A Hundred Summers by
Beatriz Williams is a fascinating novel about relationships
and prejudice that takes place during the 1930s in New York
and New England. The book alternates between the years 1931
and 1938, with a backdrop of the historical events that took
place during that period.
In 1931. the characters Nick Greenwald and Lily Dane fall
in love, only to have it end after Lily’s parents reject
Nick because he is Jewish. Fast-forward seven years where
her best friend, Budgie, has married Nick, Lily’s former
finance. Williams explores the different relationships of
friendship, jealousy, and long lost love. She is able to use
the actual natural disaster event of the 1938 New England
hurricane to show how someone’s life can change in a
moment and how important it was to be with the one you love.
Another historical event she vividly discusses through her
character’s eyes is the pending outbreak of World War
II, intertwined with anti-semitism in both Europe and America.
A powerful quote from Nick, “She’d been brought
up to believe in pure bloodlines, and I was a mongrel.”
The author wanted her readers to understand that Nick felt
it was his duty to fight this war because he saw first-hand
the consequences of anti-semitism. She writes that he actually
volunteered and “used his influences to gain an assignment
to a combat unit because he saw it as his duty to take up
arms against Hitler.” Williams’ hopes that she
did justice to Nick’s story, “I wanted to show
that he had the sense of a higher calling even though he is
a father and a husband.”
Regarding the characters, the author contrasts Lily, who is
full of passion, good-natured, and someone who willfully and
instinctively looks for the best in people, with Budgie, who
is beautiful, confident, and fearless. She is violently jealous
of Lily’s innocence and desires what Lily has. Then
there is Nick, the man any woman would desire, an overall
good person, loyal, and someone who stands up for his religion.
There are fascinating twists and turns in how each of the
characters relates to one another. Williams noted, “Budgie’s
entire life has been measured in her beauty and her ability
to use that to manipulate men. I explored how the female characters
have the possibility of a career if they are willing to fight
for it. The focus in my books is on domestic relationships
because it is the key to understanding the cultural grounds
we walk upon today, that entire cultural shift. In this time
period women were becoming more independent with the old rules
falling by the wayside. Lily is relatable with those working
mothers of today through her conflict between independence
and raising a family.”
Those in the military should be able to relate to both Nick
and Lily. Nick volunteered because he knew the importance
of fighting evil, just at those serving today fight the War
on Terror. Lily had to balance her profession with being a
parent, which happens often when troops are deployed. The
author also showed how Nick, just as with today’s troops,
must sacrifice family events for country.
Her next book, although not a sequel, will incorporate more
of Nick and his children’s lives, and the conflict of
being a part of a mixed marriage. Williams noted, “I
am personally fascinated by the 20th Century and I am also
interested in seeing how it all plays out after World War
II.”
A Hundred Summers is a powerful novel that is very
fast-paced. The issues explored in it are brilliantly presented
through a potent storyline with very well developed characters
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