Bad Summer People

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Prologue-Part 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1: “June 26”

Prologue Summary

Near the end of summer, eight-year-old Danny Leavit is riding his bike around the village of Salcombe on Fire Island and spots a dead body (which the novel will later reveal to be that of Susan Steinhagen) lying in the reeds beside the boardwalk. Danny’s father is outraged and contemplates suing the town, for he didn’t pay $2 million for his beach cabin and $50,000 in property taxes for his son to go around finding corpses. Danny, on the other hand, is excited to share his cool discovery with his friends at summer camp.

Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “Lauren Parker”

In Chapter 1, the narrative leaps back in time to the beginning of the summer and introduces the main characters and their backstories and personalities, starting with Lauren Parker, who is looking forward to a great summer. Every year, Lauren’s family goes to Fire Island. The luxury vacation island was not her first choice of a summer home, but her husband Jason insisted because he used to spend summers there with his best friend, Sam Weinstein, when they were children. Jason eventually steamrolled over her objections and bought a house there, and Lauren went along without expressing her reservations. After 10 years, Lauren has come to love their summer house in the quiet and wealthy community of Salcombe. She loves the peace and has a group of friends there. Most of them live the rest of the year in New York City like Lauren and Jason, but they never see each other between summers.

Now, Lauren is finally on the ferry to the island and is sitting with her summer friend, Rachel Woolf. Years ago, Rachel insinuated herself into Lauren’s circle of friends, somewhat against Lauren’s wishes. Rachel is the queen of gossip on Fire Island, and no one in Salcombe can get away with anything without Rachel knowing about it. Lauren is often exasperated with Rachel’s gossipy ways, but the woman is useful to her because she uses gossip as a weapon, which often works to Laurel’s benefit. Now, Rachel points out the new tennis pro, Robert Heyworth. Robert makes eye contact with Lauren, and she feels an immediate attraction.

Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “Robert Heyworth”

Robert Heyworth is on the same ferry as Lauren, Rachel, and many of the other returning summer residents. He comes from a middle-class background but is embarrassed by his origins. He also grew up playing tennis but never reached world-class status. While attending Stanford, he dated a woman named Julie, who belonged to what he thinks of as the “snobby-rich” class. He had dreamed of being able to marry Julie in order to gain access to her wealth but abandoned this plan due to his own unwillingness to take a charity job from her father. Since then, he has worked as a tennis pro, earning between $100,000 and $200,000 per summer and somehow never becoming wealthy.

On the ferry ride, Robert talks with Larry Higgins, who tells him about the previous tennis pro, Dave, who was fired for embezzling money from the tennis club. Far from being warned away from doing the same, Robert is intrigued by the idea. On the boat, he also sees Lauren. Her poise and class remind him of Julie, and he is strongly attracted to her.

Part 1, Chapter 3 Summary: “Rachel Woolf”

Rachel is single, and her loneliness makes her needy; she often desperately seeks out friendship and romance. Her main talents lie in hosting parties and getting people drunk in order to learn their secrets. The first official guests at her traditional first-night party are Sam and Jen Weinstein. Rachel had dated Sam for a summer before he dumped her, and ever since, Rachel has always carried a torch for him, even after he met and married Jen. The next arrivals at Rachel’s party are Brian and Lisa Metzner, Emily and Paul Grobel, and finally, Lauren and Jason Parker. Rachel feels compelled to please Lauren, who reminds her of the so-called “mean girls” in high school who used to ignore her.

Rachel sees Jason Parker and Jen Weinstein together; their hands brush, and they speak briefly. Interpreting this body language as evidence of an illicit affair between the two, Rachel is both thrilled and unsettled at the thought of summer drama. Later, Rachel sees Lauren and Robert with their heads together. When the party breaks up, Rachel feels let down and abandoned. She is sitting alone on the beach when she overhears Jen and Jason talking. Jason is bemoaning the fact that they can’t be together openly. They kiss passionately, and as they are leaving, Jen says to Jason, “Can you imagine if Rachel found out?” (42).

Part 1, Chapter 4 Summary: “Micah Holt”

Micah is tending bar at Rachel’s party and has picked up on Jason and Jen’s affair. After the party, Micah encounters Jason on the boardwalk. Jason behaves oddly, asking Micah not to tell anyone that he saw Jason there.

Part 1, Chapter 5 Summary: “Jason Parker”

Skulking home after his secret meeting with Jen, Jason reflects on the dynamics of their affair. Jason had always resented—hated really—his best friend Sam. Being handsome, popular, and rich, Sam always had everything that Jason ever wanted. Jason spent every summer with Sam’s family in Salcombe, and he was staying with Sam in Sam’s parents’ house when Sam first brought home his fiancée, Jen. At the time, Jason was overwhelmed by Jen’s beauty and perfection, and he deeply resented the fact that Sam had everything that Jason wanted for himself. On the beach that evening, when Sam was elsewhere, Jen propositioned Jason, and they had a single sexual encounter that was never repeated.

