Poetry Book Review: Verse Novel - Frenchtown Summer by Robert Cormier

Bibliography:
Cormier, R. 1999. FRENCHTOWN SUMMER. New York, NY: Delacorte Press. ISBN 0385327048.

Plot Summary:
During the summer of his twelfth birthday, Eugene explores what it means to grow up in Massachusetts after World War I as he experiences his first job, first love, and first loss. Throughout the thirty poems Eugene interacts with family, friends, and enemies as he attempts to understand their lives and motivations.

Critical Analysis:
Through his experiences as a paper delivery boy, his first love, the death of a family member, and the ever evolving relationship with his father Eugene’s story recreates a distant past while still maintaining emotional relevance for teen readers. The relationships created in the novel convey the love, fear, hate, power, confusion, and joy that a young boy experiences while trying to understand his surrounding world.

The book is filled with vivid descriptions of life in Eugene’s tenement. The banal details of daily life come alive when Cormier provides glimpses into the secret world of an individual. One example is when he watches Mrs. Cartin yearn to follow the blue shirt she has dropped from her third-floor window. Another is when he is experiencing his first love with Sister Angela. Cormier describes the “delirious” joy which he contrasts with the terrible lows through the following lines, saying Eugene was “...Mute in her presence,/tripping on the carpet’s edge./I was a pathetic lover” (pg. 52).

The author uses precise wording and placement to create the most impact. The novel is not driven by plot, but as a remembrance of a long ago summer made up of moments. Robert Cormier creates an affecting novel that explores a past time period without losing the emotional intensity to connect with today’s readers.

Poem Excerpt:

23: The Bald Spot

“I saw that spot of baldness,
whiter, wider now,
his hair thinner,
revealing his pale scalp,
and I fled the tenement,
clattered down the stairs,
to sudden rushing panic
running to-
where?-
I was blinded
by the knowledge
that there was
no safe place
to run to.”

Review Excerpts:

BOOKLIST
“Cormier finds the universal in the small, sometimes mysterious moments of unsung lives. Heartbreak becomes heart ease, as Cormier continues to demonstrate his unrivaled power to dazzle and delight his readers.”

LIBRARY JOURNAL
“In taut verse, Eugene provides verbal snapshots of his town, the enigmatic adults around him, and his own growing sense of self. A lyrical tour de force that packs an emotional wallop.”

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL
“It is a sensitive, superbly crafted story of a boy's journey into self-awareness.”

Connections:
Continue reading other verse novels. Listed are some recommended read-alikes:
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, Foreign Exchange by Mel Glenn, Stop Pretending by Sonya Sones, and The Braid by Helen Frost.