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Summer of '42
In everyone's life there is a summer of '42...
In that particular summer Hermie was fifteen, wildly obsessed with sex, deeply and passionately in love with an "older woman" of twenty-two. Summer of '42 is the story of Hermie and the lovely Dorothy, of Hermie's frantic efforts to become a man, and of his glorious and heartbreaking initiation into sex.
In that particular summer Hermie was fifteen, wildly obsessed with sex, deeply and passionately in love with an "older woman" of twenty-two. Summer of '42 is the story of Hermie and the lovely Dorothy, of Hermie's frantic efforts to become a man, and of his glorious and heartbreaking initiation into sex.
275 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
183 people are currently reading
1130 people want to read
About the author
Herman Raucher
16 books67 followersEbooks now available for download. Print-on-demand to follow soon. See author website for links and updates at www.hermanraucher.com
Herman Raucher began his writing career during The Golden Age of Live Television, penning original one hour dramas for such esteemed shows as Studio One, Goodyear Playhouse and The Alcoa Hour. At about the same time, he was serving as Advertising Copy Director for Walt Disney whose new company, Buena Vista, was venturing from animated films into live action productions. It was also the time of the debut of Disneyland and all the excitement that came with it.
Back in New York he served as Creative Director and Board Member of several major ad agencies. To further fill out his life he turned his pen to writing four plays, six novels and seven films, among them being “Summer of '42” which was both a best-selling novel and a box office success. It earned him an Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Screenplay as well as a similar nomination from The Writers Guild of America. Raucher’s cult film, “Hieronymus Merkin,”won the Best Original Screenplay award from The Writers Guild of Great Britain. His racially charged movie, “Watermelon Man,”shook up the film critics no small end.
He still feels most at home with novels, in that no one can change as much as a comma without his approval—a condition that every writer savors but very few achieve.
Herman Raucher began his writing career during The Golden Age of Live Television, penning original one hour dramas for such esteemed shows as Studio One, Goodyear Playhouse and The Alcoa Hour. At about the same time, he was serving as Advertising Copy Director for Walt Disney whose new company, Buena Vista, was venturing from animated films into live action productions. It was also the time of the debut of Disneyland and all the excitement that came with it.
Back in New York he served as Creative Director and Board Member of several major ad agencies. To further fill out his life he turned his pen to writing four plays, six novels and seven films, among them being “Summer of '42” which was both a best-selling novel and a box office success. It earned him an Academy Award Nomination for Best Original Screenplay as well as a similar nomination from The Writers Guild of America. Raucher’s cult film, “Hieronymus Merkin,”won the Best Original Screenplay award from The Writers Guild of Great Britain. His racially charged movie, “Watermelon Man,”shook up the film critics no small end.
He still feels most at home with novels, in that no one can change as much as a comma without his approval—a condition that every writer savors but very few achieve.
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February 19, 2019
He had always intended to come back, to see the island again. But the opportunity had never quite presented itself. This time, however, with a break in his schedule and with events moving remarkably in his favor, he had driven far up the New England coast to see if the magic still prevailed.
I've seen the movie version of this novel a couple of times already, but I said to myself: Let's see if the magic still prevails! I wanted to find out if the whimsical, bittersweet vibe of the movie is present also in the novel. I know now that both formats come from the same author, and that there is more than a little auto-biographical element to the story of coming of age during a glorious, painful summer on Nantuckett island. That's probably the reason why the story feels so authentic, so vibrant, although I suspect more than a fair share of the actual events have been glamorized, tempered by the passage of years and the fading nature of memory.
In 1970, a writer named Herman returns to Packett Island, the place where he used to spend his summer vacations until 1942.
He had done that before around there, a long time ago. He sank his feet into the good sand, and his toes flexed like cat's paws. He took off his navy blazer and slung it over his shoulder, and in this manner did he walk ahead towards the house on the horizon – and back toward the last painful days of his once-glorious innocence.
The best stories are rarely complicated: childhood friends, growing up, falling in love, exile from paradise into middle age, making peace with the past.
Once upon a time there were three teenage boys adrift on an island not yet discovered by hordes of tourists toting instant cameras, sun lotions and screaming toddlers. Nothing much happened in the sleepy village on Packett Island:
In the good company of each other, they were bored shitless.
