July and August: A Novel

Hill Family #3

by Nancy Clark

A funny, bittersweet, and wonderfully peopled family saga from the acclaimed author of The Hills at Home, and a fitting farewell to the Hill clan. Great-aunt Lily's pile of a house in Towne, Massachusetts, is once again the gathering place for her far-flung grandnieces and grandnephews. As always, their arrival brings a high summer of comedy and drama. While Lily struggles to get her new business venture off the ground, her granddaughter Sally befriends the local math whiz; brothers and software entrepreneurs Brooks and Rollins turn heads with their supermodel dates; Cousin Julie announces her wedding to a man who may or may not be imaginary; and the family faces the possibility of a final leave-taking of Aunt Ginger, who continues to dish up crucial life wisdom-whether it's sought or not-while reclining on a lawn chair in the sun.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Laura]

"Now, in the booth at the back of the Casa di Napoli, Julie slid onto the bench beside Sally, who had wanted to sprawl over her own side of the table without having to share with anyone, and she slithered underneath and surfaced next to Cam to ensure that Cam would not get her own side either." (243)

"Up in the gallery, Sally and Cam admired the gold-leaf star shapes arranged in the configurations of constellations spread across the cobalt blue field of the arching dome. They were on their way to a screened alcove in the gallery's darkest reaches, where an artifact of mid-nineteenth century taxidermy, which no one had had the heart to throw away (nor quite the stomach to have to gaze upon every day), lingered on inside a glass display case. A finely crafted coach was being drawn by a brace of high-stepping squirrels who galloped along, forever frozen in fleet, tail-flourishing attitudes. A liveried chipmunk commanded the coach, grasping silver ribbon reins in one exquisite little paw as he held onto his stovepipe hat with the other. A family of mice, finely dressed in gowns and capes and suits and bonnets fashioned from scraps of silk and lace, rode inside on tufted seats--although the youngest mouse child rather perilously hung out an open window; he seemed to want to have a word with the chipmunk. Sally and Cam had never seen anything more wonderful. They always tapped upon the glass because they were not quite certain that one day the darling creatures wouldn't reawaken and take off on their interrupted journey, breaking through one of the glass walls with a shower of sparkles and glitter and go flying off round and round the gallery. Cam was convinced the mice family was going to their grandmother's house, but Sally was pretty sure they were headed to church, and with their noses pressed against the glass, the girls argued their cases for these views, until Cam noticed, as she never had before, a small placard half tipped over in the soap-shavings snow of the foreground which read, in faded writing, Off to the Races. This effectively proved Sally wrong but discredited Cam's own theory as well, so Cam pronounced herself suddenly bored with stuffed squirrels before Sally could spot the sign herself. Cam decided she would prefer that they both not win the argument than both be proved the losers; she would have answered back that a loss shared is not a loss halved; rather, it was a loss magnified, should any adult get ahold of her and try to tell her otherwise. Sally only minded that Cam had thought to be bored because a certain superiority was implicitly expressed by tiring of an activity first, which mimicked, perhaps, a more general sense that in life one was always outgrowing something, and, indeed, both she and Cam were committed to looking over their shoulders to make sure how fast the other one was gaining on her." (271-272)

[Lucy Andrews-Cummin]

My first Nancy Clark was [Away From Home] and I read it in a state of literary euphoria -- you know -- that sensation when you are reading a book where the words are delicious, so that the place, the characters, the story -- a whole world becomes palpable to you. In this, the third book and last book of the trilogy about the Hill family of Towne, Massachusetts, appropriately Lily has opened a farm stand, finally finding, in her 70's her vocation, growing and selling vegetables. Never married, Lily owns the big family house and all Hills and people, Hills and others have a way of gravitating to her house in times of need and change. It is summer and one beloved niece, terminally ill, has come to stay; the rest of the clan collects and things happen or don't happen. The point of view slides almost slyly from character to character from Petal, the model, who arrives with some great-nephews who've become fabulously wealthy dot-commers and never leaves, to great-niece Julie who announces her engagement but then never once during the interval between the announcement and a day or two before the weddin, allows the family even a glimpse of her too-perfect sounding fiancé. Best of all, for me, are the two little girls, aged 7 who flitter and sneak and battle and giggle their way through the novel. I'm giving it a five for being a perfect domestic novel.

