The Summer Friend
A Memoir
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Narrated by:
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Charles McGrath
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By:
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Charles McGrath
About this listen
Alive with the intoxicating magic of summer in New England, former editor of the New York Times Book Review Charles McGrath’s evocative memoir looks back at that sun-soaked season, at family, youth, and a singular bond made at a time when he thought he was beyond making friends.
“Sun-drenched and deeply touching.”—The New York Times
“Positively aches with beauty and loss.”—Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls
It was early evening and a new acquaintance had come to retrieve his daughter from a play date. Instead of driving up in a minivan, he arrived by water, tacking his sailboat smartly across a squiggly channel in the marsh, throwing a rope overboard, and zipping back home, his gleeful daughter riding in the wake. Who knew you could do such a thing? And how could you resist befriending a man such as that?
Over the course of this rich memoir, McGrath recalls with a gimlet eye the pleasures of summers past: amateur lobstering, 9-hole golf, family costume charades, bridge-jumping, and a friendship forged between two men from different backgrounds who came together late in life.
Recounting the vagaries of summer with such precision and warmth—peeling long strips of sunburnt skin from your shoulder as if “shuffling off your own cocoon,” the outdoor shower curtain blowing open in the breeze, an M80 firework in the mailbox—The Summer Friend is simultaneously a potent evocation of the rhythms and rituals of summer and a stirring remembrance of a friend found and then lost.
©2022 Charles McGrath (P)2022 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Sun-drenched and deeply touching...I loved McGrath’s snapshots of the dilapidated nine-hole courses he likes to play on, which he describes with a deadpan relish reminiscent of Bill Bryson… McGrath eulogizes his summer friend in the very first chapter, then brings him to life on the subsequent pages with such vividness and palpable affection that the reader forgets his fate for long stretches ... When the end finally comes, in a chapter simply called ‘Dying,’ it lands like a gut punch…. McGrath’s book is an act of love, a fitting tribute to his old friend and a poignant reminder to all of us to squeeze every last drop out of the summers that remain.”—Tom Perrotta, The New York Times
"[An] affecting memoir...The book’s prevailing spirit is wholly life-affirming. It is in the fullness with which things large and small are rendered...in all their humorous specificity that makes memorable what might be called the moral of the tale—that “summer can happen almost anywhere.”—William H. Pritchard, The Wall Street Journal
“[An] ode to friendship and nostalgia...McGrath's memoir is as much about his childhood summers as it is about his summers as a grown-up, and he moves back and forth seamlessly between second person...and first person. That shift keeps the tone intimate but not overwhelmingly self-centered. These things I'm writing about, McGrath seems to say, are things we all understand... The poignancy of the final chapters is genuinely touching. Anyone who has lost a friend will understand.”—Laurie Hertzel, Star Tribune
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Story
After 17 years at sea, Linda Greenlaw figured it was time to take a break from her career as a swordboat captain. She felt she needed to return to Isle au Haut - a tiny island seven miles from the Maine coast with a population of 70 year-round residents, 30 of whom were her relatives. She would pursue a simpler life; move back in with her parents and get to know them again; become a professional lobsterman; and find a guy, build a house, have kids, and settle down. But all doesn't go as planned.
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Was this narration sped up?
- By Linda Vanaman on 10-12-15
By: Linda Greenlaw
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Grief Cottage
- By: Gail Godwin
- Narrated by: Jacob York
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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The haunting tale of a desolate cottage, and the hair-thin junction between this life and the next, from best-selling National Book Award finalist Gail Godwin. After his mother's death, 11-year-old Marcus is sent to live on a small South Carolina island with his great aunt, a reclusive painter with a haunted past. Aunt Charlotte, otherwise a woman of few words, points out a ruined cottage, telling Marcus she had visited it regularly after she'd moved there 30 years ago because it matched the ruin of her own life.
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Character story or ghost story ?
- By RueRue on 12-18-17
By: Gail Godwin
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Stiltsville
- By: Susanna Daniel
- Narrated by: Suzanne Toren
- Length: 13 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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One sunny morning in 1969, near the end of her first trip to Miami, twenty-six-year-old Frances Ellerby finds herself in a place called Stiltsville, a community of houses built on pilings in the middle of Biscayne Bay. It's the first time the Atlanta native has been out on the open water, and she's captivated. On the dock of a stilt house, with the dazzling skyline in the distance and the unknowable ocean beneath her, she meets the house's owner, Dennis DuValand, a new future reveals itself.
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boring, slow, and... who cares?!
- By nursebettyknitting on 05-24-14
By: Susanna Daniel
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Hemingway's Boat
- Everything He Loved in Life, and Lost, 1934 - 1961
- By: Paul Hendrickson
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 22 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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An award-winning historian and author, Paul Hendrickson here turns his attention to one of America’s most cherished literary icons, Ernest Hemingway. Drawing on previously unpublished material, Hendrickson focuses on Hemingway’s life in its twilight, just prior to his suicide, and the seemingly singular constant in the man’s life: his boat, Pilar. On this vessel, Hemingway would entertain and travel, but it would also be the scene of some of his greatest tragedies.
