Summer of '69

“When I was teaching kids to drive in Brookline, I knew the war was going on, I watched it on TV with you and Mom and Dad, I heard the body counts, but that didn’t feel real. Now I’m here, and it’s too real. Every day requires fortitude, which wasn’t a word I knew the definition of until I got here.”

In his first letter from the war, Tiger clarifies the difference between imagining an event and experiencing it. Life on the battlefield requires he must call up courage each day. This is one of many statements Tiger makes that shows how he’d been privileged, unlike others. It also speaks to Tiger’s strength of mind, a fact David later attests to (137).

“[…] when she walked out of Woolworths with the mascara tucked safely in the pocket of her orange windbreaker, she felt a rush of adrenaline that she thought must be similar to getting high. She felt good! She felt powerful!”

This quote exemplifies the emotional satisfaction Jessie receives from shoplifting. Her statement that the theft makes her feel powerful suggests that she feels powerless from the combination of tumultuous world events, Tiger’s deployment, and the growing pains of turning 13. The shoplifting, which gives her the feeling of “getting high” has the potential to become addictive.

“‘[It] was good to see you, Rajani. And nice to meet you, Kirby. Enjoy our island.’ She holds the front screen door open almost as if she’s eager for Kirby to get out…She knows who I am, Kirby thinks, and her dreams of a fresh start with a clean slate here on Martha’s Vineyard, vanishes in a snap.”

Here Dr. Frazier’s recognition of Kirby from the clinic months before shatters Kirby’s dreams of a new start. Although Dr. Frazier keeps her secret, Kirby is taken back into the shame that won’t release her. Scottie Turbo, his hidden marriage, and her miscarriage, haunt her even as she attempts to put it behind her.

“Although Blair considered herself a modern woman, getting married was never far from her mind. Nearly all of Blair’s Wellesley classmates were engaged by the time they graduated. The exception was Blair’s best friend, Sallie, who, like Blair, wanted a career […] A truly modern woman, Blair thought, could have both.” 

Blair articulates her main desire here to be both a married woman with a career. She is the exception to her friends, who, except for Sallie, give up their careers for their marriages. This may explain Angus’s later expectations and why Blair does accept his demand for her to not work.

“Before Tiger left, it was just a number. Now, Jessie realizes, each body in that count was a person with a name and a family and talents and quirks and likes and dislikes. She also realizes that if Tiger dies, he will shrink to a number, one more body among tens of thousands. […] Jessie can’t listen to Kate and Exalta another second.”

Jessie thinks here about Tiger as Exalta and Kate fight over whether to keep a new television in the house. Exalta, who doesn’t like new electronics, objects while Kate argues she must watch the nightly reports about Vietnam. This quote shows how Jessie realizes how many people’s lives are affected by their sons going off to war and that behind each “number” is a person. Her anti-war feelings hinge on this cost.

“Tiger’s absence is only temporary, Kate tells herself. She will have faith in Bill Crimmins. She will do her best to make the boy feel welcome, and she will be duly rewarded. Mr. Crimmins will find a way to get Tiger home. They will be a family again.”

Kate engages with a psychological tactic known as bargaining. She believes if she is kind to Wilder’s son with Lorraine she will be “rewarded” with Tiger’s safety. This passage also shows that she also relies on Bill to solve a problem that he really can’t solve and sets up her later resentment. It also lets the reader know that Kate feels the separation of family deeply and desires to hold it together.

“[Kate] reaches over to brush a stray hair from Blair’s forehead, and Blair briefly leans into the cooling comfort of her mother’s palm, remembering how she used to pretend she felt feverish just so that her mother would rest that soft and steady hand against her face. The memory ends when Kate stands up briskly and leaves the bedroom. She returns a moment later with a glass of brown liquid over ice. At first Blair thinks it's iced tea, but when she smells it, she’s happy to find it’s scotch.”

Besides showing the time period’s erroneous belief that alcohol would help during pregnancy, this passage shows that Kate’s response to distressing news like Angus’s possible affair is to mitigate it with alcohol. Blair’s thoughts show her own awareness that she sometimes “pretend[s]” certain behaviors to gain attention, a response which she later modifies as she becomes more self-aware.

“The sensation of Garrison rubbing up against her won’t go away. It’s like he’s branded her […]. When she gets home, she’ll tell her mother what happened, and Garrison will be fired and sent back to Tennessee. But Jessie fears she will never, ever have the courage to tell her mother. Nor can she imagine telling her father. She could tell Blair or Kirby, but her older sisters aren’t here. They’ve abandoned her.”

This passage shows how much Garrison’s actions have upset Jessie and how she feels tainted by the experience. However, can’t imagine telling her parents, a common response to victimization. She further feels that she’s been “abandoned” by her sisters, who are concerned with their own lives. This scene heightens Hilderbrand’s themes of isolation and the negativity of suppressing feelings.

“‘Because we don’t belong there,’ Patty says. ‘They don’t want white people there.’

‘Darren invited me,’ Kirby says. ‘He didn’t seem to think it was a big deal and he knows what color I am. “The times, they are a-changing.”’