[Renee Wallace]

I loved reading this book, so much so, that I am getting Nancy Clark's previous two books ASAP. (Side-Plug here for public library summer reading programs; I picked this up because I signed up for ours, and I am SO GLAD I DID!) This is not my usual genre, being an avid mystery fan, but how glad I am that I thought "outside the loop" for once!
I hope there is a sequel, as I want to know what happens to several of Ms. Clark's characters, but particularly, CAM. :-)

[Kelly]

Note: this book serves as a sort of sequel to Clark's earlier novel The Hills At Home. Although July and August stands on its own, I personally think a reader's experience and appreciation of it will be greatly augmented by reading The Hills At Home first.

[Chris]

Dear People Who Decided To Give This Book Low Ratings Even Though You Only Read A Small Part of It: You missed out on a wry, compassionate and insightful book.

[Ann Fisher]

This was my favorite of the three connected books about the Hill family. We're back in New England, where Lily is still well and re-inventing herself with lots of help from family and others in the town. Best of all are the extended sections from the points of view of the two second graders.

[emily]

“She believed it would be important in the years to come for her children to feel at home wherever they found themselves in the world or whenever the world arrived on their doorsteps, seeking them out.”

[Susan White-Riggs]

I enjoyed this book , and the first one in the trilogy, but not the second one.

[Greta]

terrible writing, boring story. couldnt get into it or finish it

[Sherry]

8.5

[Danielle]

This is the book one of my book clubs was reading for November. The story revolves around an extended family who all seem to descend upon the remaining family matriarch, a spinster aunt named Lily, for the months of July and August. The setting is a small town in Massachusetts named Towne. Some of the characters do actually live in Towne, but the majority of them seem to have some reason to come visit and then some seemingly contrived reason about why they can spend 2 months sitting around this town where they don't live helping Lily out at her farm stand. The whole book just felt really shallow to me. It bothered me that all these people were randomly stepping out of their lives for 2 months to hang around with each other, and there were a lot of characters so you never really got more than a cursory glimpse at any one of them. The author has written a couple other books that I'm not familiar with, but that based on the titles I suspect may have featured some of the characters. In which case some of the back story alluded to may have occurred in previous novels. As it is I sort of felt like I was abruptly dropped into these characters lives and was reading the second half of a story. I don't know if the answer is in the previous books or not, but at any rate I definitely felt like I was missing something while reading this book.

[Alison]

We read this for one of my bookclubs. On the surface it sounded interesting enough -- a family reunites in the summer on the North Shore of Massachusetts. But right away it started annoying me. The author chose to use a fake town name: "Towne." Yes, that is an entirely proper name to make up for a fictitious, schmancy, oldoldold Massachusetts town, but it's also the easy way out, I thought. So you have a fake town, but she refers to other places in Massachusetts, including neighboring towns, by their real names. I really felt like she should have just set the novel in Newburyport or Amesbury or Gloucester or wherever.

From there, the story was fine but never went very deep with any of the characters. One sister shows up and eventually announces that she is engaged, and suddenly everyone is gossiping about how they don't believe her fiance exists. Why? What has happened in the past that her siblings leap to this conclusion? Then, there is all this buildup to the wedding . . . which we don't see in the novel. She leaves to pick up her fiance at the airport and then the next thing you know it is a year later and she is visiting again with her husband and baby.

Overall, I obviously didn't like this that much.

[Pam Masters]

This novel starts off a little out of the norm, as there is a list of characters at the beginning-not something most people are used to seeing. But as I read the story, I found myself turning back to the list to make sure I had things right in my head.

