Reading this story was like spending a summer at Wolfe Island, outside Kingston Ontario. We meet the cottage residents, witness their social gatherings, and them swimming, gossiping and flirting. Throughout it all we are conscious of an undercurrent of tension, of sexuality and violence, between men and women, children and parents, friends and lovers. This profound yet breezy novel consumed me, it sucked me right in and wouldn't let me put it down. Though I was confused by the rapid and constant introduction of new names and figures, the author uses unifying structures like hooks to keep all the characters sorted. For example, with the introduction of Jane the word "lazy" is repeated, then with Cindy it's "underwater" and with Elizabeth "flesh"; and interestingly each of these words implies a transformation of the woman to come, rather than merely labeling her. The characters are complex, the writing is smart, and the action is gripping.

"Marriage was so ugly. They pecked each other, peck, peck, peck, then at the sight of blood began to tear at the wounded flesh. Marriage was a kind of cannibalism, two people who had bought the right to live on each other’s blood and bones. She looked down at the table and saw the mouths moving, the tongues that slipped out to get the last savour from the lips. The first years of marriage were a kind of dance as the partners tried out roles. Who would be the eater, who the meal?"

In the novella, It is Always Summer, we are introduced to a range of characters who come together on an island outside Kingston, during a few days of one summer. There is Jane, mother to Tod, her boy toddler, and married to a lawyer, Wayne, who despite the summer days must still take the ferry into work.

Elizabeth, a tall, starving poet, who has shorn herself of her female lover in England, is also on the island, living in the nearby cottage, which also belongs to Jane and Wayne. Her presence is disturbing – Wayne is obsessed by her, and Jane senses the danger. The character of the poet Elizabeth is tart and well fleshed, an interesting mix of revulsion at ordinary life – and yet a woman who is intriguing to all who encounter her.

Also part of the story is Robert, failed in marriage, and he feels in life – and his daughter, Cindy, who becomes involved with the rather daring Paul. They come together for a dinner party with other friends one night – a dinner party Jane painstakingly prepares for. There is another dinner party on another part of the island a little further in the story. This is a novella about relationships, threats to relationships, the progression of everyday life and the dance of connection and disconnection that we all take part in. there is also the very real threat from a man named Carl, whose wife has hired Wayne to steer her through her divorce and has enacted a restraining order against Carl. And naturally the rather oafish Carl blames Wayne for this.

There are sometimes a bit too many characters to take note of – and Wayne, the husband seems rather shadowy at times, while Jane, his “lazy, fat” wife doesn’t inspire much enthusiasm. Elizabeth is the real heart of the story and the action – and more might have been made of her. A novella shot through with truths about life, and coupling, about the long shadow of the past, and about the effects we have on each other. An interesting story, although, in parts, it lagged a little.

A story about how a group of people spent their summer. It is well written and the descriptions in it are really good. It is short and well put together.