They passed the one soggy cigarette down the line, puffing it dramatically like combat men enjoying a brief respite from bloody battle. And the silent and unresisting air provided Hermie the proper climate for his incisive observation: "This has been the longest summer of my life."
Each of the boys has a role to play: Oscy is the pragmatist, the athlete, the pushy one; Hermie is the bookish dreamer, forever creating fantasies in his head ( "You see, Hermie – you're supposed to dream when you're asleep. If you dream when you're awake, people'll think you're buggy." ); Benjie is the nerdy one with the glowing watch and the shy disposition. Together they are about to stumble, willy-nilly, into adulthood. But will their friendship survive the shock?
At that moment in history Hermie was painfully astride the barbed-wire fence that separated boyhood from manhood.
also,
Three pinballs on the table of life, that's what they were. And in their own inimitable way, they were looking for a score.
Small towns in out of the way places provided little in the way of sexual education, so the boys had to resort either to daydreaming about heroines from comic books (Sheena of the Jungle features prominently in Hermie's daydreams), smuggle out from parental libraries of medical treatises, or painfully embarrassing conversations with the drugstore owner about prophylactics. While Oscy chooses the tried and tested method of picking up girls at the movies and Benjie seems content to play with his gadgets, Hermie falls under the spell of a mysterious woman living in an isolated house at the end of the beach. The fact that she is happily married doesn't seem to matter to our amateur voyeur. In fact, it seems to add to her allure.
She was clinging to the man, trying to become a part of him. He was leaving. She knew he had to go. She didn't know when she'd see him again. It was an old familiar story, but it seemed newly strange to Hermie to see it so expertly acted out somewhere else other than the RKO Kenmore.
We learn that her husband is called off to war, and that somehow Hermie makes himself useful to her: carrying groceries and moving heavy boxes in her loft. Oscy and Benjie are typical teenagers and are harassing Hermie constantly about his infatuation with an 'old' woman. Eventually they come to blows, and it seems that part of growing up is to abandon your best friends and to step boldly into the unknown.
She was radiant. It was the only word. Radiant. With her long legs and flowing hair and green eyes, soft and limpid green eyes, how in my dreams you haunt me ...
I love the movie, the way it captures the nostalgia, the fears and the rare moments of gentleness that mark our rites of passage. The book doesn't bring anything new into the equation, but it is well written, compensating for the lyrical passages with a healthy dose of crude humor. It also captures very well the period details and attitudes, although I would argue that what makes the story memorable is not in the local color, but in the universal feelings probably every teenager has gone through. I liked in particular the way the love story was handled: sex is not the reward of the bold (that's too close to rape), but the sharing of pain, and happiness - a shelter from the storm.
So, pick either the movie or the novel – both will do nicely for a trip down memory lane.
I've seen the movie version of this novel a couple of times already, but I said to myself: Let's see if the magic still prevails! I wanted to find out if the whimsical, bittersweet vibe of the movie is present also in the novel. I know now that both formats come from the same author, and that there is more than a little auto-biographical element to the story of coming of age during a glorious, painful summer on Nantuckett island. That's probably the reason why the story feels so authentic, so vibrant, although I suspect more than a fair share of the actual events have been glamorized, tempered by the passage of years and the fading nature of memory.
In 1970, a writer named Herman returns to Packett Island, the place where he used to spend his summer vacations until 1942.
He had done that before around there, a long time ago. He sank his feet into the good sand, and his toes flexed like cat's paws. He took off his navy blazer and slung it over his shoulder, and in this manner did he walk ahead towards the house on the horizon – and back toward the last painful days of his once-glorious innocence.
The best stories are rarely complicated: childhood friends, growing up, falling in love, exile from paradise into middle age, making peace with the past.
Once upon a time there were three teenage boys adrift on an island not yet discovered by hordes of tourists toting instant cameras, sun lotions and screaming toddlers. Nothing much happened in the sleepy village on Packett Island:
In the good company of each other, they were bored shitless.
They passed the one soggy cigarette down the line, puffing it dramatically like combat men enjoying a brief respite from bloody battle. And the silent and unresisting air provided Hermie the proper climate for his incisive observation: "This has been the longest summer of my life."
