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Frenchtown Summer
Eugene remembers the summer of 1938 in Frenchtown, a time when he began to wonder what I was doing here on the planet Earth. This touching, funny, melancholy chronicle of a vanished world celebrates a son's connection to his father and human relationships that are timeless.
Hardcover
Published
June 12th 2001
by Turtleback Books
(first published 1999)
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Community Reviews
(showing 1-30)
Dec 27, 2015
Maciek
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
reviewed,
read-in-2015
It was the summer of the airplane.
Written entirely in free verse, Frenchtown Summer is the story of Eugene - a 12 year old boy who writes down the events of a single summer in a series of short vignettes. Obviously modeled after the author, Eugene is a shy and sensitive but also very observant boy: he notices many small details of the city as he delivers the local paper, and tries to make sense of them to understand the world and himself. Eugene says that he knows his name, but does not know w ...more
Written entirely in free verse, Frenchtown Summer is the story of Eugene - a 12 year old boy who writes down the events of a single summer in a series of short vignettes. Obviously modeled after the author, Eugene is a shy and sensitive but also very observant boy: he notices many small details of the city as he delivers the local paper, and tries to make sense of them to understand the world and himself. Eugene says that he knows his name, but does not know w ...more
Feb 14, 2015
BookWitch_Namine
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
good-endings-to-better-beginnings,
1900s
Frenchtown Summer was, at first, a bit normal for me. I mean, it seemed to just be accounts of Eugene's life (which it is). Then came the flashlight and the metaphor, the meaning of the flashlight, almost made me cry. I really enjoyed the whole book after the page about the flashlight he received. I believe it was page 81 and I think people should read this book especially for the metaphor on life which, vaguely put, is that happiness is not eternal but can be rekindled.
Jun 15, 2017
Jenny
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
childrensbooks,
longfellow-library
Beautiful poetry and phrasing. Quiet and unsettling and depressing, but written so beautifully that I didn't mind. Not sure if kids would appreciate as much as adults.
Sam May
6/11/15
2nd/E.L.A.
Book Review
Frenchtown Summer
He is lost in a sea of depression and fear from his family, “friends”, and Frenchtown itself. There is no motivation from anyone. The days drag on with what seems to be no success. He wants to escape it, but he sees that it is impossible to run from everything. Frenchtown Summer, by Robert Cormier, is about a boy named Eugene who lives on the second floor of a three level building in Frenchtown, which is a section of a town. He wanted his fathe ...more
6/11/15
2nd/E.L.A.
Book Review
Frenchtown Summer
He is lost in a sea of depression and fear from his family, “friends”, and Frenchtown itself. There is no motivation from anyone. The days drag on with what seems to be no success. He wants to escape it, but he sees that it is impossible to run from everything. Frenchtown Summer, by Robert Cormier, is about a boy named Eugene who lives on the second floor of a three level building in Frenchtown, which is a section of a town. He wanted his fathe ...more
Enter the world of Eugene, who, like many of the characters about whom author Robert Cormier writes, resides in the quiet recesses of Frenchtown. It's a town like most others in Massachusetts, populated by hard-working career men and filled with an assortment of secrets that simmer just below the surface.
Take a walk or two with young Eugene along his paper route as he observes the people around him in the habitats of their regular lives; nothing too fancy or unusual, for the most part, just se ...more
Take a walk or two with young Eugene along his paper route as he observes the people around him in the habitats of their regular lives; nothing too fancy or unusual, for the most part, just se ...more
GENRE: Fiction, realistic fiction, verse.
SUMMARY: Eugene experienced a busy summer. He had a paper route, got glasses, endeavored to learn more about his family, and visited the cemetery, among many other adventures. So much happens to Eugene during that summer, and he is hyper-aware of it all, from how his piano teacher smells to the few things that his older brother cares about.
EVALUATION: Written in verse and told through a first-person perspective, Frenchtown Summer takes the reader on a mag ...more
SUMMARY: Eugene experienced a busy summer. He had a paper route, got glasses, endeavored to learn more about his family, and visited the cemetery, among many other adventures. So much happens to Eugene during that summer, and he is hyper-aware of it all, from how his piano teacher smells to the few things that his older brother cares about.
