If there's one reason why one should pick up David Baldacci's One Summer , it is to applaud the author for daring to go off-track from the legal/political thrillers he is fêted for; for trying his hand at a simple, heartfelt story of love, life and second chances. But David Baldacci has done this before too with Freddy and the French Fries and The Christmas Train .
While One Summer is not in the same league as Baldacci's thrillers, it definitely makes a good read; if, for nothing else, then at least to celebrate little tales of heroism, miracles and the small triumphs that make up a common person's life a notch more magical. After all, who says heroes always need to be larger-than-life? Many a times, life makes heroes out of the most unlikely persons like in the case of Baldacci's protagonist Jack Armstrong.
One Summer is a fairly straightforward story of ex-war veteran Jack Armstrong being diagnosed with a terminal illness. Having prepared himself and his three young children - Mikki, Jackie and Cory - for the inevitable, Jack is ‘punched in the face' by life as his wife Lizzie is killed in a car accident while out to buy medicines for Jack. Jack feels vaguely responsible for Lizzie's death and also has to cope with his children's mixed feelings, the bone-chilling sensation of death creeping up on him while in a hospice and his mother-in-law Bonnie's hostility towards him for being alive while her daughter lay dead.
Sudden change
Even as Jack tries to make arrangements for his kids' future by sending them to stay with different relatives, destiny takes a hand. His terminal illness no longer exists! Things turn topsy-turvy with this new development, leading Jack to bring back his children. Jack is soon struggling to cope with his children's attitudes and Bonnie's hatred. Amid all this, the family inherits Lizzie's ancestral house at South Carolina and Jack takes the children there to revisit Lizzie through her memories. The visit leads to a series of events — good, bad and ugly — that finally culminate into Jack becoming closer to his children and also finding love in a lawyer-turned-restaurateur Jenna.
The story is touching and the reader can identify with the travails of bringing up teenaged children and a dying husband pouring out his heart to his wife through a series of letters.
Too many subplots
What does not touch a chord, is the miraculous – almost supernatural – recovery of Jack. It takes an otherwise perfectly rational storyline to the point of fantasy; thus leaving the reader feeling a bit cheated. Also, there are too many subplots leaving the reader confused about where to focus one's attention. The characters of Jenna (who seems too eager to please Jack), Mikki (who rebels often without a cause), Bonnie (whose extreme hatred confounds the reader after a point) and Liam (the oh-so-sweet-and-ever-helpful boyfriend) seem too typical for any surprises.
Yet, One Summer makes for a good read for reinstating our faith in the small miracles that make up life. In today's strife-ridden world when we've become too cynical to accept miracles, this book exhorts us to “chin up and take heart that things indeed do change for the better.” The love and devotion between Jack and Lizzie that they express in seemingly mundane but yet special ways is another good reason to read this book.
So go on; curl up in a hammock one sunny afternoon and leaf through this novel about life as it meanders from joy to sorrow and back.