Each of the boys has a role to play: Oscy is the pragmatist, the athlete, the pushy one; Hermie is the bookish dreamer, forever creating fantasies in his head ( "You see, Hermie – you're supposed to dream when you're asleep. If you dream when you're awake, people'll think you're buggy." ); Benjie is the nerdy one with the glowing watch and the shy disposition. Together they are about to stumble, willy-nilly, into adulthood. But will their friendship survive the shock?
At that moment in history Hermie was painfully astride the barbed-wire fence that separated boyhood from manhood.
also,
Three pinballs on the table of life, that's what they were. And in their own inimitable way, they were looking for a score.
Small towns in out of the way places provided little in the way of sexual education, so the boys had to resort either to daydreaming about heroines from comic books (Sheena of the Jungle features prominently in Hermie's daydreams), smuggle out from parental libraries of medical treatises, or painfully embarrassing conversations with the drugstore owner about prophylactics. While Oscy chooses the tried and tested method of picking up girls at the movies and Benjie seems content to play with his gadgets, Hermie falls under the spell of a mysterious woman living in an isolated house at the end of the beach. The fact that she is happily married doesn't seem to matter to our amateur voyeur. In fact, it seems to add to her allure.
She was clinging to the man, trying to become a part of him. He was leaving. She knew he had to go. She didn't know when she'd see him again. It was an old familiar story, but it seemed newly strange to Hermie to see it so expertly acted out somewhere else other than the RKO Kenmore.
We learn that her husband is called off to war, and that somehow Hermie makes himself useful to her: carrying groceries and moving heavy boxes in her loft. Oscy and Benjie are typical teenagers and are harassing Hermie constantly about his infatuation with an 'old' woman. Eventually they come to blows, and it seems that part of growing up is to abandon your best friends and to step boldly into the unknown.
She was radiant. It was the only word. Radiant. With her long legs and flowing hair and green eyes, soft and limpid green eyes, how in my dreams you haunt me ...
I love the movie, the way it captures the nostalgia, the fears and the rare moments of gentleness that mark our rites of passage. The book doesn't bring anything new into the equation, but it is well written, compensating for the lyrical passages with a healthy dose of crude humor. It also captures very well the period details and attitudes, although I would argue that what makes the story memorable is not in the local color, but in the universal feelings probably every teenager has gone through. I liked in particular the way the love story was handled: sex is not the reward of the bold (that's too close to rape), but the sharing of pain, and happiness - a shelter from the storm.
So, pick either the movie or the novel – both will do nicely for a trip down memory lane.
January 19, 2010
I've read this a couple of times during the summer, there's a dog-eared copy at the house I spent all my summers at as a kid. I love the nostalgia and the coming-of-age jokes and I read it before I got the jokes and after, which makes it a part of my own coming of age, I suppose.
This was made into a movie, I think, but I always think of it as so similar to Stealing Home (not the plot but the central love story of a boy and an older girl who seems so impossibly beautiful and experienced she makes his youth all the more pronounced. Hmm. As a young lesbian I'm not sure WHY I would relate to that story.
Also has a whiff of things like Stand By Me and Dirty Dancing and the Wonder Years - all those eighties movies and TV shows that spoke to my generation about what we were going through while letting our parents reminisce about what they had gone through in a different time.
This is off topic but I feel like somehow people understood adolescents better in the eighties. There was a lot that spoke to my generation when we were thirteen. I look at some of the movies aimed at teenagers now and I worry that none of it is coming of age stories like Goonies and Gremlins and ET and Stand By Me and Karate Kid and all those movies I had which made teenagers the heroes who saved their families - not as superspies or superheroes and not because they were just being themselves and the guy liked them after all (though that happened, too), but because they were called on a quest.
I suppose I'm just waxing nostalgic - that era also brought us Heathers.
Will probably read again. I don't think it's the greatest book, someone pointed out it's too sentimental, which is true, and lots of things date it and are offensive now, but it captures a moment - in life and in history - like a flower squashed between pages of a dictionary.
This was made into a movie, I think, but I always think of it as so similar to Stealing Home (not the plot but the central love story of a boy and an older girl who seems so impossibly beautiful and experienced she makes his youth all the more pronounced. Hmm. As a young lesbian I'm not sure WHY I would relate to that story.
Also has a whiff of things like Stand By Me and Dirty Dancing and the Wonder Years - all those eighties movies and TV shows that spoke to my generation about what we were going through while letting our parents reminisce about what they had gone through in a different time.