EVALUATION: Written in verse and told through a first-person perspective, Frenchtown Summer takes the reader on a mag ...more
Frenchtown Summer
Frenchtown summer a realistic fiction book by Robert Cormier felt like a tour through the gloomy section of town known as Frenchtown. Eugene is a boy who lives with his joyous mom and his mysterious and silent father who he wants only to connect to but his father's persona gets in the way of their father son relationship so then he is forced to go through the significant summer with no plans of trying to connect with his dad. This is a book I really enjoyed.
One thing I liked abo ...more
Frenchtown summer a realistic fiction book by Robert Cormier felt like a tour through the gloomy section of town known as Frenchtown. Eugene is a boy who lives with his joyous mom and his mysterious and silent father who he wants only to connect to but his father's persona gets in the way of their father son relationship so then he is forced to go through the significant summer with no plans of trying to connect with his dad. This is a book I really enjoyed.
One thing I liked abo ...more
A young boy's memories of a working class walk-up tenement enclave.
Odd formatting on the e-Book version I read
Odd formatting on the e-Book version I read
Summary: Frenchtown Summer is a semi autobiographical book by Robert Cormier the book is written in free verse and centers on Eugene as he delivers papers on his paper route around his hometown. He notices things that seem to go unnoticed by others. He wonders whether his father who is withdrawn loves him. In the end Eugene finds a plane hidden in a shed he tells his friends who don’t believe him. When they go back to see it the plane is gone. Later in front of his friends Eugene’s fathers says
...more
Nov 18, 2009
Charlotte
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
lit-for-adolescents
poetry, coming-of-age
I stumbled across this book of free verse poetry written by Robert Cormier and didn't really know what to expect. Apart from the fact that this book is written in verse, the narrative style is different from Cormier's other work. Each chapter is a separate vignette about some aspect of the narrator's summer, so it's a little hard to piece together what this boy's life is really like. He has a brother and spends his summer exploring the areas around the Frenchtown. He lives c ...more
I stumbled across this book of free verse poetry written by Robert Cormier and didn't really know what to expect. Apart from the fact that this book is written in verse, the narrative style is different from Cormier's other work. Each chapter is a separate vignette about some aspect of the narrator's summer, so it's a little hard to piece together what this boy's life is really like. He has a brother and spends his summer exploring the areas around the Frenchtown. He lives c ...more
May 15, 2010
Lindsey
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
young-adult-lit-books
This is the story of summer in frenchtown. The comb factory is the center of life, and all the members of town work there. The story is told in poetry, so it is a different sort of read, but I found myself enjoying it nonetheless. There is not really a coherent plot to this novel, it is more like a collection of impressions throughout the summer. Since it is told through poetry the narrator can tell the sensory perceptions of his childhood summer, and even the terrible events that are portrayed
...more
May 21, 2015
Ron
rated it
it was ok
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
people who like the idea of poetry but who aren't ready to commit just yet
Shelves:
shorts
A short novella with the chapters broken up on the page as though they were poems. I'm pretty sure they're not poems, but breaking the text up like that saved it from being fourteen pages long, which is not a very marketable size.
The images are brought to life in the way that poetry might, with unresolved longings and the defeats and deficiencies of childhood. Unlike most Cormier books that I've read, there wasn't really a Challenging Reversal of Normal Social Proprieties™ involved, but there wa ...more
The images are brought to life in the way that poetry might, with unresolved longings and the defeats and deficiencies of childhood. Unlike most Cormier books that I've read, there wasn't really a Challenging Reversal of Normal Social Proprieties™ involved, but there wa ...more
While I wasn't sure about the whole poems-as-novel thing, Cormier still managed to do what every writer strives for: pull some emotion from these hardened bones.
There are a few moments in this book that are just gorgeous, some of which I wish were expanded upon. But all things considered, Cormier compacts a heartfelt story into these 113 pages, that are made even more sparse by the poem format.
Truly, Cormier is one of the better writers you've probably never heard of, and I'm glad my interest/li ...more
There are a few moments in this book that are just gorgeous, some of which I wish were expanded upon. But all things considered, Cormier compacts a heartfelt story into these 113 pages, that are made even more sparse by the poem format.
Truly, Cormier is one of the better writers you've probably never heard of, and I'm glad my interest/li ...more
Young Eugene reminisces on the summer of '38 when he really began wondering about life, and the meaning of it. The verses in this poem paint vivid images of the places and people he encounters on his daily paper route.
