The Summer Book

A vignette is a small scene which can appear in the form of a passage, essay, or other short work of fiction or nonfiction. They are impressionistic scenes, meaning they are intended to portray an impression about a mood, an idea, a character, a setting, or an aspect. Vignettes are not written using a traditional plot structure—a typical sequence of context, conflict, rising action, climax, resolution. Rather, they are short descriptions or scenes that can stand alone or contribute to a larger body of text. Vignettes serve to enhance artistic effect, and they are often rife with literary devices such as imagery, sensory language, symbolism, and analogy. As they use vivid descriptions to provide close examinations of small features—setting, characters, ideas—they are both efficient and evocative.

The Summer Book consists of a series of vignettes. Each of the 22 sections of the book include impressionistic scenes that efficiently describe the settings, characters, and ideas within the novel. Although each vignette in the book can be read and appreciated as an individual description, they are linked through the characters, settings, and themes.