This is off topic but I feel like somehow people understood adolescents better in the eighties. There was a lot that spoke to my generation when we were thirteen. I look at some of the movies aimed at teenagers now and I worry that none of it is coming of age stories like Goonies and Gremlins and ET and Stand By Me and Karate Kid and all those movies I had which made teenagers the heroes who saved their families - not as superspies or superheroes and not because they were just being themselves and the guy liked them after all (though that happened, too), but because they were called on a quest.
I suppose I'm just waxing nostalgic - that era also brought us Heathers.
Will probably read again. I don't think it's the greatest book, someone pointed out it's too sentimental, which is true, and lots of things date it and are offensive now, but it captures a moment - in life and in history - like a flower squashed between pages of a dictionary.
August 10, 2019
"In the summer of '42 they raided the Coast Guard station four times. They saw five movies and had nine days of rain. Benjie broke his watch, Oscy gave up the harmonica, and in a very special way, Hermie was lost forever." This was the summer when 15-year-old Hermie also lost his childhood.
In this semi-autobiographical novel, the adult Herman reminisces about a particular summer that his family rented a house on Packett Island. His friends were Oscy, the one-month older self-proclaimed expert sexual relationships between men and women; and Benjie, the younger and gawkier member of the trio. Hermie is an introspective romantic frequently lost in a daydream. He is the stereotypical testosterone-driven adolescent male who frequently imagines the opposite sex through his x-ray eyes. A recent target of his affection is the older by five or six years young married woman who has moved into one of the seaside cottages.
Having watched the movie when I was not much older than Hermie, I decided to read the book. The movie was fairly close to the book; however, with the film you are not a witness to Hermie's daydream musings. The friends' antics frequently had me laughing aloud but were mellowed with the poignant ending. If you were ever an adolescent boy, you will connect with Hermie and his friends and if you were an adolescent girl, you will understand better what was truly on their mind.
In this semi-autobiographical novel, the adult Herman reminisces about a particular summer that his family rented a house on Packett Island. His friends were Oscy, the one-month older self-proclaimed expert sexual relationships between men and women; and Benjie, the younger and gawkier member of the trio. Hermie is an introspective romantic frequently lost in a daydream. He is the stereotypical testosterone-driven adolescent male who frequently imagines the opposite sex through his x-ray eyes. A recent target of his affection is the older by five or six years young married woman who has moved into one of the seaside cottages.
Having watched the movie when I was not much older than Hermie, I decided to read the book. The movie was fairly close to the book; however, with the film you are not a witness to Hermie's daydream musings. The friends' antics frequently had me laughing aloud but were mellowed with the poignant ending. If you were ever an adolescent boy, you will connect with Hermie and his friends and if you were an adolescent girl, you will understand better what was truly on their mind.
April 8, 2011
Good writing and characters. I've seen the movie but I think the book is better. Hermie experiences a range of emotions at 15, and being inside his head is hilarious; I laughed out loud. It's summer, he's young, he's in love with a 23 yr old married woman, and his hormones are driving him crazy. He wants to do something important, he wants to be mature and to grow up; most of all he wants to get laid.
July 31, 2021
This is a beautifully rendered story, wrapped in nostalgia, of a coming-of-age for a young man in his mid-teens, during the summer of 1942 on an sleepy resort island near New York City. Truly, this novel reads very much like the movie version.
I'm not ashamed to say that I was close to tears when I finished reading "SUMMER OF '42" a few minutes ago. (7:38AM Pacific Daylight Time - July 31, 2021.)
I'm not ashamed to say that I was close to tears when I finished reading "SUMMER OF '42" a few minutes ago. (7:38AM Pacific Daylight Time - July 31, 2021.)
December 27, 2013
Hermie is fifteen, too young to join in the war effort and too old to be counted a kid. He is one of a gang of three boys whose families take a vacation in the summer at Nantucket Island. They run with the sun and wind and dream of days when they are treated as adults.
This summer is the turning point for them. Girls, dating, and an experience that changes Hermie forever.
Love and war touches him and the hurt from both feels nearly the same.
Summer of ’42 was the movie everyone wanted to see in 1971. I stood in a line to watch the film that stretched down the block and around the corner.
Herman Raucher wrote the script for the movie first then wrote the book, definitely not the norm. It became a runaway best seller. Funny, realistic, it is a self-portrait of Mr. Raucher’s experience that summer, his coming-of-age.
