“One Grand Summer” is a captivating, evocative novel that follows six weeks in the lives of the four teenage main characters. The book begins at the end of the school year. The narrator is Frieder, a dryly sardonic 16-year-old. Frieder has just learned that he has failed Latin and maths. Here’s his wry take on the dreaded Latin teacher:
“Zippo’s real name was Mr Zigankenberg, but nobody ever called him that. Even so, ‘Zippo’ was too short a name for the man. Six foot six tall and a good sixteen stone. Should have been a boxer or a wrestler. Not a Latin teacher, at any rate.”…
after failing the test, Frieder muses:
“Six feet six and sixteen stone of Latin. I couldn’t help myself; the man was right.”
Frieder lives in a noisy household with a vaguely neglectful father, pragmatic mother, five siblings, and assorted pets. He is looking forward to summer vacation with his family. But because of his poor schoolwork, his mother decrees that Frieder is not going with them. Instead, he is sentenced to stay with his grandmother and her forbidding second husband, who is not anyone’s idea of a cozy grandfather. Until Frieder was ten years old, the man insisted that Frieder address him as “Herr Professor”.
Frieder is meant to knuckle down and study so he’s not left back again, and is dreading the upcoming six weeks. All he wants to do is hang out with his closest friends: sister Alma and best friend Johann, doing what they love: riding bikes, sneaking into the local pool, drinking beer and insulting each other like the tightknit friends they are.
One day, they’re all at the pool. Frieder is on the diving board when a girl comes up behind him on the ladder. He’s startled and is scared to jump at that height but she challenges him:
“She turned again, ran and jumped. Shit, I thought, and I ran too, fell helter-skelter through the empty air and crashed on my side against the water, so hard that it took my breath away.”
Was it the dive that took Frieder’s breath away, or the girl, whose name he later learns is Beate? Later that day, a shaken Frieder goes into his room and puts on a record to calm down. But he’s met Beate and even music doesn’t sound the same:
“…It was just that all of it seemed out of tune. As if the notes were telling a story that I didn’t relate to anymore. Everything was … kind of nice, but totally meaningless.”
Too soon, the time comes for Frieder to go to his grandparents. He’s glad to spend time with his grandmother who is loving and kind, but is awkward and tongue-tied around his grandfather. What’s worse is that in addition to studying, he is also expected to work afternoons at his grandfather’s hospital. The whole thing feels like a punishment.
But something unexpected happens as he spends the summer with them. Frieder learns more about their pasts and by extension, how they became the people they are today. He has always wondered why his Nana married “Herr Professor”, who is rigid, dismissive, and doesn’t seem to want or like children. Then, Frieder finds and reads her diaries. He learns more of her past, but she finds out, is furious, and stops speaking to him. At the same time, as Frieder and his grandfather spend more time together, they slowly achieve a mutual understanding and respect.
Naturally, Frieder spends all of his free time with Alma, Johann and Beate. He and Beate draw closer. They spend the summer doing their favorite things and it seems like the idyllic times will never end. But when one of the character’s father dies, this tightly knit group starts to come apart. Can the others help their friend, and will Beate and Frieder survive this crisis? And will Frieder ever pass Latins and math?
Arenz expertly balances humor and tragedy. His writing is filled with comedic touches and moments of poetic description; a compelling combination. Upon spotting Beate on the last day of school, Frieder says:
“And then I saw Beate in the crowd…for a moment she looked like one of the silver poplar leaves, flickery and beautiful. ”
Another passage reflects the themes underlying “One Grand Summer” :
“…The scent of earth from the cemetery and a hint of the bitter aroma of chestnut leaves, which reminded me of autumn even then. It was lovely to ride through a scent like that on a summer’s night. Because it was such a sudden feeling of now. Now it was summer. It would come to an end, but now it was summer.”
“…a sudden feeling of now. Now it was summer”. That’s the crux of this book. I felt intensely present in Frieder’s world because Arenz brings his characters to life through the clarity and natural rhythms of his writing. I was emotionally invested in the lives of the four teenagers, Nana and grandfather and their fates. “One Grand Summer” called me back to the long-ago, never-ending summers of my childhood even though it happens in a very different time and place. I won’t soon forget Frieder, Beate and their family and friends. This is a book that stays with you long after you’ve finished it.
Please buy/order “One Grand Summer” from your local independent bookstore, or go to Bookshop.org and order there!
