Invincible Summer (Adams)

Invincible Summer 
Alice Adams, 2016
Little, Brown and Company
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780316391177


Summary
Four friends. Twenty years. One unexpected journey.

Inseparable throughout college, Eva, Benedict, Sylvie, and Lucien graduate in 1997, into an exhilarating world on the brink of a new millennium.

Hopelessly in love with playboy Lucien and eager to shrug off the socialist politics of her upbringing, Eva breaks away to work for a big bank. Benedict, a budding scientist who's pined for Eva for years, stays on to complete his PhD in physics, devoting his life to chasing particles as elusive as the object of his affection. Siblings Sylvie and Lucien, never much inclined toward mortgages or monogamy, pursue more bohemian existences-she as an aspiring artist and he as a club promoter and professional partyer.

But as their twenties give way to their thirties, the group struggles to navigate their thwarted dreams. Scattered across Europe and no longer convinced they are truly the masters of their fates, the once close-knit friends find themselves filled with longing for their youth—and for one another.

Broken hearts and broken careers draw the foursome together again, but in ways they never could have imagined.

A dazzling depiction of the highs and lows of adulthood, Invincible Summer is a story about finding the courage to carry on in the wake of disappointment, and a powerful testament to love and friendship as the constants in an ever-changing world. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
Alice Adams is half Australian but has lived in England for most of her life—growing up in a house without a TV and as a result becoming a voracious reader. Career-wise, she's done everything from waitressing to investment banking, and in addition to a BA in philosophy, she has a multitude of geeky math, finance, and computer qualifications.

She lives in North London but escapes into the wilderness as often as possible. Invincible Summer is her first novel and she's hard at work on a second. (From the publisher.)

Book Reviews
There's a long list of reasons that Alice Adams's debut novel, Invincible Summer, shouldn't work. But it clicks anyhow. Ms. Adams has managed to combine…a familiar plot…and pigeonhole-ready characters and spin their story into a heart tugger with seemingly honest appeal. This amazing feat doesn't rival those of the Large Hadron Collider, which plays a cameo role in Invincible Summer. But it's close…. Ms. Adams [has a] gift for making her characters so changeable, so vulnerable, so universally familiar. They all make terrible decisions…and the book's main satisfaction comes from watching them adapt and cope.
Janet Maslin - New York Times


A crackerjack storyteller who deeply inhabits her characters—deploying pitch-­perfect dialogue to poignant and hilarious effect—Adams uses the conventions of the form to examine larger ideas about class and commerce, art and science, friendship and family at the time of the most recent fin de siècle.... Ultimately, though, this is a novel that strives to define a generation...and it falters when Adams overreaches, struggling to establish her characters as representatives of their era, shaped by the historical events of their day....  [T]his charming novel derives its power less from its author’s reductive attempts at answers and more from her restless questioning.
Joanna Rakoff - New York Times Book Review


[A] moving...bittersweet and compassionate novel.... Like your favorite Austen novel, Invincible Summer reconciles the cultural reality of an era with the personal lives of its characters. But Eva is not as reflective as, say, Elizabeth Bennet.
Sophie McManus - Washington Post


Perfect for the beach, but it's got some substance as well.... Think of this as The Big Chill for millennials.
Deborah Dundas - Toronto Star


Easy yet not insubstantial, this debut is a sweet toast to enduring friendship.
Meredith Turits - Elle


Adulthood has never been so endearing.
Steph Opitz - Marie Claire


Adams movingly depicts the tough steps we take into adulthood.
Good Housekeeping


Adams does an incredible job [of] conveying life's ups and downs with both humor and compassion, [and] shows herself to be especially skilled at crafting charming, empathetic (albeit troubled) characters you can't help but cheer on.
Sadie L. Trombetta - Bustle


[A] fun and memorable debut.... Adams’s characters have many ups and downs, disappointments and adjustments, but they are believable due to her understated exposition of the characters’ psychologies. The reader will stick with the book...because the characters are such good company.
Publishers Weekly


Adams'...characters are nearly impossible not to root for, and she captures their often troubled dynamics with tremendous empathy and charming wit. And while the novel wraps up just a touch too neatly...there is something pleasantly satisfying about its profound sense of hope. Breezy with substance...absorbing.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
1. "Is it impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him?" or so said George Bernard Shaw, and it's certainly true that it's difficult to write about the UK without at the very least a nod to class. To what degree do you think the friends' lives and aspirations are shaped by their social class?

2. The novel aims to give a nuanced portrayal of the London's financial world and the characters in it; do you feel it succeeds in providing a good portrayal of the workings of finance and the motivations of the people working in the field? Did you come away more of less sympathetic to bankers than when you started the book?

3. We follow Eva, Benedict, Sylvie, and Lucien across 20 years and through some of the most formative experiences of their lives, including job lay-offs, divorce, prison, and raising a disable child. Do the characters respond to these challenges in a convincing and interesting way?

4. One of the central themes in the novel is finding the hope and courage to carry on despite life's disappointments and tragedies. Although the characters do not find simple solutions to their problems,do you feel the overall message is redemptive? If so, in what way? If not, why not?

5. What is the significance of the book's title? It comes from a line by Albert Camus: "In the depths of winter, I finally learned that there lay within me an invincible summer." What does Camus mean?  And how does the line relate to Alice Adams's book?

6. Invincible Summer takes place over two decades in a number of historical events, including 9/11, the credit crunch, and the discovery of the Higgs boson. How much did you feel the characters were masters of their own fates, and how much were they buffeted by forces of economics and history far greater than themselves?

7. Do you feel satisfied with the way the book ends? Would you have preferred a different ending? If so, what might that ending look like?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)

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