Seventeenth Summer

By: Maureen Daly

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

A summer to remember…

Angie always thought high school romances were just silly infatuations that come and go. She certainly never thought she would fall in love over one short summer. But then she sees Jack Duluth’s crew cut peek out over a booth in McKnight’s drugstore, and their connection is beyond any childish crush. Suddenly, Angie and Jack are filling their summer with stolen moments and romantic nights. But as fall grows closer, they must figure out if their love is forever or just a summer they’ll never forget.

©1942 Maureen Daly (P)2011 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“An utterly enchanting book.” ( New York Times)

Terrible ending

I was mostly enjoying the book but I didn’t like that Angie never shared her inner thoughts. Maybe it’s a time period thing but frustrating. And the ending was super anticlimactic and blah!

Takes you back in time to a slower pace!

This made my mind go back to a simpler time. A time with values...morals.....true love that lasts.

Interesting listen

This was interesting, at first it was hard to place the setting of this one. It was definitely of another era but hard to place. Then after doing a little research on the author and when it was written it made a little more sense. It's a sweet look at the time but very slow moving and full over drawn out descriptions but brings you back to a slower time. Narration is done well.

sweet summer

I read this as a teenager. Wonderful, sweet story about first love. So happy to have found this again.

Very charming

I was going to rate this book a lot lower because although I found it charming, I also found it incredibly boring more than half the time. I saw it came out in 2011 and thought this was written by a modern writer attempting to write about a different era. I had no idea that this book in fact came out in 1942 and was written by Miss Daly when she was a teenager in the 30s! That explained a lot and after that I found the book to be more endearing and authentic. It is apparently regarded by many as the very first young adult novel! It is honestly worth a read just for that reason.

I was drawn to this book bc I was looking for a summer read and also I love this narrator. She did a wonderful job with all the voices and tones of the characters. Julia really helped sell that this was the 1940s. You can tell what character is talking just by the voices she makes, she really acts them out well. My fav voice was the one she did for Lorraine but I was also impressed by the depth she brought to Angeline and her various teen emotions. I will def keep searching for books voiced by her.

This book is full of descriptions of weather, food and scenery of every kind. Most early american writers like Steinback wrote like this, with page after page of description and very little dialogue. This may surprise and bore modern readers and I fell victim to this too until I realized how long ago this book was written. I was able to envision it perfectly and the writer really painted a picture of this time period.

(spoilers) I was able to relate to Angie just a little as her parents seemed to guard her like a treasure that could scarcely ever be removed from its chest, ie their home. Some parents are still like that in this time period and I truly don’t think they realize how much they are stunting their children’s growth. I think the reason why Angie was so naive and bewildered was bc of how attached she was to her family and how much they sheltered her.

I personally thought that Lorraine was a much more interesting character and I would have enjoyed more details about what exactly was going on with she and Martin. I guess the writing couldn’t be as direct bc of the time period but Lorraine seemed to insinuate to Angie that she was doing more than just kissing with Martin. I honestly expected Lorraine to get pregnant by the end but I guess she just gets disillusioned by life and love in general. She didn’t even seem to really like him that much, I think he appealed to her bc he was so different from her humdrum family and he was like an escape for her. I wish Jack would have revealed more about what he knew but I guess it was implied that Martin was cheating on Lorraine.

I found Jack and Angie’s meet cute and slow burn romance to be incredibly dull but I can see now that what they said and did together must have been incredibly exciting 80 years ago. I don’t understand why the writer didn’t reveal certain things to us. Like, did Angie really not say anything back to Jack when he confessed his love to her? Or when he proposed? Seemed like a very strange absence of dialogue there as well as during the Lorraine scenes.

It’s interesting how some things haven’t changed in 80 years, like parents being controlling and ppl looking down on others for not going to college. Some of the big differences that shocked and amused me were “not kissing during the day time” lol and how it was classless to bring the coffee pot right into the living room. And how Angie nearly hated Jack over dessert for humiliating her by clacking his spoon against his teeth while eating icecream! Lmao I honestly hated her a little bit after that for being so judgmental and I found her very unlikable and pathetic multiple times throughout the story. But I see now bc she grew up in the 30s and I in the millennium lol.

I was so irate with Angie when she went out with that other boy and I really just don’t understand what possessed her to do that. Regardless of Tony being a “fast boy” she claimed to love Jack and I don’t get why she was shocked by the consequences of her date with Tony. Even her sister yelled at her for being foolish but I guess it just further highlighted how naive Angie is.

I had an inkling that the ending would be unfavorable and I didn’t really care bc their romance was overall dull thus I did not get attached to it. I saw the symbolism of how when summer began, their love flourished like the flowers and then started to wane once fall approached. That was very well done. It seems like Jack is nothing but a happy memory for Angie in the end and I think her relationship with him helped her blossom as a person and prepared her for more life and love disappointments down the road. Whereas Lorraine’s seems to have branded her for life as Angie states. Or who knows, maybe she does see Jack again sometime, someday. It is def left open to that interpretation.

A lovely story.

Loved how the author was very detailed oriented about the setting of the story and surroundings. For example, the why they painted out the empty house after a day spending outside all day on 4th of July. Listening to the narrator tell it was like listening to a painted picture. Beautiful.

A time of innocence.

A bygone era, a more innocent time.
As a society we have gained so much since 1942 but I fear we have lost so much more.

Seventeen Summer

This brings me back to when my daughter was 17 and all the fun stuff she had… loved this audible book !!!

Beautifully written

I have been reading this book every summer since I was 16. I love reading about days gone by and this is that kind of book. When you have time research the author Maureen Daly. She and her sisters lead an extraordinary life. The house on bank street in Fond Du Lac Wisconsin that she lived in when she wrote this book is still there. I enjoyed reading about her life and it helped me to understand how this book paralleled her own family life.

It Was Okay

I’m glad this was just over 8 hours long...the use of the word “queer” for things like her mood, voice, smile, etc. was both annoying and confusing. “It gave me a queer feeling.” I’m not offended by the word itself, but the overuse of it was just too much and a bit distracting. I just didn’t enjoy this story in general. It sounds juvenile and amateur. But to each their own.