What I’m Reading: Hilma Wolitzer

Summer Reading by Hilma Wolitzer

Four Stars

Heading off to a weekend far from screens of any kind — tv, computer, cell phone, etc. — I picked up a couple of beach reads from authors I’d never tried before. Last up, Hilma Wolitzer’s Summer Reading: A Novel. I added Wolitzer’s latest book to my Amazon wish list after reading a review in the NYTimes, so I snapped up this novel because it seemed a perfect fit for my objective of finding beach reads, and am I ever glad I did! Wolitzer’s novel is set in the beach towns of the Hamptons and told from the points-of-view of three women. Angela Graves is a former English professor who retired to a small cottage in a Hamptons village and who picks up extra money by leading book groups. Lissy Snyder is the newlywed trophy wife of a megabucks corporate type whose summer home has a cutesy name and who is hostess for one of Angela’s book groups. And Michelle Cutty is a Hamptons native who works — grudgingly — as Lissy’s housekeeper and gets an earful of book talk when she serves fancy drinks and upscale snacks to the book group. The books read and discussed over the summer — which Wolitzer thoughtfully provides as a list at the end of the book — help trigger important changes for each of the three women. Angela is lonely and needs to find friends. Lissy lacks self-confidence, especially with her step-children, and needs to find strength. Michelle is drifting through her life and relationship and needs to decide what she wants out of life. Wolitzer gives each of her characters a distinct voice and attitude, and she manages to make all three very different women quite appealing. For Lissy, especially, that was a huge challenge — born rich, kinda vacuous, sort of a plaything — and Wolitzer succeeds in making her both sympathetic and interesting. Wolitzer loves her characters, which is my current favorite attribute for a novelist, and in that she reminds me of Nick Hornby and Richard Russo. However, the woman writer she most reminds me of is Elinor Lipman. What a summer treat to find a brand new writer with a nice fat backlist just waiting to be read!