Clearwater Summer

by John E. Keegan

Fourteen-year-old Will confronts the adult realities of an idyllic small town in the Pacific Northwest as he and his pal Taylor Clark fall for a spirited tomboy from the wrong side of town. 30,000 first printing.

317 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1994

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's the summer of 1959, Eisenhower is still president and Buddy Holly has died just four months earlier. It would be the last summer of innocence for three teenage friends who would be high school seniors in the Fall, but not before a tragic turn of events would forever change their lives.

This coming of age novel has been on my TBR list for years and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. This was originally published by Carol & Graff, but it's not your typical crime novel. It's more like a Stephen King-style crime novel.

[Colton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decently engaging coming-of-age story set in the late 1950s, Clearwater Summer explores the darker aspects of the period, such as spousal and child abuse that are kept secret. The writing felt amatuerish throughout, but the dialogue was realistic, and by the end, I did care about the characters. The first 75% of the book is slow-moving slice-of-life with hints of darkness on the horizon, and the last fourth of the book is basically a courtroom drama involving one of the characters, which felt a little drawn out. Speaking of the ending, I absolutely hate when authors kill off a major character only pages away from the ending. I hated it when Cold Mountain did it and I hated it here. What was the point of building up the potential relationship between Will and Wellesley only to murder her on basically the last page? It doesn't leave enough time for the reader to process the loss or see how Will will take it. My advice is just to skip the last chapter entirely.

[Voidflower · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellently written, sympathetic characters, really picks up its speed at a certain point. I liked the descriptions very well.

[Deb Mohr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had this book on the shelf for years. So glad I finally read it! Very good.

[Raymond Hall]

Clearwater Summer:
I liked this book, as in 4 out of 5 stars. I started reading this John Keegan as part of a “Top 100” books sojourn, and it was better than many others because of the intimate colorful detail that makes the reader feel as if they are actually in the shoes of the protagonists. This isn’t a Huckleberry Finn, coming of age book, but I identified with the growing responsibility and maturity the characters clearly learned. Many works of fiction can spin wonderful tales of imagination, but there is something here that feels more real, as if in a biography and not just a work of creativity. There are authors with more witty constructions, more inspirational, quotable bites but this dialogue is real, something half-remembered or a personal experience once removed –what might have been. Few books really wring emotion in the way this work pulls the reader to empathize.