A few years ago, I found the book in the bargain section at a book fair. For a dollar, I got a pristine, hardback with a dust cover, a most excellent deal.
What I found so amazing about the author, was the simple, indirect words that he used when describing the sex scene. I don’t care for a play-by-play of intimate moments. I like it left to my imagination. This book is the epitome of how to convey the act without making it an instruction book on intercourse.
I didn't realize until I re-read the book for this post that I employ the same tactic when I describe physical love.
Although I highly recommend this book, it isn't easy to find. Out of print and ignored, it lingers in places other than Amazon. I suggest the library, garage sales, and book fairs.
This summer is the turning point for them. Girls, dating, and an experience that changes Hermie forever.
Love and war touches him and the hurt from both feels nearly the same.
Summer of ’42 was the movie everyone wanted to see in 1971. I stood in a line to watch the film that stretched down the block and around the corner.
Herman Raucher wrote the script for the movie first then wrote the book, definitely not the norm. It became a runaway best seller. Funny, realistic, it is a self-portrait of Mr. Raucher’s experience that summer, his coming-of-age.
A few years ago, I found the book in the bargain section at a book fair. For a dollar, I got a pristine, hardback with a dust cover, a most excellent deal.
What I found so amazing about the author, was the simple, indirect words that he used when describing the sex scene. I don’t care for a play-by-play of intimate moments. I like it left to my imagination. This book is the epitome of how to convey the act without making it an instruction book on intercourse.
I didn't realize until I re-read the book for this post that I employ the same tactic when I describe physical love.
Although I highly recommend this book, it isn't easy to find. Out of print and ignored, it lingers in places other than Amazon. I suggest the library, garage sales, and book fairs.
August 28, 2021
Picking up this book was a long-awaited trip down Memory Lane for me. Having first read it when I was around Hermie's age, teen me treasured this look at a boy who learns about life and grows up during World War II. Having discovered a new paperback edition recently, I decided this was the time for me to remember just as the grown Hermie does in the book. Maybe that was not the best idea.
Much of the book works still. For example, the look at the American homefront feels very authentic, as does the one-track minds of teenage boys vividly on display here. That's the problem as well; Raucher overdoes the raunchier parts of his tale. Too often Hermie gets carried away in his own fantasies, which is true to life but does not always make for good reading. Any book I have to skim at times suffers no matter how much I enjoyed the rest. This is a rare instance of a movie being better than the book. Three and a half stars.
Much of the book works still. For example, the look at the American homefront feels very authentic, as does the one-track minds of teenage boys vividly on display here. That's the problem as well; Raucher overdoes the raunchier parts of his tale. Too often Hermie gets carried away in his own fantasies, which is true to life but does not always make for good reading. Any book I have to skim at times suffers no matter how much I enjoyed the rest. This is a rare instance of a movie being better than the book. Three and a half stars.
June 16, 2011
I've read this book many times since I found it in the linen closet when I was 12 or so. The characters. The thought process. For once, I could identify with a white kid around my age who, even 45 years previous, still fancied himself the smartest thing in the room, albeit I had no Oscy to back me up.
When people talk about "coming of age", I think of this book.
When people talk about "coming of age", I think of this book.
July 15, 2019
A lover of coming of age books! This was right up my alley. Read the book many years ago and it still brings out the emotions. This book was 5 stars ten years ago and still has lost nothing. A Classic 5 star years ago it has aged well. A classic movie also.
July 18, 2018
Loved the book, the movie and the soundtrack! Read it when I was approx. 12 or 13.
July 4, 2024
Remember being fifteen? The awkwardness, the curiosity, and the never-ending questions? Raucher captures it all in a way that’ll have you laughing out loud. The dialogue is so funny it had me cracking up every few pages.
Seeing the world from a teenage boy's point of view is both hilarious and heartwarming. Their adventures and misadventures, their attempts to understand the mysteries of life, love, and everything in between are a riot. You'll find yourself reminiscing about the days gone by.
Seeing the world from a teenage boy's point of view is both hilarious and heartwarming. Their adventures and misadventures, their attempts to understand the mysteries of life, love, and everything in between are a riot. You'll find yourself reminiscing about the days gone by.
