Summer Sisters

Friendship symbolizes support when Vix realizes, “Caitlin isn’t someone to get over. She’s someone to come to terms with, the way you have to come to terms with your parents, your siblings” (347). At the same time, Vix highlights here that her relationship with Caitlin is more than “just” a friendship—she places her on the same level as her nuclear family members. Since Vix connects Caitlin to family, she suggests that people must come to terms with their family members, too. With age and experience, Vix has realized that families can be fluid, but such changes don’t mean that it’s acceptable to drop other family members entirely. Even Tawny remains tied to her family: She secures a trust from the Countess so that Ed can focus on himself and Frankie, demonstrating that she still cares about Ed. She also preserves feelings for Vix, telling her “not in so many words” that “she’s a good daughter and deserves only the best” (378). Tawny thus illustrates and provides a model for growth, even when one is well into adulthood.

Fearing an average or ordinary life appears in crisscrossing ways in this section. Marriage, for instance, doesn’t always symbolize an average existence: Getting a husband, having a child, and staying in a place represent a departure from the ordinary for Caitlin, who previously spent much of her life traveling. To stay true to NBO, Caitlin subverts her own paradigm. Conversely, marriage intrinsically means an “ordinary” life, so Caitlin eventually feels trapped and has to run away and abandon her husband, child, family, and friends to stay true to herself. In this way, she may have avoided an ordinary life, but her family—and friends, like Vix—pay a price. As Vix screams at her commemorative stone, “Damn you for leaving! For not caring enough about us!” (398).

Caitlin’s death gives the story a mysterious or noir tone—it’s unclear how she died or, for that matter, if she’s actually dead: “No one can explain what happened that day. There was no storm in the area. Winds were moderate. They found her boat two days later, drifting, but there was no sign of trouble” (397). What’s missing is a corpse or a dead body. Vix, though her tone is rather humorous, speculates that Caitlin remains alive, turning Caitlin into a haunting or ghostly figure.

The Vineyard continues to represent a magnetic place. Caitlin and Bru have their wedding there, reuniting many of the characters. Gus and Vix also have their wedding there, and they plan to move there. The Vineyard remains central, indicating that people can grow and evolve and still return to the same geographical spot. It also highlights the strength of Vix’s familial ties to Lamb and Abby—she ultimately chooses to live near them rather than either of her parents.

Caitlin and Vix remain adept at harnessing The Elusive Power of Sex. After Nathan’s funeral, Caitlin has sex with Bru out of jealousy. At Caitlin’s wedding, Vix exerts her own sense of control by having sex with Bru. Beforehand, he tries to talk to her, but she tells him, “Spare me,” illustrating that for Vix, sex is sometimes just about sex—she subverts social mores that attach women’s sexuality to strong romantic feelings. When he tries to talk to her again after the marriage ceremony, she says, “Forget last night. Last night never happened” (371). Bru concedes his passive position: “He’s glad he doesn’t have to choose. Glad they’ve done it for him” (370). Undercutting stereotypical gender norms, the women, not the men, are the aggressors. They set the terms and the boundaries of the relationship.

Blume adds further layers to Caitlin’s character when Caitlin tells Vix that she invented the ski instructor, turning Caitlin into an unreliable source. At the same time, Caitlin’s life carries such a dramatized tone that readers may not have considered her reliable in the first place. Whether Caitlin’s adventures are true is beside the point: The theatrical image she creates for herself remains powerful, and the questionable veracity is part of her appeal. Blume heightens this effect by dipping into the interiority of all the other key characters except for Caitlin. Aside from dialogue, the reader never knows what Caitlin thinks and feels on the inside. In this way, Blume keeps her mysterious and mythological.