As someone who comes from a close family, I understand what the Hill family is all about. It seems as though a couple of people all but ordered the family to their Aunt Lily's house for the summer. It turns out that the family was coming together for one last summer with Ginger, who is very ill, but with what you are never really told. I could see my family doing something like this with one of our own. Actually, we all but have done that.

Anyway, I think it's a great read. And I feel compassion for the family.

[Julie]

Nancy Clark has a beautiful way with words and I found myself drawn in by her impressive use of language. Some may find this book slow to develop, but I think she hearkens back to an older style of writing that allows readers to savor a sentence rather than race along with the plot. She is gentle with her characters, exposing their foibles in a human yet humorous way. I found myself drawn to Harvey and Petal in particular as being lovable despite themselves. The children (Cam and Sally) are especially well-written. It is a graceful and delicate story and one that sent me searching for her other books, which I'm looking forward to reading.

[Barbara]

This continues "The Hills at Home" in that the same characters are in the novel and it takes place several years later. I liked her earlier book and was happy for the chance to continue reading about the family, but I didn't enjoy this one as much as the earlier one. The first was a happy surprise to me; a discovery. This one wore a little thin and didn't seem as witty or well crafted. Was the writing not quite as good or was I just tiring of the family and the style? But I gave it 4 stars, because it still was good and I enjoyed it throughout.

[Mary Kay]

Lovely story that takes place one summer in Towne, MA. We meet a variety of relatives of Lily, the resident of an old house in Towne, who has started a successful vegetable stand,as well as various townspeople. There're a seriously ill woman, two delightful children, a prospective bride, & many more.

[Suzanne]

The book was about a family coming back for the summer to the aunt's house they spent their childhood summers. The family is filled with lots of characters, some eccentric! The family members have normal issues and crisis- one is sick, one is getting married, two are internet millionaires. It makes for an interesting summer!

[Robin Arnold]

Attempted this book twice, made it over half way and skip read to the end so I won't be counting this as read. This book is like people watching...just enough character development but not enough depth because there are too many...it's a Seinfeld like plot...about nothing, and everything, and then it ends.

[Aileen]

I was disappointed in this book. I really liked the Hills at Home and got the next one that was just purchased at the library. It was a slow start. I liked the end, but feel like we didn't get to learn a lot about most of the characters this time.

[Lauren]

Really slooooooooow to get started.

Not the train wreck bore of Away from Home but less effervescent than The Hills at Home. July and August has lots of charm and humor but it really needed a good editor.

[Kaye-lynn]

I should have known when this book had a list of 32 characters and their descriptions right at the start. I abandoned this book after reading about 1/4th of it. Characters are too shallow and the story line is not cohesive.

[Jackye]

Tried to read this book and couldn't make it very far. It is so complicated that there is a list of 1 1/2 pages of who the characters are in the book. Did not finish, but putting it on my list so I don't try to check it out again from the library.

[Andrea Schwartz]

A little slow for me & had some unanswered questions that bothered me. Still, if you enjoy leisurely-paced family novels about a bunch of WASP-y Yankees getting together for one last family reunion, you might give this a try.

[Jen]

I was pretty underwhelmed by this book. There was a lot of description but not quite enough character development. Questions were asked and mulled upon but then never really answered. It was ok but didn't live up to the premise for me.

[Rosalie]

Pretty slow

[Dee]

I would give it ten stars if I could I absolutely loved the delicate, understated story that truly packed enormous punches. Lovely book.

[Elsie]

Not tied up quite the way I like.

[Kim]

I loved the story premise. The writing style was not my favorite; it is a bit old fashioned, and yet, it fits the tone of the book. It was a nice read

[JayeL]

This was by no means a terrible book. I actually think that I may go back to it at some point. The story just didn't grab me and I drifted off to read other things.

[Mandy]

Better than the other one.