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A Hemingway biography for the 21st Century
- By George on 09-16-14
By: Paul Hendrickson
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Don't Give Up, Don't Give In
- Lessons from an Extraordinary Life
- By: Louis Zamperini, David Rensin
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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In Don't Give Up, Don’t Give In, Louis Zamperini offers never-before told tales that embody his simple, yet essential secrets of success: how his relationship with God, his ever-positive attitude, his constant pursuit of accomplishment - and a healthy dose of mischief - have helped him lead a long and fulfilled life, lessons we can all use to transform our own.
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Great Followup to "Unbroken!"
- By Johnny on 05-13-15
By: Louis Zamperini, and others
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Sunny's Nights
- Lost and Found at the Bar at the End of the World
- By: Tim Sultan
- Narrated by: Robert Malloch
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Imagine that Alice had walked into a bar instead of falling down the rabbit hole. In the tradition of J. R. Moehringer’s The Tender Bar and the classic reportage of Joseph Mitchell, here is an indelible portrait of what is quite possibly the greatest bar in the world—and the mercurial, magnificent man behind it. The first time he saw Sunny’s Bar, in 1995, Tim Sultan was lost, thirsty for a drink, and intrigued by the single bar sign among the forlorn warehouses lining the Brooklyn waterfront.
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Visiting an Era
- By Carolyn on 03-01-16
By: Tim Sultan
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An Extravagant Life
- An Autobiography Incorporating Blue Water, Green Skipper
- By: Stuart Woods
- Narrated by: Tony Roberts
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Over the last 40 years, Stuart Woods has written more than 90 novels of suspense and intrigue, beginning with the award-winning Chiefs. Featuring iconic crime-fighting and jet-setting leads, the plots are masterfully conceived and wonderfully escapist. What many readers and listeners don’t know is that Woods' very own life was filled with similar stories of adventure.
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Stuart Wood’ autobiography
- By Tosh on 09-11-22
By: Stuart Woods
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Time Bandit
- Two Brothers, the Bering Sea, and One of the World's Deadliest Jobs
- By: Andy Hillstrand, Johnathan Hillstrand, Malcolm MacPherson
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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The Time Bandit is the fishing vessel that Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand use to hook the "deadliest catch", Alaskan king crabs and opilio crabs, in the Bering Sea, a dangerous body of water that can steal years from a fisherman's life. In pursuit of their daily catch, the brothers brave ice floes and heaving 60-foot waves, gusting winds of 80 miles per hour, unwieldy and unpredictable half-ton steel crab traps, and an injury rate of almost 100-percent.
There are fewer than 400 fishermen of this kind in the U.S., and early death is a common fate. But the Hillstrand brothers are drawn to the drama and adventure of life on the high seas - this is their world.
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Much Better Then I Had Expected
- By Andrew H. Hochheimer on 09-04-08
By: Andy Hillstrand, and others
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Whirligig
- By: Paul Fleischman
- Narrated by: Robert Field, Lily Christian, Alex Hauk, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Newbery Medal winner Paul Fleischman writes a profoundly moving story of connectedness and the journey of a young soul to self-discovery. Told through the voices of five characters and narrated by age-appropriate actors, Whirligig compels the listener with its lesson on how our actions can impact the lives of others - even years later. A stunningly authentic listening experience.
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Fabulous
- By Tim on 03-21-17
By: Paul Fleischman
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Astream
- American Writers on Fly Fishing
- By: Robert DeMott - editor
- Narrated by: Brian Morris
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Jim Harrison, Pam Houston, Ted Leeson, Nick Lyons, Thomas McGuane, and more, share stories of fly fishing and life on the river. This marvelous collection features stories from some of America’s finest and most respected writers about one of the world’s most solitary and satisfying sports: fly fishing. For the first time, the stories of thirty-one acclaimed writers including Kim Barnes, Walter Bennett, Russell Chatham, Guy de la Valdne, Robert DeMott, Chris Dombrowski, Ron Ellis, Jim Fergus, Kate Fox, Charles Gaines, Bruce Guernsey, Jim Harrison, Pam Houston, Michael Keaton, Greg Keeler, Sydney Lea, Ted Leeson, Nick Lyons, Craig Mathews, Thomas McGuane, Joseph Monninger, Howard Frank Mosher, Jake Mosher, Craig Nova, Margot Page, Datus Proper, Le Anne Schreiber, Paul Schullery, W. D. Wetherell, and Robert Wrigley come together in one collection. Fly fishers and non-fly fishers alike will recognize in these poignant tales the universal aspects of the appreciation of nature, the necessity of conservation, and the joy and knowledge that come from time spent on fresh and salt water. This is a delightful, handsome volume that captures the allure and spirit of fly fishing and those that love it.
