57 pages • 1 hour read
Summer Island: A Novel
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Part 1, Chapters 11-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1, Chapter 11 Summary
Ruby sits on the deck and can’t stop crying. She keeps thinking about Eric and the fact that she never called him. Instead, she had just walked out of his life like she always does when things get difficult for her. Her cell phone rings, and it’s Val. He asks her how the article is going and tells her that the media is tearing Nora apart. He reminds her that she has a talk show appearance the following week to promote the article. When she gets off the phone, she continues drafting her article. She writes about how she had tried to pretend she was motherless, but her mother has helped her remember her childhood. She wonders how much of herself she’s forgotten by forgetting Nora. She also wonders how her mother could walk away from fame so easily when it was the thing she left her family for in the first place.
Ruby remembers the day her mother left them. Nora had announced she was leaving and asked who wanted to come with her, and no one did. She looked extremely afraid.
Later that day, the package from Nora’s assistant arrives. Ruby opens it and begins reading some of the clippings from Nora’s “Best Of” folder. As she reads, Ruby begins to hear her mother’s voice—the voice she remembers from childhood—in the columns. She remembers a time when she was experimenting with drugs, and Nora took her out to a state park. Together, they smoked a joint found in Ruby’s belongings. After they smoked it, Nora asked Ruby if she noticed anything and she said that things looked farther away than they had before. Nora agreed, explaining that if she continues partaking in drugs, the things she wants will be farther away from her. Nora encouraged her daughter to seek success off the island. Ruby was deeply moved by her mother’s words.
Ruby then reads a series of letters from a man struggling. Things got so bad for the man that Nora eventually met up with him in person to counsel him. Ruby realizes that this kind of love and attention is why people love Nora.
Ruby goes upstairs and calls Caroline. She fills her in on what’s been happening at the summer house and tells her about discovering Nora’s Valium. Suddenly, Caroline’s children need her, and she hangs up the phone.
The narration switches to Dean. He carries Eric outside to see the restored Wind Lass. The two sit on the dock and discuss the continued restoration project. The two discuss their childhood, and Dean reveals that their mother called him and that their parents are not coming. Eric is upset at this, but changes the subject, asking Dean about his life in San Francisco. Dean admits to feeling like his life is missing something, and Eric argues that he doesn’t know what his life is. Eric brings up the first time they met Ruby, and Dean begins to feel his life come together.
Part 1, Chapter 12 Summary
Nora wakes up from a nap and calls Eric. She tells him that she’s staying on Summer Island for a while, and then tells him about her accident. They discuss her scandal and the fact that Eric’s parents will not be returning to see him before he dies. They both reveal that Dean and Ruby are with them. They then discuss setting the two up.
Nora goes downstairs and discovers the package her personal assistant sent. She begins reading the hate mail she has received. She turns on the TV and watches a talk show that is discussing her and the scandal. She eventually turns the show off when an audience member calls her a coward for hiding during the scandal.
Ruby comes downstairs and assumes that Nora has read some of the hate mail. Nora glibly says she doesn’t have a family anymore, and Ruby disagrees. She says that while reading Nora’s columns she remembered Nora taking her to the local newspaper when she was in seventh grade. Ruby wanted the paper to cover a dance, and Nora had encouraged her to find a newspaper to cover the event. Nora tells her that she didn’t abandon her for a career. Ruby struggles to accept that.
Nora explains that abandoning the family began long before she had met Ruby’s father. She reveals that her own father was addicted to alcohol, which shocks Ruby. He abused Nora, and she spent many years of her life trying to forget him. Nora explains that the experience made it difficult for her to be loved by others, which Ruby relates to. Ruby explains that she had been with her ex-boyfriend for five years but never told him she loved him. Nora admits that Ruby turned out just like her, and she apologizes for that. Ruby tells Nora that she wasn’t a bad mother until she abandoned them, and Nora thanks her.
The narration switches to Ruby. Ruby feels like her life has changed but is unsure how. She sits down to write her article. She writes about how she and Nora talked, which was a revolutionary act for them. She struggles to understand how her feelings are different now and why she cried during their conversation when wondering what their relationship could grow to be.
Part 1, Chapter 13 Summary
Dean brings Eric breakfast in bed. Eric isn’t hungry, because of all the medications he’s taking. The two talk more about their childhood, and Eric reveals to Dean that Ruby is on Summer Island. Dean assumes that she’s there with her husband and children, but Eric quickly corrects him and encourages him to go see her.