April 21, 2019
Romantic coming-of-age story, and a book of its time (1971). Had moments, but I never cared much for the characters. The boys were appalling. Well, 15-ish, but still. Anyway, I lost interest and started skimming. The ending was OK but forced. Not really for me. 2.3 stars.
November 28, 2025
I was told this was a classic but honestly i think it's just Baby Boomer nostalgia. Essentially it's "The Wonder Years" set a generation earlier and with a bit more sex. I half expected to hear "Turn, Turn. Turn" by The Byrds playing at the end of every chapter.
Self indulgent and boring.
Self indulgent and boring.
June 12, 2018
Packett Island off the New England coast. It's 1970 and Hermie is recalling the summer of 1942 when he and his pals were fifteen and preoccupied with sex.
I'm frustrated. Forty percent of this is brilliant, and maybe sixty percent is... something else. I'm not saying the sixty percent is bad, but it feels tonally out of step. Part of this is Hermie's transitioning from boy to not yet man, and this out of step sense does mirror this transitional stage, but I felt put off by the wild swings between authentic character growth and hyperbolic jocularity that seemed to discount any previous gains. This resulted in me lingering in awkwardness, unable to find readerly comfort. Does this echo Hermie's journey? Yep, it sure does. Did I like this echoing? Nope, I sure didn't.
Nostalgia is present, and so to are the familiar trappings of all coming of age stories, which isn't a bad thing, but it's a thing. It's not that I mind being trapped in the mind of a fifteen-year-old boy obsessed with sex and desperately wishing to be a man, it's that I mind being stuck in the head of a forty-something year old man remembering what it was like being a boy when the forty-something year old man hasn't really grown. I'd probably feel differently if the man remembering this time in his life were older and wiser.
3.5/5
I'm frustrated. Forty percent of this is brilliant, and maybe sixty percent is... something else. I'm not saying the sixty percent is bad, but it feels tonally out of step. Part of this is Hermie's transitioning from boy to not yet man, and this out of step sense does mirror this transitional stage, but I felt put off by the wild swings between authentic character growth and hyperbolic jocularity that seemed to discount any previous gains. This resulted in me lingering in awkwardness, unable to find readerly comfort. Does this echo Hermie's journey? Yep, it sure does. Did I like this echoing? Nope, I sure didn't.
Nostalgia is present, and so to are the familiar trappings of all coming of age stories, which isn't a bad thing, but it's a thing. It's not that I mind being trapped in the mind of a fifteen-year-old boy obsessed with sex and desperately wishing to be a man, it's that I mind being stuck in the head of a forty-something year old man remembering what it was like being a boy when the forty-something year old man hasn't really grown. I'd probably feel differently if the man remembering this time in his life were older and wiser.
3.5/5
April 26, 2010
My goodness the memories... I read this just after it came out, I was in the beginning of a marriage to my high school "sweet heart", with whom I was torridly in love.
The book about a young man (supposedly at least the writers memoirs) a generation before who "fell in love" with a slightly older woman who is celebrating (apparently) her honeymoon with a young soldier. They are all "at the beach" and WWII is just begun.
Normally a good way to get me to avoid a book is to tag it a "coming of age" story...but I was barley 20 and didn't know any better when this came out.
It's a romance, it's tragic, possibly a little pathetic, it will probably appeal to the young. I won't be reading it again, but as a kid my "girl" got me to read a lot of romance that I might not read now...I'm not sure I was actually thinking all that clearly at the time.
Not really a bad read, I suppose the book and movie are still out there for the young, romantic, and angsty.
The book about a young man (supposedly at least the writers memoirs) a generation before who "fell in love" with a slightly older woman who is celebrating (apparently) her honeymoon with a young soldier. They are all "at the beach" and WWII is just begun.
Normally a good way to get me to avoid a book is to tag it a "coming of age" story...but I was barley 20 and didn't know any better when this came out.
It's a romance, it's tragic, possibly a little pathetic, it will probably appeal to the young. I won't be reading it again, but as a kid my "girl" got me to read a lot of romance that I might not read now...I'm not sure I was actually thinking all that clearly at the time.
Not really a bad read, I suppose the book and movie are still out there for the young, romantic, and angsty.
February 1, 2009
From this book I learned the word "prophylactic." When was a kid, I got virtually no sex education, neither from my parents nor my school. Whenever I came across a word that had even the vaguest sexual overtones, I would look it up. Thank goodness for the dictionary.
