A Summer Place
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A Summer Place is the title of a 1958 novel by author Sloan Wilson, who also wrote The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.
The story examines the adult lives of two onetime teen lovers, Ken and Sylvia, who were from different social strata (he was self-supporting, working as a lifeguard at a Maine island resort, while her family stayed as guests of the owners, one summer between years at college), and went on to marry different people – entirely the wrong people, it turned out. The saving grace of each marriage is their children, Sylvia's son Johnny, and Ken's daughter Molly.
Ken becomes a millionaire through his work as a research chemist as his wife Helen spurns him at home, while Sylvia's husband Bart turns to alcohol as his family fortune disappears, and he turns their island home into an inn. After twenty years away, Ken decides to visit the island again, and "check his memories", writing Bart to ask for lodging. Ken brings Molly and Helen to the island, and everyone tries to be cordial. But soon old feelings, and tensions, and longings arise in the adults, while the young Johnny and Molly in turn become enamoured of each other.
Both the book and the movie were potent in the late 1950s, at a time when divorce and adultery were especially scandalous, not to mention teenage sex – particularly in the days before contraception was widely available. The story raised questions about right, wrong and morality; about staying in a marriage that was doomed or didn't work, or had begun under conflicting expectations, and also about when to begin a relationship – and how far to take it.
The novel is currently out of print, but available used; the movie (on home video) and theme song remain commercially available.
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A Summer Place was turned into a 1959 Warner Brothers film by writer/director Delmer Daves, and starred Troy Donahue, Sandra Dee, Dorothy McGuire, Richard Egan, Constance Ford and Arthur Kennedy.
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