By alternating points of view between all the major players in the story, Weiner gives a full panoramic view of a family and their secrets leading up to the wedding. Cape Cod is vividly rendered, with the house getting a sweet metaphysical moment at the end of the book. Though the plot is somewhat soapier than usual for Weiner, she capably takes readers along for the wild ride in this funny, tender read.
Weiner takes readers back to the beach with another compelling multigenerational family story ... This highly recommended novel, with its well-written characters who revisit their pasts and reconnect with the present, illustrates exactly why Weiner is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to summer reads.
... gets at the core of just how life's twists and turns, choices and moments can consume us – and how beautiful that entanglement can be, despite the hardships ... As the story unfolded, I was engulfed by the characters' internal dialogues and the sagas that tied them together, while entwined storylines – including infidelity, questions of identity, past choices that their owners can't be proud of – threatened to change their relationships permanently ... Weiner brings to life the difficulty that exists in all of us as we evaluate our life's course, wrestling with decisions we have left behind while navigating emotions that so often feel impossible to understand ... a quick read, but a deep one, and hints at that pandemic haze that maybe we’ve all felt. The one in which life has been turned upside down and stopped, but has brazenly sped ahead, too. While the book does not address the pandemic directly, it does touch on the changes in environment, the time spent cramped in our houses with some of our loved ones while remaining separated from others ... And with its Cape Cod setting that evokes seashells, cool water, melting ice cream and summer bliss, it's sure to be the must-have beach bag item this year.
.. a lighthearted family novel that makes for perfect beach reading ... Fun and effervescent, The Summer Place is told from the perspectives of multiple characters, revealing scads of family secrets that the wedding fervor is bringing to light ... Weiner ably captures the tense vibes of the last few years but combines them with a beachy breeziness, which results in an extremely engaging novel sure to appeal to fans of Elin Hilderbrand or Liane Moriarty.
... [a] first-rate page-turner ... The characters’ various secrets are thrust into the light when they gather on the Cape for the wedding, with well-wrought twists and turns. Weiner is a master of emotionally complicated narratives, and her smart and witty writing is on full display here. This engrossing novel will please her legions of fans.
... go[es] down with the ease of a Dirty Shirley, but [didn't] capture my heart or attain that overused marketing promise of 'unputdownability' ... Stylistically, at times Weiner overdoes it on distracting, dated internet-y slang that barely survived a few quick digital eras, much less the glacial pace of publishing ... Though a wedding is handy for the plot, it seems anachronistic that Ruby, an ambitious, Brooklyn-bred N.Y.U. student, would spontaneously decide she wants to marry Gabe right after graduation, a decision she doubts just as quickly. Still more people fall in undying love for indiscernible reasons; at one point, two characters barely exchange words at a club, hook up and subsequently wake up soul mates. Most compelling is the matriarch Veronica Levy, a formerly famous author whose books are made into movies. But would Ronnie really have said goodbye to all that because an indiscretion from her past made the New York lit world feel icky? ... Weiner’s take on the Pond People’s shoddy entertaining rings all too true...This conflict left me longing for more; the flimsy teen romance between Ronnie’s daughter, Sarah, and a Pond boy, Owen Lassiter, doesn’t do it justice.
Weiner creates a story with all the misunderstandings and miscommunications of a screwball comedy or a Shakespeare play. But the surprising, over-the-top actions of the characters are grounded by a realistic and moving look at grief and ambition (particularly for Sarah and Veronica, both of whom give up demanding creative careers early on). At times the flashbacks can slow down the story, but even when the characters are lying, cheating, and hiding from each other, they still seem like a real and loving family ... An alternately farcical and poignant look at family bonds.
