The Summer that Melted Everything - book club discussion

[ufcasey]

Today is the day for our fifth book club discussion! The book picked for this month was "The Summer that Melted Everything" by Tiffany McDaniel

Just to help get you thinking, if you have a hard time figuring out what you want to say, there are some questions below. You definitely don't have to answer any of them!

Things to potentially consider:

1. Do you think Sal was the Devil?
2. Why do you think Grand killed himself instead of waiting to see if he had gotten AIDS?
3. There were a lot of 'supernatural' occurrences in this book (the tree limb falling on Dresden, the heat, Lovey losing her baby, the teenage runner becoming paralyzed, etc) - do you think this was just a series of bad luck or was this truly the (perhaps unintended) effects of the Devil being invited to Blessed?
4. Why was Fielding such a broken individual for the rest of his life? He couldn't keep a job or a relationship and lived in squalor in the trailer park.
5. Fielding put a lot of stock into seeing 'signs' later on in life, such as falling on to his 'sins' or waiting to see a fire fly, why do you think he did that or what was it's significance?
6. Sal seemed wise beyond his years and tried to help others, by helping Dresden get away from her abusive mother, by helping Fielding's mom finally leave the house, by helping Otis find his son in the reflected light of a mirror, etc. - Why did they listen to Sal?
7. Why did Autopsy invite the Devil to Blessed?
8. Was the Devil Elohim instead?

I'm interested to hear your thoughts and what you liked/didn't like about this month's book

[ufcasey]

Tagging people who mentioned previously on the boards that they were planning on reading this book:
litskispeciality, mrspez07, aurora, rainbowchip, oliviapope, rootbeerfloat, charlatti

[rainbowchip]

First I will say that I didn't really like this book. I felt like it tried too hard and the characters seemed like they didn't react to things in a normal way.
I also stuggled with a bunch of inconsistencies. Fielding was 13 in 1984 but we also saw him as a 70 year old man. That would be far in the future yet the future is painted very similar to today. I couldn't get over that. And there were some little things like the nest and Elohim saying that the eggs in the nest were the same as the eggs you have for breakfast. But that's not how it works! There was something else in the next chapter that was similar but I can't remember what that was off the top of my head.
I also thought the whole Elohim story at the end got totally glossed over. That would have probably been super interesting had it been given more than a few pages.

1. No. Sal was not the devil. I think the whole point was that everyone can have evil inside of themselves. Then you have the choice to let it out or not.
2. I think back at that time, there were a lot of misconceptions and stigmas associated with AIDS. I think Grand saw a glimpse of how he would be treated for the rest of his life at baseball practice and he didn't want that for himself and his family.
3. Total coincidence.
4. He lost everything in his life. His brother, his relationship with his father, the girl he had a crush on, his friend. On top of that, he killed someone. That will mess a person up.
5. Skipping
6. Because he was right. He seemed to have a way of putting things so that people would think that they came up with the idea themselves.
7. He seemed to have a guilty conscious about that man he got convicted and later found out he was innocent. There was at least one other example where his guilt or maybe empathy had him inviting harm to himself. So I think he wanted the devil to come and be the final judge on what he did.
8. Like I said in the beginning, I think everyone has "the devil" inside of them. And again, I would have liked to hear more about the whole Elohim subplot.
Maybe I misunderstood but it seemed like Elohim was abducting boys and torturing them in his basement? And Sal was one but he escaped. And both of them completely blanked that out?

[minzy]

Okay, I may be an outlier based on Goodreads reviews, but I pretty much hated this book. She seemed to throw every possible horrible thing imaginable into this story (you know what we need? Child abuse? Miscarriage? Homophobia? Suicide? Cannabilism? Injury to animals? How bout some racist mob mentality? Let's light a child on fire and watch him burn?) and I just didn't like reading at all. I didn't buy the spiritual/religious idea of Sal being the actual devil. (Side note but it seems rare that little people are book characters and I didn't like that Elohim had to be so twisted.) I think Grand killed himself because he wasn't what everyone thought he was and he knew he'd suffer for a long time with AIDS if he didn't take his life first. I think the supernatural stuff was coincidental, but I don't believe in supernatural stuff. Certainly what Fielding witnessed was enough to really disturb a person, but that he spends his entire life with regret and not much growth made this book harder for me to like. I think his continued focus on certain things (like the jam) showed he spent his entire life thinking about that summer and never really moving past it.

I liked Sal and am not sure where his wisdom came from (since I have trouble buying into the devil idea) and why some people listened to him, but he was the bright spot of the book for me with his moment dancing with Dresden, helping the mom overcome her agoraphobia, and helping free the aunt by cutting the ribbons from her hair. I can see why Autopsy struggled with "right" and "wrong" when some things can be so gray, but things weren't that gray here and actually inviting the devil to town seemed silly. (I also found it ridiculous the conflicts of interest Autopsy would face representing the mob of people who killed one son while the other son killed the leader of the mob during the same episode. Anyway.)

So... not my favorite, but one more read for this year's count!

[rainbowchip]

minzy I agree completely. And there is no way Autopsy would have represented the entire mob.

[ufcasey]

minzy you took the words out of my mouth! This book was just a bit too much of everything! Fielding was kind of an unlikable character - he looked back on that summer and would say all the things he should have said at various moments, which made me feel pretty sympathetic towards him. But then as an adult he would be rude to the teenage boy who tried to befriend him and he hurt several other people too (his girlfriend with the long hair who made herself have an abortion, his fiance that he abandoned at the alter, his male lover of 8 years, etc) - so out the window went my sympathy. And then he was just kind of crazy with his constant looking for signs of deliverance, as if one specific thing that he came up with in his own mind came to pass, then he could then allow himself to move on with his life otherwise he would have to stay in a constant state of grief and regret. And inevitably, he always landed on the wrong side of these self-made situations.

