are pulled immediately into the story of a group of people vacationing in Maine. A young, not yet divorced mother and her boyfriend, her young son, her sister Sarah and her family, including their daughters, one of whom is a rebellious teen.

The dynamic of the relationships is everything. We get some back story about the main character, Laura and her brother in law Richie. Tensions rise when her possibly soon to be ex and the father of her son, comes to join the group.

Robinson is just fantastic at details; be they about the human interactions or just the setting of the story.

I just love the drama and the human interactions, up until the very end. There is the mother son relationship and possible looming divorce. The relationship between Laura and Nat. Laura and Ward. Nat and his dalliances. Sarah and Richie. Their daughter Karin and her teen angst. Younger sister Pia.

And of course Laura’s son Sammy and his being torn between his father Nat and Ward.

Robinson is great at creating an underlying tension that ebbs and flows. And in this case comes to an eventual dramatic head. Even the story of a cat, is representative of underlying tensions.

The only part that did not flow for me was the mention of Laura and Pia on the boat toward the end. Something there did not fit as smoothly.

This was somewhat similar to the theme of the more recent book, Leaving in that there is the inclusion of how the children feel or their relationship in the grown ups “love story.”

And there is something about New England and in particular Maine stories that is always appealing. Oddly there is not a lot happening over a period of not a lot of time and yet, I enjoyed reading every detail.

I think what I like most about Roxana Robinson’s writing is it is not cute or gimmicky, but about very real human, messy relationships and emotions.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Roxana Robinson's writing, she made me feel like I was sitting on the couch in that cottage playing summer games, I could see the fog, feel the cool breeze and the salt spray. Even though I found the main character, Laura, someone I wanted to shake, she was so annoying, I loved the character development and the interplay between family, and lets face it when is there not drama when a family is together. Perfectly acceptable summer read.

[Reagan Brackey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another library book sale find. The story takes place in Mount Desert Island, ME which is where I spent the summer. That was my main motivation for picking it up in the first place. The story is a little boring, although well written. The main character is a complex woman who I eventually found myself relating to, surprisingly, by the end. It follows her through a summer vacation as she navigates her emotions and relationships.

[Patrice · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was the Author’s first and it is nothing like her later writings. The main character is so childish and unmotivated to do just about anything—I simply hated her whiny, do-nothingness. The other characters were poorly developed and also not interesting—I really struggled to keep going. I’m really happy however that Robinson continued writing and improving her abilities—avoid this one if you can.

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roxana Robinson is a new-to-me writer, and my latest favorite. I first read "Leaving," published in 2024, and now I'm on a mission to read her early work.

"Summer Light" is her first novel, and the roots of her skill are evident; she is insightful with the interior of her characters, capturing voice and nuance with a natural unfolding.

I am eager to read more!

[Marti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Cranberry Island!

"Pets are supposed to give you pleasure, not misery."

"Maybe she had the radio on, as well; maybe there was a channel in Bar Harbor that had someone reading Dickens in the evening."

"Ducks" as a term of endearment, like Mrs. Harris.

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book until the ending. The ending really riled me up.

[Cindy Hays · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok book

[Nancy Noble · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had heard of Roxana Robinson, but hadn't read any of her books before. I picked this one up, as it was set in Maine. I thought her writing was tremendous, with such well-drawn characters and dialogue. The characters certainly weren't terribly likeable, but very realistic and the main character grew during the book. I'm not sure about the ending, and overall there wasn't a lot of story line, but generally found it to be an enjoyable read.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laura is 29, mother of a 3-year old son and almost divorced from Nat. She has smoothly moved from living with Nat to living with Ward, an entertainment lawyer whose Jewish origins contrast strongly with her own WASP roots. Laura is unsure about everything, except her love for her son. Does she want to marry Ward? Does she have what it take to make a living as a photographer? Is she a serious or a frivolous girl/woman? Did she ever get over her youthful crush on the man who became her sister's husband?

Ward has rented a summer home in Maine and Laura, her son, and her sister's family spend the month of July there, with Ward joining them whenever he can. Then Laura allows Nat to manipulate her into inviting him to spend a few nights in the summer house, so he can spend time with his son. Ward is livid at the thought of having his predecessor in Laura's affection under his roof, and several painful scenes follow. It becomes clear that Ward's frustration is not just focused on this one event, but on Laura's inability to commit fully to anything, whether it's their relationship or a career.

In the background, there are housekeeping issues, teen drama, Laura's unresolved issues with her disapproving father, some bickering between her sister and her brother-in-law.

This was Roxana Robinson's first novel (1988), and she didn't have the mastery of her later novels yet. For instance, the ending seems more appropriate for a short story than for a novel. But she is already showing her expertise in describing the daily lives of WASP families on the East Coast, and the inner thoughts of people whose lives are outwardly orderly, but inwardly in turmoil. There is also a good dose of escapism in this book: how many people get to spend an entire summer month on the coast of Maine, just hanging out with their family.. on someone else's dime?

[Karen Kinsella · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave this book two stars only for the lovely writing. However, I found the book so unpleasant and disturbing that I could not make it even half-way through. So I did not finish it. I found the characters mostly unpleasant and strange, as were their relationships with one another. I tried to discern what set my teeth on edge so strongly about this book, almost from the beginning, that I could barely stand to pick it up to read another chapter. As far as I could figure out, there is a kind of vague, banal but evil stupidity woven through the characters and their actions... factors that rendered my subconscious quite sure that disturbing and unpleasant things lay just around the corner in the narrative. It's too bad, because Robinson writes well in describing the setting of seaside Maine resorts. A waste of good prose. Not recommended.

[Janice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to lack the depth of “The Cost” by this same author which I also recently read. This was the first fiction by Ms. Robinson, published in 1980, and is a foretelling of the skills she now exhibits. That the author was almost 30 years younger is reflected by the immaturity and impulsiveness of the main character, but even so the writing is very good and the story held my interest. I want to read more of her work.
This story is about a 29 yr. old woman who is spending a month on the Maine coast with her lover, her sister and brother-in-law, her 4 yr. old son, and two teenage nieces. She impulsively invites her long estranged husband to spend a weekend with all of them--and so the fun begins!!!

[Emjay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Laura, her gentleman friend Ward and son Sammy are sharing a large summer rental on the coast of Maine with Laura's older sister Sarah, husband Richie, and 2 teenaged daughters. Laura's almost divorced, philandering, sleazy husband Nat manages to inveigle himself into the group with amusingly awful events. Here's a comical look at 30/40 yuppie relations, teenaged angst, and a gorgeous, you-are-here, look at Maine's coast

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is a book about self discovery of a girl. she dislikes her father because he lives in this type of bubble (not literally). where he "owns everything and can take it away". most of the people who come to see her father worship him. but ian is differt, and kate knows that. after a while ian makes kate see her father in a differt light and it's a good thing

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roxana Robinson's debut novel...filled with relationships, sisters, husbands, wives, lovers and all the dysfunction that builds up over the years comes unleashed at a cabin in Bar Harbor. Emotions run high and people change their minds about things they were once certain about. Roxana folds in those intense details that set the work apart from all others.

[Ro Wilson]

I did not actually read all of this book. I abandoned it on p. 86. I was not enjoying it, & I've lots & lots of books I want to read.

[Lettie Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, not great.

[Christa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not much of a story.