Maggie Weldon's family first came to Ogunquit, Maine for
summer vacation forty years ago. That's when she met
Delphine Crandall. Maggie's family was well-off, but
Delphine's family was a hard-working one with no time for
vacations. However, the two girls became loyal and steadfast
friends and maintained that friendship through their college
years. Delphine walked away from the friendship right after
graduation; Maggie never understood why.
Now Maggie Weldon Wilkes is trying to reconnect with
Delphine and reconstitute that friendship. She feels that
Delphine abandoned her over twenty years ago, but has hopes
of reviving the friendship once again. The two women live in
very different worlds now, but Maggie is tenacious when she
wants something bad enough and she really wants this
friendship restored. She needs it.
Delphine is unnerved when Maggie shows up in Ogunquit. She's
not sure why Maggie is doing this or what she means to
accomplish. Both ladies do a lot of independent reminiscing
and soul-searching throughout the story. This introspection
causes them to realize things about themselves they don't
like. Maggie finds she is selfish, immature, and wallows in
self-pity from time to time. Delphine begins to feel
unfulfilled, inadequate, and wasted. No husband, no
children, no grandchildren; but all choices she made.
Although Delphine mostly focuses on negative memories, she
does remember what friendship used to feel like, an
emotional bond, an excitement, a deep comfort. Maggie only
remembers the good things; her perspective is slightly
skewed. Delphine chose to let her friendship with Maggie
die. Why do we learn to appreciate someone or something only
after it is dead?
Will their differences and the two different worlds they now
live in create a divide that cannot be crossed? Don't
friendships need some commonality to make them work? SUMMER
FRIENDS is a story about making amends and reclaiming
something that was once precious. Perhaps we should all
reach out to old friends more often and try to recapture at
least some part of those friendships. Holly Chamberlin has
penned another stunning success that you are sure to enjoy.
This will be a great summer read.
Over the course of one eventful summer, nine-year-old native
Mainer Delphine Crandall and Maggie Weldon, a privileged
girl 'from away,' become best friends. Despite the social
gulf between them, their bond is strengthened during
vacations spent rambling around Ogunquit's beaches and quiet
country lanes, and lasts throughout their college years in
Boston. It seems nothing can separate them, yet after
graduation, Delphine and Maggie slowly drift in different
directions...
With her MBA, Maggie acquires a lucrative career, and
eventually marries. Delphine is drawn back home, her life
steeped in family and the Maine community she loves. Twenty
years pass, until one summer, Maggie announces she's
returning to Ogunquit to pay an extended visit. And for the
first time, the friends are drawn to reflect on their
choices and compromises, the girls they were and the women
they've become, the promises kept and broken - and the deep,
lasting ties that even time can never quite wash away...
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