‘Not that much,’ Patty says with a wistful smile. ‘You’ll see.’”

This exchange takes place as Kirby tries to get Patty to accompany her to Inkwell Beach, which turns out to be segregated. Kirby’s hopefulness is shown in her belief that the world is becoming more progressive. Patty is more of a realist, suggesting that growth is slow. Kirby’s enthusiasm for Darren hasn’t yet butted up against people’s resistance to their relationship.

“Joey holds up a finger and Blair thinks he’s about to inform her she’s a spoiled brat, but instead he races down the beach to the ice cream concession. Blair squints to see him pulling coins out of his pocket and the next thing she knows, Joey is headed back toward her, holding a can of whipped cream. […] This, Blair thinks, is what it feels like to be adored.”

Joey drives Blair to the ferry after Angus has kicked her out for kissing him. Blair’s worry about being perceived as a “spoiled brat” suggests that life with Angus has caused her to belittle her own desires. Joey’s gesture of getting the whipped cream strikes her as highly romantic, like the words he inscribed on her lighter. This shows how deeply Blair wishes to be adored.

“The sad fact was that Kate was a captive of her own mother, of All’s Fair, and of the life she’d known for the past forty-eight years on Nantucket. She didn’t want to move. She didn’t want to change.

‘Mother won’t live forever,’ Kate said.

David, because he was a gentle, kind man and wouldn’t argue with her even when she had summarily dismissed his hope for a new life here, smiled. ‘Wanna bet?’”

David has asked Kate to look at a house on Nantucket so they can buy it and have a life of their own. Kate here shows that she’s having a difficult time imagining change and chafes at running her own life. Exalta’s way isn’t the right way, nor is it productive for her marriage, but Kate seems arrested by her past. She can’t move on even though she knows she should. David’s patience and good humor are shown here—so that when he later gets frustrated with Kate, the reader knows how serious the situation is.

“‘Hey,’ Kirby says, gently taking Patty’s elbow so she can get a better look. ‘What’s this?’

Patty yanks her arm away. ‘I told you,’ she says. ‘Role-playing.’”

Kirby finds another bruise on Patty. This exchange may either be denial that anything is wrong—or one of Patty’s admissions to Kirby that she really does enjoy a sadomasochistic relationship. It is later revealed by Luke that Patty supposedly “likes it when [he] hurts [her]” (335). Kirby’s desire for Patty to reject Luke’s abuse shows she is kind but is also a way for her to mentally reject the imbalanced power dynamic between herself and Scottie.

“Kate encouraged Blair to stick it out with Angus even though Angus is engaging in an affair with the woman named Trixie (who can only be a prostitute) because that was what Kate herself had done—she stuck it out. But why should poor Blair have to suffer as Kate did? For propriety’s sake? […] Why shouldn’t Blair be with Angus’s brother, Joey, if that’s who she really loves? Blair deserves to be adored. All women deserve to be adored.”

At her outing with Bitsy Dunscombe, Kate remembers how Wilder cheated on her and wonders why she put up with it, giving in to Exalta’s insistence on propriety. She’s suddenly aware that her advice to Blair to do the same isn’t necessarily positive. This shows not only Kate standing up for her daughter’s choices but giving sympathy to her younger self.

“[… your mother] helped me when I desperately needed it. But she doesn’t want you to date me. You’re her only child, a son who goes to Harvard. She wants you to be with someone virtuous and principled and unsullied. It doesn’t matter that I didn’t end up having an abortion. It matters that I was careless and exercised poor judgment and let myself get into trouble.”

On Lobsterville Beach, Kirby explains to Darren why his mother, a good person, disapproves of her. In telling Darren about her past, Kirby actively works through her own feelings of shame for getting pregnant, even though she didn’t know Scottie was married. While Darren doesn’t judge her for her past, he is concerned about what his mother thinks, and has deliberately kept his relationship with Kirby a secret. Kirby realizes this secrecy makes their relationship untenable, although she cannot blame a mother for loving her son and breaks up with Darren.

“From her window, Jessie watches Pick ride off. He’s so self-assured, the way he swings his hips from side to side on his bike and then stands straight up on the pedals, head held high. There isn’t a boy on earth as magnetic and irresistible as Pick Crimmins. Jessie is in love with him and she will be in love with him until she dies, and maybe even after that.”

After kissing Pick for the first time, Jessie imagines she’s in love. In her eyes, Pick is attractive for being “self-assured” which makes him “magnetic”. Pick represents what Jessie feels she is not and she is drawn to him for that reason, not realizing that he is as vulnerable as she is. The intensity of this moment helps to show the severity of her heartbreak later.

“Bill softens immediately; she can see forgiveness in his face. He is a good man, Exalta is right, he has placed himself in service to this house and their family for over three decades. That Kate now harbors some anger and resentment toward Bill Crimmins and worse that she feels disillusioned by him is breaking her heart, along with everything else in her life.

Bill puts a hand on her shoulder. ‘I understand, Katie. I’ve lost a child myself.’”

