Summer Sisters

Caitlin is an archetypal character: the dramatic and stunning bombshell—the femme fatale. The narrator explains, “The girls at school encouraged her to send a photo to Elle or Cosmo or even Seventeen. The boys drooled over her. Even the teachers found her irresistible” (140). She has long legs and hair, and the narrator compares her to “Barbie, but without the ridiculous chest” (139). Caitlin’s family is wealthy, so she doesn’t have to worry about money. While Vix’s mom is strict, Caitlin’s dad lets her do almost whatever she wants. During her teen years, sex consumes Caitlin: She goes from counting Vix’s pubic hairs to pursuing sexual relationships with teen boys and men. Abby worries about her (and Vix), but Caitlin doesn’t present herself as a victim. She craves experience and uses a line from Blake’s poem “The Tyger” as her yearbook quote, framing herself as sexually aggressive.

Caitlin is the only character that Blume doesn’t cut to—the reader never gets a glimpse into her interiority. She stays distant and unknowable. Through dialogue, Blume gives her depth. For instance, after her dog dies, she speaks with Vix about death. She later admits to feelings of jealousy when she confesses to having sex with Bru after Nathan’s funeral. As Caitlin goes back to New Mexico to mourn Nathan with Vix, she demonstrates her consciousness and proves she’s a good friend.

Caitlin isn’t a reliable source of information. She admits to Vix that she made up the ski instructor, and Vix wonders what else she made up. Her unreliability adds to her mystifying characterization. Caitlin fears an ordinary life, and she travels and abandons her family to outrun the threat of averageness. Even her death is uncommon and shrouded in mystery. Adding to Caitlin’s mysterious aura, Vix wonders if Caitlin is still alive and will invite her to her 40th birthday.

Lamb is Caitlin’s dad, and Abby is his wife. Before Abby moves in, the house is messy, with Caitlin calling it “Psycho House.” The untidy home reflects Lamb’s characterization. Lamb used to be a hippie, and he loves the Beatles—he embraces freedom and doesn’t have many rules for Caitlin or her brother, Sharkey. His name suggests innocence—in Blake’s poem “The Lamb” (1789), the lamb symbolizes innocence. He’s mostly passive, though he sends Caitlin to her room when she scolds him for not countering Grandmother Somers’s antisemitism. Abby yells at him for not establishing boundaries for Caitlin and Vix. Lamb experienced sexual abuse; he remembers a 20-something Countess inviting him into the bathtub when he was four or five. Lamb doesn’t use words like “victim” or the diction of sexual trauma to describe his experience, however.

Abby first married when she was 19. She has a son, Daniel, and wishes she could have a daughter. Vix fantasizes about Abby being her mom, and Abby and Lamb think of Vix as a part of their family. Lamb tells Bru, “We think of Vix as our daughter. We’re her Vineyard family” (214). Abby also nurtures Vix’s education and removes financial obstacles to help her attend private school and, later, Harvard. Abby gets the daughter she always wanted when Caitlin gives Abby and Lamb the legal rights to her child, Maizie. Abby is a dynamic character. As the narrative develops, she figures out how to create a life for herself, taking charge of the Somers Foundation and raising Maizie.

Bru lives on the island, and he’s a working-class person. His uncles started a construction business revamping cottages, and they employ him. Through characters like Bru, Von, and Trisha, Blume demonstrates the full spectrum of lives on Martha’s Vineyard, which isn’t inhabited exclusively by rich or famous people.

Vix meets Bru during her first summer at the Vineyard. At first, the main attraction is Bru’s cousin Von, but in the following summers, Vix develops intense feelings for Bru, and he becomes her primary romantic interest. He can come across as sexist, like when he thinks, “There’s something about being [Vix’s] first, about teaching her everything his way. Like training a puppy but better” (160).