This book seemed to be a lot about choices. Choosing to stay focused on our ex-husband's infidelities, choosing to stay inside the house because your parents once left and they never came back, choosing to literally cover up your mother's physical abuse, choosing to fixate on your fiance's infidelity with another man, choosing to commit suicide, choosing to put a dog out of his misery, choosing to commit murder, etc. And in the end the book has Autopsy defending the mob saying they didn't really make any choices at all. So it kind of felt like, well, what was the point of all that? Was it just to highlight what is a choice and what isn't when it comes to death? Like what is just an unlucky fate (the tree limb falling) versus what is a choice (shooting Elohim) versus what is just finishing something that already started (shooting the dog)? I don't get it.

I feel like this book was trying to say SOMETHING but I am just not sure what.

Oh and all the hyperbole in the book kind of drove me nuts. I hate super flowery prose.

[oliviapope]

I honestly did not get this book and it was very frustrating to read. I remember reading a review on GR that mentioned they cried for days after reading it. I thought about it for days, but only because it left me scratching my head. I just didn't get that attached to any of the characters (except for Sal, maybe) because I found myself questioning the motivations for certain scenes. I don't think Sal was the devil, but I also don't get why he pretended to be (this is the part that confuses me the most about the book, what is the explanation for some of the things he knew? Was he supposed to really be Jesus or something? I just don't get it!)


It felt like the author was trying so hard to prove some point that I never got or that she forgot to get to.

[oliviapope]

May 31, 2017 9:17:23 GMT -5 rainbowchip said:

I also thought the whole Elohim story at the end got totally glossed over. That would have probably been super interesting had it been given more than a few pages.

I agree with this also, "oh they found all the missing kids in his freezer, the end." WUT? 

[minzy]

May 31, 2017 11:14:08 GMT -5 oliviapope said:

May 31, 2017 9:17:23 GMT -5 rainbowchip said:

I also thought the whole Elohim story at the end got totally glossed over. That would have probably been super interesting had it been given more than a few pages.

I agree with this also, "oh they found all the missing kids in his freezer, the end." WUT? 

Yes! A little Jeffrey Dahlmer for you... I cringed at the Ted Bundy "joke" too - did we really need to go there? Leave poor Grand alone!

[mrspez07]

I listened to this book in audible because my library didn't have it. I think I liked it better than I might have if I'd just read it myself. The inflections, pauses, etc. ratcheted up the intensity of the emotion to me.

I liked this book. I enjoyed the descriptive language and found myself saying "huh, interesting way to describe things" numerous times. I did have to take breaks because of the intensity of some of the events, it had me feeling things I was having a hard time describing to myself. Was I sad? Disgusted? Anxious? Everything? The interactions between Fielding and Grand twisted my heart.

I liked the future story teller, it was an interesting perspective to be between the past (at a point I can remember) and the future in the same story, I also think there was so little info about the future to even give it away as futuristic. Maybe the only thing left in the future is more of the same?

I think through most of the book the author did a good job of making you weigh whether Sal really was the devil, even if Fielding and you liked him; at least until Dresden's birthday the case could be made for either. It also made you evaluate what evil would be and look like. Not just in Sal's actions but in everyone's.

I think the part at the end with Eloheim was unnecessary and could have been left out, at that stage of the story I didn't think it added anything. In the last chapter or two though there were multiple points I think would have been a good end to the book instead of tying everything up. Even before the trial or right after when he said they left and never came back there were phrases the narrator said that were more impactful than the final end. I don't have a problem with a few loose ends to keep you thinking.

[rootbeerfloat]

Overall, I didn't like this book... the prose and the way Fielding and Autopsy behaved sometimes, as noted previously. I did like Grand; Sal; and Sal helping the mom, aunt, and Dresden. I was sad at Grand's fate, but absolutely hated that they burned Sal alive. WTF.

[litskispeciality]

I'm sorry for my delay on this. It took me much longer to read this book. I think I had to read it in chunks because everytime you thought it couldn't get any more depressing, it did. I joked with my husband that this is like "This is Us".

Overall the book was ok, I'm glad I stuck with it because the last chapter or so was a good wrap up. I definately "whaaaat" at learning Elohim was the one who was kidnapping, killing and eating (?!?) the boys. I guess overall though I felt like this was one of those "Valentines Day" or "New Years Eve" movies where it's just vingetts with different characters. Perhaps I missed a strong theme other than everyone Sal came in contact with had something bad happen to them.

I would have loved to hear more about Elohim's story, how he wasn't caught, how he kidnapped the kids, and more about Grand. I understand why he took his own life (heartbreaking!), but I thought he would live a little longer, maybe go in the story of him having AIDS and how he faced that.

I was surprised to see so many good reviews on good reads. Again maybe I read this wrong but as PP's have said, it was depressing and just too much extreme violence, death etc. for one story.

[expectantsteelerfan]

I can't believe I forgot to check for when the discussion was for this!

I'm in the minority here, but this book really got to me and I thought it was excellent.

When I started it, I groaned a bunch because I also felt like it was trying too hard, but as I got into it I felt like everything that was overly poetic or intently vague had a purpose that was neatly fulfilled later on.

Oddly, I think my own lack of religious belief might have a heavy bearing on why I found this book so prosaic. I don't believe Sal was the devil or that anything supernatural happened. I think all of that was just to highlight the evil of people and how it often gets glossed over in religious garb. It was certainly depressing and not 'fun' to read, but I guess that's my general pessimistic viewpoint on life, so this resonated with me in a way I totally didn't expect.