The Long, Hot Summer by Kathleen MacMahon is one of the loveliest books I've read this year.

Family drama, generations of Irish men & ladies, comedy, tragedy and character growth. What more could a girl ask for in novel? Not much else!!

I was truly surprised by how amazing this book was, considering it has so few reviews. It's by far one of my favourite reads and it will sit high atop my shelves. Kathleen MacMahon has a beautiful sense of writing style and her prose is just magnificent. I can't get enough of this book and I want more by her.

This story follows the MacEntees - an Irish family with four generations of men and women trying to deal with a long, hot summer. Deidre and Manus were once married, but Manus is now with his male lover and at Deidre is grasping with the fact that she is now "old" and in her 80s. Alma, Acushla and MacDara are their children and they all have to grasp with their own choices too. Alma and Acushla married twin brothers, and somehow their lives are echoing each other. The girls' children, Constance and Nora, are also dealing with their own lives choices. The entire book follows these characters one by one and lets us into a world of family drama, insanity and growth.

I would have loved to read a book like this in high school, when you have the opportunity to pick apart lines and themes within the story. I loved seeing how each character interacted and how life didn't end up the way they quite expected it. Lots of humors is thrown in with the tragedy, family drama is addressed in a very real way, and this book shows just how tough life can be (yet also how fruitful and silly we can make it). In summary, it's all about perspective.

Kathleen does a great job showing the differences between the generations and how they interact with one another. The conflict felt so real and the book felt like it could have been a non-fiction retelling (but it's not!). I really want to read more by Kathleen because she has a real knack for story telling. I was so attached to these characters and I was furious that this book had to end (and in the way that it did! I cried! I never cry at books!).

I HIGHLY recommend this book if you love fictional dramas, stories set in Ireland, and books about being a family.

Five out of five stars! I would give it more if I could.

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. ( )

Une famille avec ses excentricités ( )

Meet the MacEntees, mother, Deirdre, relatively absent from her children's lives as they were growing, pursuing an award winning career on the stage. Manus, the father, who well leave his wife of many years to live with a younger man. Alma, who has grown into a formidable woman, has a daughter and divorced husband and Auschula, who is married to the other brother who is heavily invested in politics and Macdora, their brother, Mother's favorite and a gentle soul who seems to want little out of life. So not your typical Irish family but as you read this you will find them very easy in which to relate.

Narrated by each family member during the course of one summer, this is an easy story to immerse oneself into. No gimmicks, no changing timelines, just strong writing and an interesting plot. What a refreshing novelty. Over the course of a summer, we watch as these characters change as fate throws unexpected occurrences into their lives. We hear in their own words and the stories of the others how these have effected them, how they react to them. There is humor, sadness, forgiveness, understanding and a great deal of love. Ultimately, this is a story of family, what tears them apart, what brings them together, and love. What one will do out of love, forgive, come to new realizations and maybe even acceptance.

Wonderful story, great characters and just a plain good story with some surprising insights.

ARC from Netgalley. ( )

OK, I admit it. I started reading The Long, Hot Summer in the middle of a particularly freezing winter week. I was hoping that some of the warmth would transfer to me, huddled under blankets with only my fingers peeking out. I love family stories and I was interested to see how the MacEntees would handle their numerous upheavals over the course of the summer. The story begins with Deirdre, family matriarch, planning a grand party and her death. Basically, her death is a way of one-upping her estranged husband who left her for a man years ago. Manus has said that she’ll live forever, but she’ll prove him wrong! Deirdre is not keen on getting old, on being a faded star of the stage.

Each of the following chapters is told from the perspective of another one of the MacEntees. Alma is the next to tell her story – she’s a highflying journalist, only to be cut down in a random attack at home. Alma has an epiphany and starts to change – stopping dying her hair and moving from television to radio. There’s then the sensation of the year in Ireland as her ex-husband is caught stealing a pepper grinder. Who does he turn to? Alma, of course. Meanwhile, Alma’s sister Acushla has a deep dark secret she’s ready to tell – at the expense of her husband’s political career in Ireland. Both Alma and Acushla’s daughters have their own problems while Manus is now a carer for his lover. Sadly, tragedy strikes again but will this bring the MacEntees closer?

I liked the way The Long, Hot Summer was set out – the long chapters from different characters reminded me of Maeve Binchy’s books (such as Minding Frankie). However, I felt that there was something lost between the chapters, that they were more separate than joined. At times, it was like some of the previous events hadn’t happened. For example, after Acushla goes public with her secret, it doesn’t really flow into the following narrative. I would have thought a big shock like that, given that she was the talking point of Ireland’s media for days, would reverberate more. Perhaps it didn’t do so through the MacEntees to show how disparate they were to each other. Also, some things weren’t spelled out enough for me – what exactly was wrong with Sam? Why has Macdara sequestered himself since his breakdown, and what happened exactly? Given that other events were told in detail, I would have liked to have known more about these too.

Kathleen MacMahon’s writing is excellent and she certainly knows how to tell a story. I haven’t read This is How it Ends, but I’d be interested in doing so, given the stellar reviews for it. I just felt that this story didn’t flow as well as it could have – it seems to start and stop, rather like Manus’s beloved blue Jaguar. Not all the characters were likeable (Deirdre is an enigma that only starts being understandable as the story finishes) which is okay. But the ones I did like, such as Connie and Macdara, didn’t get enough page time to satisfy me. Perhaps fewer characters in greater depth would have made me happier or more reasoning as to why they acted how they did.

The Long, Hot Summer is a good book, but I had the feeling that something was missing to make it a great one.

Thank you to Hachette Australia for the book. My review is honest.

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