Still, Blume gives Bru depth. His mom dies of cancer, and afterward, Bru tries to kill himself. Bru isn’t good at communicating, and he feels like Harvard has turned Vix into a snob. He wants to marry Vix and live on the Vineyard, but Vix wants something else. Instead, Bru marries Caitlin. He takes a passive role in the situation, admitting, “He loves them both. He’s glad he doesn’t have to choose. Glad they’ve done it for him” (370).

Ed, Tawny, Lanie, Lewis, and Nathan are Vix’s nuclear (and legal) family—her non-Vineyard family.

Tawny is her mom, and she has a stable job as an assistant for the sickly, quirky Countess. Tawny spends most of her time with the Countess. When she’s with her family, she’s grumpy and distant. When Vix asks her personal questions, Tawny replies, “We don’t wash our linen in public” (12). Ed thinks money troubles have hardened her, and Tawny worries about becoming like her mom. Tawny hits Vix when Vix says Tawny doesn’t care about her future. As the narrative develops, Tawny separates herself from her family, and she doesn’t visit Ed when he’s in the hospital. Arguably, Tawny is following Vix’s model: Vix, too, doesn’t have much to do with her family.

Like Caitlin’s dad, Vix’s dad is kind and passive. While Tawny’s mom is suspicious of Caitlin’s family, Ed supports the relationship. He has trouble maintaining steady employment, but after he and Tawny all but divorce, he meets a woman, Frankie, who makes him happy.

Nathan is Vix’s youngest brother, and he’s the family member she’s closest with. While she’s away at the Vineyard, she sends him something each week. Nathan follows in Vix’s footsteps and goes away one summer for two weeks. He returns as an assertive individual, declaring, “No more Mr. Nice Guy. Just because I’m in a chair doesn’t mean you can push me around!” (114). Nathan has muscular dystrophy, and his sudden death devastates Vix. She honors her younger brother by naming her son after him.

Lanie is Caitlin’s younger sister, and she has a baby as a teen, and then she has another child. She’s in an abusive marriage and works three jobs while her husband stays home and uses drugs. Lanie is Vix’s foil and antagonist. She is what Vix isn’t—Vix has a fulfilling life, and Lanie feels trapped in hers. Lanie thinks Vix condescends and views her as an adversary, but she also asks Vix for money.

Lewis is a flat character, and Blume doesn’t spend much time on him. He joined the army, and Ed worries he might have died in the 1988 Pan Am terrorist attack––the Lockerbie bombing.

Gus Kline and Daniel Baum are the Chicago Boys (they’re from Chicago). Daniel is Abby’s son, and Gus is his friend. Daniel invites Gus to the Vineyard for the summer. The boys are somewhat dynamic. At first, they and the “summer sisters” are adversaries, and the tension centers on sex, with the narrator stating, “The house was abuzz with sexual vibes” (149). As the plot develops, Gus becomes Vix’s romantic interest. They later marry and have a child. Daniel isn’t sure what he wants to do with his life, but Blume gives him complexity by noting his experience with depression.

Sharkey is Caitlin’s brother; he stays in his room and, later, the lab. He excels at computers and tries to steer clear of the house’s sexual conflagrations. Still, The Elusive Power of Sex consumes him. The narrator says, “He can’t fall asleep without jerking off, imagining how it would be if they got into the back of his truck, his sister and her best friend. He can’t even look at them anymore without being scared he’ll get a hard-on” (162). Nevertheless, Sharkey remains a realist. He’s not surprised when Caitlin abandons Bru and her daughter, bluntly declaring, “What did they expect?” (387).

The Countess is depicted as frail and quirky, and she relies on Tawny to help her get through life. She has emphysema and alcoholism. She mostly comes across as eccentric, telling stories about running away to the circus and meeting the Count in a stalled elevator. However, Blume gives the Countess depth: She cares deeply about dogs, and she creates a trust for Tawny. She is connected not only to Vix’s family via Tawny but also to Caitlin’s family: The Countess was Lamb’s mother’s best friend. Lamb remembers the Countess—whom he calls Charlotte—inviting him into the bathtub and allowing him to touch her when she was in her 20s and he was four or five, though no one in the book thinks of her as a predator.