Summer Boy 1

This is the first of a series of responses to the novel, The Summer Boy
by my friend Henry Mitchell.

Boy is a teenager who has had trouble with his father, which is fairly
common in our American culture. A teenager needs to distance himself
from the direction of his father; Boy might be considered an extreme
case.

Boy was more or less released for the summer to 'father's' sister, Mary
in a mountain area; she was considerably more easy going than her rigid
brother and allowed Boy to roam about the mountains to his heart's content.

Boy went to a number of interesting places and met quite a number of
interesting people. He also had several names, quite common among young
men.

The thing that struck me in this first reading was that during his summer
experience several father figures entered his life.  In general they were more
tolerant than his father was and treated him with courtesy and consideration.

The story ends when Boy, now called Bard returned home; the least you
could say about his experiences was that he had learned to prosper
without the courtesy and consideration he had expected.

Father figures are often better guides and helpers than a blood relation
for many teenagers.

What we write usually if not always have an autobiographical dimension;
reading this book I was impressed with the resemblance it had to my own
experience.

I've long believed that the biggest chore that most of us have in our lives
is to forgive our parents.