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Flowery nonsense
- By 964a5 on 05-10-13
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Captain Phil Harris
- The Legendary Crab Fisherman, Our Hero, Our Dad
- By: Josh Harris, Jake Harris, Steve Springer, and others
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 6 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Prior to his untimely death, in 2010, Captain Phil Harris was a star of Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch, the hit show that follows the exhilarating lives of Alaskan crab fishermen as they brave the vicious Bering Sea. He led his crew through hurricane-force winds and four-story-high waves, hauling in millions of pounds of crab and raking in millions of dollars. Phil worked hard, but he played even harder....
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Almost cried again!
- By The Girls on 09-12-16
By: Josh Harris, and others
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Zen and Now
- On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- By: Mark Richardson
- Narrated by: Buck Schirner
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1968, Robert Pirsig and his son, Chris, made the cross-country motorcycle trip that was the basis for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, a book that has inspired generations with its searching personal and philosophical narrative. After rereading the book at the onset of middle age, reporter Mark Richardson tuned up his old Suzuki dirt bike and became a "Pirsig Pilgrim".
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Wonderful
- By James on 04-17-09
By: Mark Richardson
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All Fishermen Are Liars
- By: John Gierach
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 6 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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In All Fishermen Are Liars, Gierach travels around North America seeking out quintessential fishing experiences, whether it's at a busy stream or a secluded lake hidden amid snow-capped mountains. He talks about the art of fly-tying and the quest for the perfect steelhead fly ("The Nuclear Option"), about fishing in the Presidential Pools previously fished by the elder George Bush, and the importance of traveling with like-minded companions when caught in a soaking rain.
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One Of My Favorite Authors!!!
- By Travis on 03-31-18
By: John Gierach
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Essays of E. B. White
- By: E. B. White
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Legendary author and essayist E. B. White writes, "The essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest." Covering a large number of subjects, this classic collection features 31 of White's most memorable essays.
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E.B. White writes honestly, fearlessly and clearly
- By Bonny on 09-03-17
By: E. B. White
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Should the Tent Be Burning Like That?
- A Professional Amateur's Guide to the Outdoors
- By: Bill Heavey
- Narrated by: Jeff Harding
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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For more than 20 years, Heavey has staked a claim as one of America's best sportsmen writers. In feature stories and his Field & Stream column A Sportsman's Life, he has taken audiences across the country and beyond to experience his triumphs and failures as a suburban dad who happens to love hunting and fishing. This new collection gathers together a wide range of his best work - tales that are odes to the notion that enthusiasm is more important than skill and testaments to the enduring power of the natural world.
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one of the best storytellers of all time!
- By Adam on 12-16-17
By: Bill Heavey
What listeners say about The Summer Friend
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Indyquaz
- 06-22-22
Captures Summer and Male Friendship
Covering the sweet memories of past summers without being nostalgic, this book also captures adult male friendship, or at least what it can be if you are lucky. McGrath seems to be both blessed and aware that he is blessed, and this book is a tribute to his friend as much as it is a memoir of the activities they shared. The audio book's pace also captures that summer rhythm of days moving more slowly but the season going by too fast. I enjoyed it very much.
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- John
- 07-01-22
Best book in sometime
Parallels to one’s life can be readily found in this book. Do not find yourself surprised to choke up at the end and it is right that you do so everyone should have someone in his or her life who’s passage leaves you just a little empty. This is a very nice telling of a very nice story and should be a summer read for everyone.And for anyone who is a fan of New England this book is especially poignant
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- Dad95
- 06-16-22
When adults play
It’s about adults’ capacity for play and the way grown men’s friendship can revolve around that. I wish it also talked about the interplay between work and play and the rhythms of that during the summers.
Ratings scale:
***** Landmark read. Will never forget it. Possibly life changing. Stands
apart from everything else in its category. Will always have a copy to keep on my shelf and give away. Might organize a book group around it. Maybe 10% of the books I finish.
**** Excellent. Very glad I read it—and you should, too! Pretty much everybody who cares about the things I care about will enjoy and be glad they read it. 20-30% of books I finish.
***Good. Definitely worth reading. I might recommend if there’s a particular fit with your tastes.
** not sure why I finished this. Would not recommend. But also don’t regret it.
* disliked. Maybe did not finish.
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- Matt McKillip
- 09-09-22
My favorite book this year
This is a wonderful book about growing up, about wonderful summers, and about beautiful friendships. I thank Mr McGrath for making me laugh, making me cry, and making me remember so many of my own fond childhood memories. Now I am inspired to live the rest of my summers, whatever ones God grants me, like I did when I was a carefree child and I'm also inspired to make sure that my children and grandchildren have very fond memories and experiences like I have had.
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- Robert P. Lentz III
- 04-17-23
Nothing short of wonderful.
This fine work brings back fond memories of my own youth which is now six decades ago. It should be shared with family and friends, hopefully as they wiggle their toes in the sand.
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