That incident was 10 years ago. Sam has since married Jen, and Jason has married Lauren: a beautiful, rich woman whom he never truly loved. In fact, he has always found her to be irritating. Jason insisted on buying the house in Salcombe against Lauren’s wishes so that he could be near Jen every summer. The previous year, Jen rekindled their affair, which has now been going on all year.

Earlier tonight, at the party, Sam approached Jason privately and confessed that he is having problems at work; he has been falsely accused by a female colleague of making sexual advances. He is worried that his reputation may be ruined by these accusations.

Part 1, Chapter 6 Summary: “Silvia Mabini”

Silvia is the Parkers’ nanny. She hates the long, boring summers in Salcombe. Otherwise, her life with the Parkers is very comfortable. She likes the children, especially Amelie, who is as elegant and imperious as her mother. Silvia is also sure that Jason is having an affair. Knowing this, she reflects that rich people are miserable. She plans to retire soon and wonders how much money she might be able to squeeze out of her employers before then.

Prologue-Part 1 Analysis

With young Danny Leavit’s discovery of the as-yet-unnamed corpse next to the boardwalk, the Prologue immediately introduces both the source of the story’s tension and the foreboding tone of the overall narrative, for each subsequent chapter is overshadowed by the reader’s awareness that someone amongst this dysfunctional circle of characters is eventually going to die. Yet even before the narrative begins in earnest, the Prologue makes it a point to satirize the self-serving reactions of the characters to Danny’s gruesome discovery. Notably, even in the face of the potentially traumatic scene that his son has uncovered, Danny’s father’s mind goes immediately to the money that he paid for the privilege of owning a home on Fire Island, and his threat to sue the city reflects a particularly ridiculous stance on the issue. The depths of his entitlement lie in his conviction that money should insulate him from life’s many vicissitudes. By contrast, Danny’s callousness at the sight of the dead body is more normal for a boy whose sense of mortality is still shielded by his innocence.

With its strategic temporal shift to the beginning of the summer, Part 1 establishes the status of the Prologue as a mere “teaser segment” and says no more for the moment on the topic of murder; in this way, the author builds tension and suspense by withholding information and creating a hook to increase curiosity in the story’s eventual outcome. Meanwhile, the complex cast of characters requires extensive introduction, so Rosenblum wastes no time establishing two minor characters—Micah and Sylvia—and four of the major ones: Lauren, Rachel, Robert, and Jason. These first six chapters therefore serve to describe the relationships of the characters to one another, and they also identify multiple sources of potential conflict. It is also important to note that as the story’s main elements are first introduced, the author takes care to show the characters at their best. Their morally ambiguous thoughts and actions place them somewhere on the continuum that exists between absolute “good” and “evil,” but overall, they are designed to seem relatively nice at this point, and their failings are those that any person in real life might have. For example, Rachel’s obsession for gossip stems from her loneliness and neediness, while Lauren is reserved and easily imposed upon, and Sam is naïve. Of them all, Jason is the least likable, but even his jealousy for Sam and his sabotaging behavior can be understood. Yet as the narrative unfolds, all of the characters will devolve into ever-more-questionable actions in pursuit of their own selfish goals.

In an attempt to reflect the many conflicting interests and motives amongst this well-heeled group, the author uses the scene of Rachel’s party to introduce one of the primary elements that will interrupt the larger status quo: Jason’s poorly concealed affair with Jen. At this point, the author creates an environment that invites guesses as to the possible identity of the person who will die, and the potential perpetrator of the crime. To that end, the affair between Jason and Jen provides an excellent motive for murder from several different speculative angles, and while no concrete answers will be provided this early in the narrative, the party soon makes it obvious that the Salcombe community is rife with the kinds of conflict that often lead to disaster.

However, referring to Salcombe’s summer residents as a “community” is not entirely accurate, since they are actually broken up into cliques of various levels of social power. Lauren is portrayed as the queen bee of Salcombe society, for she uses her aura of elegance and reserve to impress her own narrative of power on the other women, who envy her. Some, like Rachel, try to ingratiate themselves with Lauren. Rachel does this by using her weapon of gossip to reinforce Lauren’s social position. Despite her relative position of power within these circles, Lauren is also initially crafted to be the most likable of a set of flawed and ordinary, shallow people. Within this context, Rosenblum presents Lauren’s attraction to Robert sympathetically, given Jason’s recent neglect of his wife, and the reason for his neglect becomes evident after Rachel sees him with Jen. If the metanarrative of loyalty and fidelity is set aside, this development arguably justifies Lauren’s own decision to seek companionship elsewhere—in the form of Robert. Rachel’s addiction to gossip and secrets similarly represents the theme of Power and Micronarratives for she has never internalized the grand narratives of loyalty or right and wrong. For her, knowing everyone’s little secrets is her only real source of power, and as the narrative progresses, it also proves to have ample potential for chaos. This element of the characters’ dynamics becomes readily apparent when Jen’s fear that Rachel might find out about her affair with Jason foreshadows the fact that Rachel will eventually break down and reveal this little scandal to others in the group. Jason and Jen’s affair also introduces the ongoing theme of Betrayal and Disloyalty, the pervasiveness of which will ultimately upend the status quo and permanently disrupt the stability of Salcombe society.