Summer Fun
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the 2022 Lammy Award for Transgender Fiction
From acclaimed author Jeanne Thornton, an epic, singular look at fandom, creativity, longing, and trans identity.
Gala, a young trans woman, works at a hostel in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. She is obsessed with the Get Happies, the quintessential 1960s Californian band, helmed by its resident genius, B----. Gala needs to know: Why did the band stop making music? Why did they never release their rumored album, Summer Fun?
And so she writes letters to B---- that shed light not only on the Get Happies, but paint an extraordinary portrait of Gala. The parallel narratives of B---- and Gala form a dialogue about creation—of music, identity, self, culture, and counterculture.
Summer Fun is a brilliant and magical work of trans literature that marks Thornton as one of our most exciting and original novelists.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A 20-something transgender woman's obsession with a 1960s rock band drives Thornton's spirited if overstuffed latest (after The Dream of Doctor Bantam). Get Happies superfan Gala writes a series of lengthy adoring letters to the band's lead singer, B—, starting in 2009, from a trailer park in Truth or Consequences, N.Mex. Through the letters, Gala reveals details about her work at a youth hostel, her best trans friend, and a complicated, flirtatious relationship with a cisgender videographer. Her correspondence also reinvigorates the histrionics of B—'s past, as well as B—'s tumultuous evolution, the details of which are revealed midway through. The epistolary form lends itself well to the theme of extreme fandom and the soulful self-discovery of transgender identity as Gala yearns for belonging and contends with her depression. Gala and B—'s separate trajectories through joy, confusion, and episodes of darkness deepen both characters. The novel's evocation of the hippie era and band culture is also remarkable, though Gala's lengthy missives begin to lose steam soon after B—'s big reveal. Still, Thornton wrings a great deal of heart and soul from this earnest confessional.
