Last Summer in Aussie Readers

Jul 01, 2011 Mish rated it liked it

Shelves: australian-authors

Review for the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2012

Rory is a larger then life character and prominent figure in his circle of friends. Whether it’s organising special events/training for the cricket club, or get togethers and parties for his friends - he was the key to keeping this tight nit group together. But Rory sudden death put a strain on the remaining friendship and marriages, and with some it has prompted them re-evaluate their own lives.

This is the first book I’ve read of Kylie Ladd ...more

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Jul 22, 2011 Bree T rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary, australian

Rory Buchanan had it all. Captain of his local cricket club, he was the centre of it and of many people’s lives. The life of the party, the glue that held it all together. He had a good marriage with a wonderful wife and two sons. A successful business and a beautiful house. His friends and family idolized him.

When Rory dies at cricket training from an aneurysm of the aorta, the people left behind in his life are devastated. His sister and wife struggle to make sense of it. His friends from the Rory Buchanan had it all. Captain of his local cricket club, he was the centre of it and of many people’s lives. The life of the party, the glue that held it all together. He had a good marriage with a wonderful wife and two sons. A successful business and a beautiful house. His friends and family idolized him.

When Rory dies at cricket training from an aneurysm of the aorta, the people left behind in his life are devastated. His sister and wife struggle to make sense of it. His friends from the team struggle without his leadership and drive, his enthusiasm for the game. In several cases he was why they were there, why they were still playing. And this larger than life character is now gone, leaving behind a group of people who are struggling with his loss and unsure of how to go on, which direction to go in.

Last Summer is told from nine different perspectives – the people who were closest to Rory and who are most affected by his death. There’s Nick, Pete, Joe and James – all members of the same cricket club, and their wives, Laine, Trinity, Kelly (also Rory’s sister) and Anita as well Rory’s widow Colleen, taking turns at the narrative. They are all vastly different people and their ways of dealing with the grief, or in the case of some, the grief of others, are all different as well.

Last Summer is an observation of family life. Of tragedy. And everything that comes in between. Given its geographical setting and the revolving narrative, comparisons to The Slap by Christos Tsiolkas were inevitable. I read The Slap back in April for Aussie Author Month and although I didn’t exactly like it, or relate to it, I thought it was definitely an interesting and powerful piece of writing. So is Last Summer. But it also has the added bonus of being a much more enjoyable and accessible read. And I could relate to the characters a good deal more easily.

The book opens with one of the better ‘hook lines’ I’ve come across in recent times… “They were making love when Rory died” and from that point on, putting this book down is not an option. The characters are all refreshingly regular, the sort of people you might work with, or live next door to. Some are more sympathetic than others but one of the interesting features of this book is the way that Ladd manages to slowly shift the way you feel about certain characters as the book progresses. Uptight and unlikable characters suddenly grow and change and become people in which you can identify with.

What really strikes me about this novel, is the incredible portrayal of family dynamics. Ladd is a psychologist who will tell anyone that asks that she’s a voyeur…she likes to watch people. And that shines through in her writing. The families in this novel differ, but the one thing that remains constant is the accuracy with which they appear on the page – from married characters Pete and Trinity, dealing with Trinity’s issue of being adopted and whether or not to track down her biological mother and their rebellious teenage daughter, to Rory’s grieving widow Colleen, struggling to make a life for herself and her boys after the devastating death and some unexpected news that rocks her world.

There’s a simplicity in this story that is beautiful – the narrative is uncomplicated and smooth flowing, despite the different changes in view. The families and marital relationships are easily kept straight, something that contributes to the fast pace at which you can get through this novel! At its core it’s about a group of people grieving the loss of someone in his prime, a man they admired and loved and how that one thing ripples through their lives, no matter how differing those lives are. Not everything they do revolves around the loss but their acts and words are touched by it and it creates divisions, fractions within a group that were perhaps not there before, or too well hidden. Without Rory it seems, people see fit to act differently – to leave behind the normal, the mundane of the previous life, the life that contained him. It’s like a wake up call to make changes, to grasp what is in front of you because tomorrow it (or you) may not be around to take the opportunity.

Last Summer is set in Melbourne, a city where I have lived (on the periphery) for the last 5 years now. One of my favourite things in fiction is reading a novel where the setting is familiar, where I can feel a connection to the location. I am not well traveled, so this doesn’t happen to me too often! I don’t live where the characters live but that essence of the city, the place that is known to me and understood, is still there. To me this book is Melbourne in summer – cricket games, and bbq’s, kids at the house that has a pool, New Years Eve parties, friendships and families.

The sophomore novel is always an interesting one, especially when you’ve really enjoyed an author’s debut. Last Summer ensures that the success and crafty writing of After The Fall was no fluke. If you are interested in family relationships and evolving dynamics of friendship then Last Summer is definitely a book you should be reading! ...more

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Jun 07, 2011 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it it was amazing

Shelves: aussie-author, arc-are

Since reading Kylie Ladd’s debut novel After the Fall I’ve been anxiously awaiting her next release. When I finally got my hands on Last Summer I was ecstatic and relieved when from the first line I knew it wasn’t going to be a decision I regretted.

They were making love when Rory died.” p1

With the sudden death of Rory Buchanan, his devastated family and closest friends are faced with the uncomfortable truth of their mortality and themselves. Their grief creates fractures in their relationships a Since reading Kylie Ladd’s debut novel After the Fall I’ve been anxiously awaiting her next release. When I finally got my hands on Last Summer I was ecstatic and relieved when from the first line I knew it wasn’t going to be a decision I regretted.

They were making love when Rory died.” p1

With the sudden death of Rory Buchanan, his devastated family and closest friends are faced with the uncomfortable truth of their mortality and themselves. Their grief creates fractures in their relationships as they reassess their priorities and struggle to deal with their loss. Unflinchingly honest, Last Summer has a deceptively spare style that is nevertheless loaded with subtext. This novel is not only about death, but life and how we go on living despite a tragic loss. It is a universal theme, a common human experience that we all confront at some time and this novel will make you think.

Last Summer unfolds from the perspective of nine characters, each of whom have been affected in different ways by the tragedy. One of the things I find most impressive about Ladd’s writing is that her characters live within the pages of her novel. They eat, shower, bicker, make love, go to work, arrange childcare; these ordinary events contrasting the tedium of living against their complex emotional lives. It is often said that no two people react to an event in the same way yet we many of us consider that there is a ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ way, particularly where grieving is concerned. Last Summer perfectly illustrates the individuality of response to crisis and forces the reader to examine their own attitude.
Ladd’s background in psychology no doubt assists her in creating well rounded, authentic characters who are both familiar and extraordinary. The ordinary group of middle class suburbanites in Last Summer are as emotionally complicated as any individual you know.
One of the reasons that this novel resonates so strongly with me is because there are some eerie parallels to my own experiences. The death of a friend from an aggressive cancer (barely 2 months after her diagnosis) in my late twenties had a similar impact to that which Ladd writes about, on our group of friends. In the aftermath of her passing a couple split, another nearly destroyed her marriage by having an affair, three of the eight women in our circle changed careers (we had all worked together at the time), two couples moved away. The loss changed us all as we were forced to confront our mortality and examine our life choices.

Entertaining and compelling, Last Summer is the best contemporary fiction novel I have read all year with it’s insightful examination of life and death in the Australian suburbs. I’m already greedy for Kylie Ladd’s next book. ...more

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Feb 02, 2023 Janine rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

I really enjoyed this book. It involved the going's on of a small group of friends over a Summer period. They were all involved in the local Cricket club and when Rory died the repercussions of that event affected all involved. ...more

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