This book was about teenage boys in World War II America. There was some discussion about condoms, but the word used was "prophylactic." I looked it up right away and found out just a tiny bit more about sex and birth control.
Recently I had been thinking about this book, remembering that I had read something back in the day with the title "Summer of" some year. I couldn't remember the year. Then at work I got an ILL request for this book, found it on the shelf and was able to flip through it to make sure this was the book I read back in the 80s. Yep, this is it.
This book was about teenage boys in World War II America. There was some discussion about condoms, but the word used was "prophylactic." I looked it up right away and found out just a tiny bit more about sex and birth control.
Recently I had been thinking about this book, remembering that I had read something back in the day with the title "Summer of" some year. I couldn't remember the year. Then at work I got an ILL request for this book, found it on the shelf and was able to flip through it to make sure this was the book I read back in the 80s. Yep, this is it.
November 3, 2017
A home-front novel of sorts set on Nantucket, as young teen Hermie (yes, semi-autobigraphical) comes of age. He's obsessed with sex, a familiar trope in novels of teenage boys, and he falls for the wife of a soldier who leaves for the war mid-summer. Lots of antics from him and his friends, but it's mostly Hermie, and inside his head and his fantasies about an "older woman." Easy pacing; reflective narrator (in fact, an older Hermie in the 1970s is looking back on this pivotal summer at the book's beginning and end); character-centered and open-ended; sense of time and place; conversational, engaging style and graceful prose; nostalgic, poignant, bitterweet. Is it worth revisiting? My memories of the book are mixed with my memories of the movie; it feels more dated than timeless, but that may just be me.
May 20, 2016
In Everyone's Life There is a Summer of '42.....
Unfortunately I Can't Get This Masterpiece But I've Watched The Movie & It Left A Footprint In My Heart,The Music Was So Magical Specially In The Dance Scene.
I Made A Tribute For This Beautiful "Summer Of '42" Which We May All Lived It As Hermie Did...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzdR5I...
And Please If Someone Could Help Me With The Book I'd Be Grateful ))
Unfortunately I Can't Get This Masterpiece But I've Watched The Movie & It Left A Footprint In My Heart,The Music Was So Magical Specially In The Dance Scene.
I Made A Tribute For This Beautiful "Summer Of '42" Which We May All Lived It As Hermie Did...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzdR5I...
And Please If Someone Could Help Me With The Book I'd Be Grateful ))
September 24, 2023
Damn, this hits home, hard. 5/5
August 11, 2023
Classic coming of age story. Beautiful prose throughout.
September 9, 2018
Life is made up of many Small comings and goings
And for everything a man takes with him
There is something he must leave behind
Herman Raucher
It’s 1970 and Herman has always wanted to return to Pickett Island but he never seemed to have the time,he has not been back since the Summer of 42,as he wanders the Island he spots the house where Dorthy lived,after all this time and all the past years he still loves her,he can still remember the voices calling————— come on Hermie,for Chrissakes,he can still remember as he stood there,he still wanted to be a part of “the Terrible Trio” as they rambled around the Island,Hermie and Oscy seemed to think of nothing but sex and how to do it,Benjie,a few years younger hasn’t cought on yet,he will,we all do eventually.
Hermie meets and falls in love with Dorothy a 23 year old war bride,her husband is in the Army and soon leaves the Island on his way to the war.
In Hermies highly imaginative mind he and Dorothy are having sex just about every hour or so.
The story is funny and an easy read,although many younger readers may not recognize some of the household products in 1942,such “ rinseo white rinseo bright “ and LAVA not so bright—-and the war music,the Andrew sisters as they entertained the troops.
I was four years old in the summer of 42 and I’d like to believe I was out of diapers,however 10 years later they were still singing the war songs and still had the same household products
At the very end of the story Herman somes up his recollections. In the Summer of 42 they raided the Coast Guard station four times. They saw five movies and had nine days of rain, and in a very special way, Hermie was lost forever.
P.S. men do cry on occasion!
