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Three Authors for Summer

by Pia de Solenni 

 

Preparing for summer doesn’t mean just changing wardrobes and making sure that the sunscreen is stocked. For me, getting ready for summer means having a pile of good books. Admittedly, I still read books, not e-books.

Regardless of whether I’m vacationing or not, warm temperatures and longer days connote more time for reading. I suppose it goes back to the academic schedules we have as children: summer = school’s out = no work. Sure, I don’t have a three-month break and I’ve got plenty of work to do, but it still seems like a perfect season to read. (Then again, I can make the case to read in any season.)

So in honor of this reading season, I thought I’d share three of my favorite authors in hopes that readers will share some of theirs.

“I sprang from the Sorrento sailing-boat on to the little beach.”

If the economy, family demands, work, the dislike of crowds, or any other reason is keeping you from vacationing in Capri this year, I recommend The Story of San Michele, a memoir by Axel Munthe, written like a novel. I read this book well before I’d been to Italy, before I could pronounce “ciao,” “Capri,” “Gioia,” or just about any other non-food Italian word.

Munthe first experiences Capri as an eighteen-year-old medical student on holiday when he encounters the “immortal spirit” of the island. After becoming a successful and celebrated psychiatrist in Paris, he suffers and takes refuge caring for the sick in slums overtaken by a plague. Then he becomes successful only to lose it all again. During each phase of his life, he finds opportunities to return to the island where he sets about building his Villa San Michele with material from the ruins of the emperor Tiberius’ ancient palace. Not an explicitly religious man, Munthe nevertheless imparts a great deal of wisdom about all things, including the metaphysical, many of which he learns in his encounters with his poor patients. San Michele is about building a villa and a human person.

“[I]f I could write with love, I would be another man: I would never have lost love.”

Although Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair mostly takes place in rainy, cold London, it’s engaging story makes it an easy summer read. Told from the perspective of a jilted lover, I find it an excellent account of the sacrament of baptism and its effects, which is hardly the intent of the narrator. The tale unfolds despite his persistent bitterness. Admittedly, I was too young when I first read this book. But each time I come back to it, I find another layer. Skip the movie and go straight for the book. It also reveals Greene’s deep awareness of Catholic truths, even if his public life was not always reflective of it.

“…feeling like a piece of gorgonzola condemned by the local sanitary inspector.”

While he’s not everyone’s cup of tea or favorite martini, P.G. Wodehouse remains one of my standard go-to’s. First, I love the way he puts words together. His deft use of the English language articulates a great range of human experiences and emotions. In Summer Moonshine, he uses one sentence, “The telephone was ringing,” to tell the reader that all is resolved and that the heroine and hero will be one forever. The end. Nothing more is necessary. It’s simple, but it works. In addition to the numerous Jeeves and Bertie stories, my favorite is probably “The Reverent Wooing of Archibald Mulliner.” Anyone who’s done a bit of dating and been discouraged will find hope and solace in Wodehouse’s way of making simple what seems so thorny, namely love. As a writer, he has a way of making the reader step outside the complicated self and laugh, no small achievement.  (Incidentally, some of his language and style is present in Graham Greene’s writing, despite its different approach.)

A friend recently commented that she’d welcome back the rainy Seattle weather so that she’d have time to read and wouldn’t be caught up in family landscaping projects. But even landscapers need a break, and what better way to enjoy the fruit of their work? Wherever you happen to be spending your summer, I hope it doesn’t mean less leisure time for reading. Feel free to send along your own suggestions. I’m always looking for something new.

 

Pia de Solenni is a moral theologian and cultural analyst who writes from Seattle, Wash. She can be reached via Facebook and Twitter. (Her website is getting a prolonged makeover and is currently offline.)

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(The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Headline Bistro or the Knights of Columbus.)