Kate’s heart is “breaking” because she’s angry at Bill for not being able to get Tiger out of harm’s way. Bill has come to her rescue before and she really believed he had the power to do so again, viewing him almost like a benevolent but now failed father. Kate’s vulnerability makes her act childishly which Bill recognizes, using her childhood nickname. However, he also acknowledges their connection as adults as he points out they each have children they cannot help.

“What did she want from life? She needed to shrug off heartbreak and disillusionment and start to forge a real identity. She would return to the person she was on the morning of that first protest march, when she pulled on her tie-dyed peace sign T-shirt and zipped up her fringed suede boots. That woman was passionate and self-possessed, carefree and confident. Kirby had been feeling like her love affair with Scottie and her relationship with Darren diminished her but now she understood she had that backward. Those two relationships, even in their failure, had given Kirby something—strength, she supposed, and resolve.”

Kirby tries to redefine herself after her breakup with Darren. She recognizes her need to “forge a real identity.” At first, she believes that this means erasing her relationships and going back to a former self. However, by the end of the passage, she realizes she’s actually grown from her relationships with both Scottie and Darren. She’s a new person but that doesn’t mean she has to be “diminished.” This shows that the new start Kirby hoped for did happen.

“And so many fine antiques. Exalta’s whatchamacallits—and that spinning wheel. Hey, do you remember when Kirby got in trouble for breaking the spinning wheel and she wouldn’t apologize. That’s because I was the one who broke it. I had taken a bunch of your diet pills and I was buzzing and wanted to see how fast it could go.”

Lorraine Crimmins confesses that she let Kirby, who was five, take the blame for her bad behavior. This exonerates Kirby, whose reputation as a troublemaker began with this incident. Lorraine is unkind and irresponsible, willing to pin her own wrongdoings on other people. This encourages the reader to sympathize with Kate and seems to solidify the reader’s perception of Lorraine as someone who is “damaged” both in the past and the present.

“It’s a revelation. Her mother is a human being who feels pain—sadness, loneliness, confusion. Jessie thought all grown-ups lived in a different atmosphere, one that was like a cool, clear gel. Adults had problems, Jessie knew—money and their children—but one of the benefits of reaching adulthood, she thought, was that you outgrew the raw, hot, chaotic emotions of adolescence.”

Jessie realizes that there isn’t a clear-cut division between childhood and adulthood, and that everyone regardless of age, is confronted with events that bring them “sadness, loneliness, confusion.” There is no magic bubble that makes life less messy. This epiphany allows Jessie to see and sympathize with her mother, father, and Exalta in a new way.

“I’m sorry, his eyes say. I had a wife and a baby on the way. But please know that I did fall in love with you. I’m in love with you still and always will be.

Or at least that’s what Kirby imagines his eyes are saying. It’s good enough.”

After her public kiss with Darren, Kirby encounters Scottie and his pregnant wife on the ferry. When Ann asks why Kirby’s staring at them, Kirby begins to talk in a code to let Scottie know how he let her down. This is his response, which Kirby admits she might “imagine.” The encounter is “good enough,” allowing Kirby to let go of her past.

“David is Jewish and Jewish people generally don’t pray in Christian churches. Kate and David were married at the Massachusetts State House by a judge who David knew through work. David’s parents, Bud and Freda, had flown up from Florida to serve as witnesses, and afterward they took the newlyweds to dinner at Locke-Ober. Exalta refused to attend, and she would not allow Penn to go—although Penn secretly arranged for a limousine to whisk Kate and David to an inn in the Berkshires for a three-day honeymoon. It was understood by everyone that Exalta objected to the marriage because David was Jewish.”

After a news report about casualties, Kate asks David to go to church with her to pray. When he complies, she notes his sacrifice. As they walk, Kate remembers how Exalta wouldn’t attend their wedding because of David’s religious beliefs. This causes Kate to choose the more accepting Quaker Meeting House as a compromise. When she clutches hands with David, she notes, “They are a church” (391), showing she is choosing a life with David over what has kept her captive in the past.

“I plan on coming safely home to you. But the most important thing isn’t whether I live or die, Ma. The most important thing is that you go to bed each night believing you raised a hero.”

Tiger has written to Kate during a week of rest and relaxation, so he was not part of the recent casualties, which relieves Kate. He has done well in the army, been promoted, and saved lives. He finally has a calling. Here, Tiger reassures Kate she has done well at raising him and that he loves her. This is the final balm Kate needs to heal.

“[Exalta] lowered her voice into what Kirby thought of as her serious register. “Some knowledge has come to me quite recently. I’m sure it was difficult for you to tell me that., maybe because you expect me to react in a certain way. But I’ll have you know […you] can feel free to bring Darren Frazier to meet me at any time. I would be honored.”

Kirby tells Exalta Darren is African American. Exalta’s response shows how radically Bill’s romance has changed her. She alludes to her past conservatism by admitting Kirby might “expect [her] to react in a certain way.” However, the newly changed Exalta respects Kirby’s decision to be honest with her. This is a huge improvement over the secrecy and silence that has dominated prior Foley-Levin interactions.