And for everything a man takes with him
There is something he must leave behind
Herman Raucher
It’s 1970 and Herman has always wanted to return to Pickett Island but he never seemed to have the time,he has not been back since the Summer of 42,as he wanders the Island he spots the house where Dorthy lived,after all this time and all the past years he still loves her,he can still remember the voices calling————— come on Hermie,for Chrissakes,he can still remember as he stood there,he still wanted to be a part of “the Terrible Trio” as they rambled around the Island,Hermie and Oscy seemed to think of nothing but sex and how to do it,Benjie,a few years younger hasn’t cought on yet,he will,we all do eventually.
Hermie meets and falls in love with Dorothy a 23 year old war bride,her husband is in the Army and soon leaves the Island on his way to the war.
In Hermies highly imaginative mind he and Dorothy are having sex just about every hour or so.
The story is funny and an easy read,although many younger readers may not recognize some of the household products in 1942,such “ rinseo white rinseo bright “ and LAVA not so bright—-and the war music,the Andrew sisters as they entertained the troops.
I was four years old in the summer of 42 and I’d like to believe I was out of diapers,however 10 years later they were still singing the war songs and still had the same household products
At the very end of the story Herman somes up his recollections. In the Summer of 42 they raided the Coast Guard station four times. They saw five movies and had nine days of rain, and in a very special way, Hermie was lost forever.
P.S. men do cry on occasion!
July 4, 2023
Did you ever meet a stranger at a party who told you a dirty joke? You laughed politely because it was a little funny. Then the stranger told you another joke and another and another and pretty soon you were looking at your watch, looking for the door? That’s my experience with reading this time-wasting author-indulgent piece of summer crap literature. The book and its movie tie-in were rather popular when I was a kid and I had the impression from then that this was going to be a somewhat serious read. It was not. It was basically Porky’s set in the 1940s. Of course, the book comes at that period from an early 1970s perspective so the oh-so-humorous author does his best impression of Phillip Roth (but in a watered-down Walt Disney way). It’s one cliché after another; all machismo and Playboy party jokes. For example, an entire chapter is devoted to a teenager trying to bone up the courage to buy rubbers from a cranky old drug store attendant. Sound familiar? Yes? Then you’ve seen every teen movie from Hollywood produced in the last 50 years and can skip this book. It’s the fact that it is a book and it wasted my time so egregiously that I found most contemptible. The film must have been in the works when the author was commissioned to write this. No, I didn’t look that up and I’m not going to because I’ve already wasted enough time on this. It’s just that books should give readers something more than Vaudevillian gags and nostalgia. Yes, I forgot to mention the nostalgia is suffocating.
December 5, 2017
This book is kind of dated in some of its pop culture references, yet still relevant in its coming-of-age themes. It does have mature content matter (Raucher definitely didn’t shy away from the sexual thoughts adolescent males might be thinking/saying!), so this novel wouldn’t be for everyone. Overall, Summer of ‘42 was just an average read. But, I can now check “A Novel With a Season in its Title” off of my reading challenge list.
November 27, 2009
I remember reading this book as a teenager and I was laughing so hard my brother came into my room and asked me what the heck I was doing. What I recall the most was how funny it was and how beautifully the painful journey through adolescence was depicted.
February 4, 2018
Who hasn't been alternately a namesake of Hermie, Oscy, and Benjie? The same feelings, the same attitude and fears and desires. The paperback edition in my bookcase always makes me yield to the temptation of reafing it.
April 12, 2013
A great and thoughtful summer read. What cost we pay in wars.
September 12, 2014
A big thank you to Trevor for reminding me about this one. It was so good.
February 26, 2019
I remember seeing the previews for the movie when I was the same age as Hermie and I finally got around to reading the book. It is amazing how the book can swiftly take you back to being age 15 and all the craziness that entailed. It's a fast and funny read set on the backdrop of sexual awakening. The object of the books desires is Dorothy a 22 year old women married to a soldier. The awkwardness and curiosity of Hermie and his friends create much of the humor, and like life, you'll laugh until you cry.
November 18, 2020
I loved this book. It was very much like raising my kids again, hearing their thoughts, they way they talk to each other when they l think no one can hear them, and their interactions. I enjoyed the movie after reading the book. Those tiny details that enrich a book weren't really possible in the movie but the director did a very good job being faithful to the book.
November 15, 2023
I saw the movie 50 years ago. I prefer the movie. Younger readers might have trouble with the references to WWII and the 1940's music. I bit too much daydreaming for me, that's why I thought the movie was better. Women may find this book hard to follow, this is the world as seen through the eyes of 2 teenage boys.
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