I enjoyed this novel in verse. I felt like I could really relate to Cormier's poetic style. The poetry just made sense, and flowed very nicely. The story was interesting, but the psychology behind the characters is what makes this book truly wonderful to read. The family dynamics w ...more
I enjoyed this novel in verse. I felt like I could really relate to Cormier's poetic style. The poetry just made sense, and flowed very nicely. The story was interesting, but the psychology behind the characters is what makes this book truly wonderful to read. The family dynamics w ...more
Jan 10, 2011
Laurel Hoffman
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
ya-lit-1-thru-10
This was an interesting, very quick book about a boy's summer in the 1930's (I believe), and his struggle to define his relationship with his father. It is written in verse form and has some beautiful writing. I have to give it four stars because I thought the writing was great, even though poetry isn't my thing so much. I really enjoyed how Robert Cormier used metaphors in his writing, and how the feel of the book did make me think it was a story being told by a young boy.
I had a difficult time with this book. It felt very disconnected and showed a lack of "deep-ness". It could be that I just missed it, because I could tell it was trying very hard to be influential, but I didn't get too caught up in that.
I would be okay suggesting this book to others, but it wouldn't be a book I would want to push a people like I feel like doing with some others.
Violence - no
Language - no
Sex - no
Alcohol/Drugs - some
other - suicide and death
I would be okay suggesting this book to others, but it wouldn't be a book I would want to push a people like I feel like doing with some others.
Violence - no
Language - no
Sex - no
Alcohol/Drugs - some
other - suicide and death
Eugene is a young boy growing up during 1938 in Frenchtown. Written in poetry form this book goes on to tell of several of the different life events that Eugene experienced throughout the summer.
I found this book to be mediocre. There was no real plot to the book and I did not feel that I got a lot out of it. Some of the parts were interesting, but a lot of it was simply 'meh'.
I found this book to be mediocre. There was no real plot to the book and I did not feel that I got a lot out of it. Some of the parts were interesting, but a lot of it was simply 'meh'.
Autobiographic vignettes of Cormier's youth written in verse that is succinct and vibrantly evocative of the author's boyhood and his hopeful, yet sad, soul. I read this soon after reading Gantos' Dead End in Norvelt. They are excellent companion books, with similar themes, yet two distinctly different tones.
Vignettes in free verse of memories during a sweltering summer when Cormier was 12. Like his fiction, these have a way of leaving one a bit bruised, those memories that crush. Although found in the children's section, I think adults would get more out of this.
This is a very interesting, somewhat sad book. It tells the story of how Eugene has a very eventful summer in the 1930's. It's not a book that had me 'stuck into it' I couldn't really get a good grip on this book.
This book takes place in the summer of 1938. Eugene is a young boy, coming of age in a small MA town. The theme of the book is death and growing up. Each chapter is a vingette, in free-verse poetry form, of what Eugene observes about those around him.
I won a free book in a bingo game at my wife's workplace summer picnic. It's a kid's book for 12 & up. I read it to figure out what kid I'd give it to. It's quite poetic, and the author has won some awards, so that gives me a good clue. I'll pass it on by Monday.
Graphic novels are a quick read. Love the descriptive language.
Short and sweet! More of a long poem than novel. Evan though it takes place before I was born, still evokes childhood memories of my hometown.
The uncle is a killer and the father is dysfunctional- explaining this to an eighth grader was harder than I thought!!
Written in free verse, this is a very quick read. It is a sweet story of a boy coming of age in a small town in the 1930's (my guess on time frame).
Mar 16, 2010
Janelle Revier
rated it
it was ok
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
cormier fans
i am a HUGE Cormier fan but this one was just ok. i loved i am the cheese.
this is written in free verse which i usually really like.
this is written in free verse which i usually really like.
The summer is filled with sad events and realizations.
This was a very good book. I thought the format of the book was cool. This made it a short book. I thought the plot and main character was good. But not my all time favorite from Robert Cormier.
Jul 17, 2007
Ryan
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
teens
Shelves:
ya
a short read. somewhat boring compared to most of his books. if i remember correctly it was published post-mortem.
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Robert Edmund Cormier (January 17, 1925–November 2, 2000) was an American author, columnist and reporter, known for his deeply pessimistic, downbeat literature. His most popular works include I Am the Cheese, After the First Death, We All Fall Down and The Chocolate War, all of which have won awards. The Chocolate War was challenged in multiple libraries. His books often are concerned with themes
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