Dean bikes to the ferry and gets on the boat. When he gets off on Summer Island, he bikes immediately to the Bridges’ house. When he arrives, he wonders for the first time if he made the right decision coming to see Ruby. He remembers the day they broke up and how Ruby told him that she had lost her virginity to another man. They had made a promise to each other to wait to have sex until marriage, and Dean was devastated by her betrayal. She told him to leave, and he did quickly so she wouldn’t see him cry. He called his mother and transferred to a boarding school to get away from Ruby and all the reminders of her on the island.
When Dean knocks on the door, Ruby answers. He is overcome by her beauty, and she is surprised to see him. She asks about Eric and tells Dean that she’s on the island taking care of Nora. He asks if she’s forgiven her mother. She responds that forgiveness doesn’t matter because it doesn’t undo the actions that hurt you in the first place.
The narration switches to Ruby. Feeling sick after seeing Dean for the first time in a long time, she heads to the beach. Dean follows her, and they sit together. She realizes she still has feelings for Dean. Dean admits that sitting on the beach brings up memories, and the two catch up. Dean tells her that he saw her perform once at a comedy club, and that he didn’t speak to her after because he saw her with her ex-boyfriend. She asks if he’s married, and he says he’s not, which makes Ruby very happy. They begin to talk about their breakup, and Dean tells her that he misses her. Too afraid of her feelings and ability to trust Dean, Ruby says nothing, leading him to walk away.
Part 1, Chapter 14 Summary
Nora watches Ruby and Dean from the porch. She sees Dean leave first. He greets her and they talk. Dean invites Ruby and her to join Erica and him for sailing on Saturday, and Nora agrees. Dean looks back at Ruby one last time before leaving.
Ruby comes up from the beach, crying. Nora tells Ruby about her namesake, which is an unusual weather pattern that produced a red night sky the year she was born. She tells Ruby that they will go sailing with Dean and Eric on Saturday. Ruby worries about what she’ll say to Eric, but Nora tells her she’ll simply say hello.
The narration switches to Ruby. She has a hard time sleeping because she keeps thinking about Dean. She finally gets up to write, thinking it will take her mind off of things, but she instead thinks of the profound effect her article will have on her mother. She begins to rethink the story she’s held true about her mother, realizing that what she’s learned has forced her to rethink what she has always believed.
Ruby remembers the October after Nora left. Nora returned and asked to speak to Ruby’s father, but he refused. Ruby went downstairs and told her mother to leave and that they didn’t want her with them anymore. She said that no one loved her anymore. She went to her bedroom, and Nora eventually left.
Ruby is shocked at this recovered memory. She realizes she’s ready to learn the truth and decides to visit her father to learn what really happened.
Part 1, Chapters 11-14 Analysis
This section continues to explore The Consequences of Fame and Maintaining Appearances. It poses questions, such as whether celebrities are entitled to privacy, and paints the consequences and harm of being in the limelight. Additionally, it shows how fame can be especially harmful to women due to misogyny.
Nora rose to success by providing very traditional advice. She espouses the benefits of marriage, often encouraging people to stay in unhappy marriages to protect their families. However, the critic on The Sarah Purcell Show goes beyond talking about how her affair contradicted the values she has portrayed publicly throughout her career. He speaks poorly of her, calling her “an uneducated woman whose only claim to fame is a daily newspaper column. Trust should be reserved for professionals who are trained to help people” (206-7).
This belittles her and implies that she is ignorant. The critic’s statement—and the media’s response to the scandal as a whole—strips Nora of agency, suggesting that women can only have it all if they operate within the boundaries of society’s expectations.
The public’s derision resonates with Nora’s fear that she is a quitter. She turns the TV off when a viewer questions where she is: “And she’s a coward […] I mean…where is she? She owes us—” (207). When things have gotten difficult for Nora in the past, she ran away. While the novel will reveal that her decision to leave her family most likely saved her life, she still views it as a moment where she gave up when something got difficult. She still fears that she hides from challenges. Her desire to avoid conflict for fear of getting hurt is a characteristic she shares with Ruby. Until the two women can make peace with their past, they will continue running away from difficult topics.
In one of their more tender conversations, Nora reveals to Ruby how they named her: “[T]he night sky was always red. We called it the ruby season” (227). The skyscape foreshadows Ruby’s career trajectory: She is unsuccessful and dead inside for many years, but somehow makes a living. Then, later in life, like a sunset, she blooms. Additionally, she lives a life that’s full of contradictions. Like a cloudless sky that produces rain, she is a motherless daughter who talks non-stop about her mother. The red sky—an unnatural-seeming event—is also beautiful and magical. Nora’s story will help launch Ruby’s career into the metaphorical sky.
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