Tallulah Mae James has had a very unconventional childhood; from birth to 1960s she and her four siblings have been reared by a traditional Southern grandmother while her parents, Margo and Drayton could care less about what happens to their family and traditions that the grandmother attempts to instill. Tired of her family's dysfunction, Tallulah leaves her town for what she hopes would be forever. However, when Tallulah's youngest brother, Walden, gets arrested, Tallulah is forced to come back to her staid town in Mississippi and face the demons that have haunted her for many years.

From cradle to grave, the importance of individualism and in hiding one's "dirty" laundry or secrets has been instilled in countless generations all over the world. People are taught to keep a stiff upper lip, to ask for help only when absolutely necessary, and most importantly of all, to keep family secrets within a small circle of relatives, making sure these secrets never leave borders and leaving the current generation with very little to fall back on.

Beautiful, stark and heartbreaking, THE MYTH OF PERPETUAL SUMMER by Susan Crandall dares to examine the idea of what happens from one generation to another when family members keep secrets to themselves rather than sharing them with others, and the consequences are tragic in terms of effects on family members as they each begin to wrestle with their own fears and desires in realistic ways.

What I also really loved is that THE MYTH OF PERPETUAL SUMMER focuses a lot on more grandmother/granddaughter relationships which is pretty unique for a story because most of the stories I read often have child/parent relationships. This one though, there is a relationship between a sister and her brothers as well as between a granddaughter and her grandmother. Ultimately though, THE MYTH OF PERPETUAL SUMMER asks, is having a proud name worth it when you are being destroyed by the inside?

Book Summary

From the national bestselling author of Whistling Past the Graveyard comes a moving coming-of-age tale set in the tumultuous sixties that harkens to both Ordinary Grace and The Secret Life of Bees.

Tallulah James’s parents’ volatile relationship, erratic behavior, and hands-off approach to child rearing set tongues to wagging in their staid Mississippi town, complicating her already uncertain life. She takes the responsibility of shielding her family’s reputation and raising her younger twin siblings onto her youthful shoulders.

If not for the emotional constants of her older brother, Griff, and her old guard Southern grandmother, she would be lost. When betrayal and death arrive hand in hand, she takes to the road, headed to what turns out to be the not-so-promised land of Southern California. The dysfunction of her childhood still echoes throughout her scattered family, sending her brother on a disastrous path and drawing her home again. There she uncovers the secrets and lies that set her family on the road to destruction.

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