“Most of life is so dull it is not worth discussing, and it is dull at all ages. When we change our brand of cigarette, move to a new neighborhood, subscribe to a different newspaper, fall in and out of love, we are protesting in ways both frivolous and deep against the not to be diluted dullness of day-to-day living.”

Capote is a genius. In a 138 pages of a lost manuscript that was published posthumously, Capote captures a beautifully, imperfect, messy grey summer. 

You can easily read it on a beautiful summer afternoon and at the end of it be satisfyingly sad. 

Grady is in the twilight of her youth. She has one summer to be precocious and let life happen to her and that summer is now. Left to her own devices she embarks on a summer that is for her and her alone. From cocktails with her friend Peter, to her secret affair with Clyde,

this summer will be for her. 

Summer crossing is easily a novella you could read ten times over and pull out new pieces and quotes worth diving into and dissecting. I got to spend a beautiful summer afternoon with a friend discussing and pulling at various threads from this book and each new idea made me love the book even more. 

The manuscript was forgotten for decades and likely left unfinished by Capote, and frankly it’s a perfectly abrupt ending. 

I have never been so happy to be left so sad by a book. Grab a glass of rosé, find a seat in the sun and read this book.