That Summer

In the first part of the novel, Jennifer Weiner withholds the critical information that Diana Scalzi/Starling’s night at the bonfire party in the prologue ended with Poe sexually assaulting and raping her. Therefore the novel’s first introduction to the issues of sexual violence and consent come with Beatrice’s troubles at Emlen Academy. Throughout the novel, Weiner uses the character of Beatrice to portray a more radical stance on the issues of gender inequality and privilege. From the outset, the debate about Justice Versus Revenge is highlighted in Beatrice’s resistance to Emlen’s misogynistic policy that results in silencing those—like Beatrice—openly protest incidents of sexual assault and seek to hold aggressors accountable for their actions. Weiner also uses Beatrice to establish the setting of Cape Cod as a locus for violence, for the girl’s decision to write the story of a young woman who was murdered in the house next door to her family’s emphasizes the idea that acts of violence will not be limited to one particular time frame. Thus, the warm, hopeful tone of the novel’s prologue is soon tainted by the introduction of darker themes.

Alongside this revelation of the novel’s dark underbelly, the first section of the story also provides essential exposition by introducing the two Dianas and outlining the nuances of Daisy’s character, from her family background to her complicated relationship with her daughter and her worries about her husband’s infidelity. Accordingly, the very first mention of Hal is laden with suspicion, although it will be many chapters yet before the full revelation of his crime against Diana is revealed.

The entry of Diana into Daisy’s life, especially during the women’s first meeting in New York, highlights the many ways in which Daisy’s marriage is limiting, for she clearly uses the trip to New York to indulger her own preferences, and doing so is just as clearly a luxury that she rarely gets to experience. For example, rather than staying in the hotel that Hal normally chooses, Daisy independently picks a place to stay. Rather than spending a wakeful night worrying about her family, she enjoys an undisturbed nap, and when she meets Diana, she mirrors the woman’s order of a Bloody Mary rather than ordering her usual glass of water. Thus, Weiner makes it clear that this meeting between the two Dianas has a profound impact on Daisy, and by extension it is implied that their developing friendship and mutual experiences will prove to be a pivotal catalyst to her character development. Throughout the novel, Diana and Daisy act as each other’s foils, contrasting and illuming each other’s traits in different ways as the plot unfolds. In this initial meeting, for example, Daisy views the other woman to possess all the positive traits that she believes herself to lack, internally describing Diana as “poised,” “confident,” “healthy and attractive” (75). In Daisy’s mind, Diana is clearly not desperate to regain lost youth, as Daisy herself was just a few hours earlier when she wondered longingly whether the hotel staff might call her “Miss” instead of “Ma’am.” Thus, Weiner establishes Daisy’s ingrained insecurities in even the most mundane of settings, stating that she feels “insignificant and ordinary, with a handful of wholly unremarkable achievements” (75).

Despite these apparent contradictions of character, however, both Daisy and Diana find themselves making an unexpected connection as kindred spirits, and Daisy is flattered by the other woman’s interest in her. They both discover that, despite their vastly different lives, they have both experienced many examples of The Challenges Facing Women, a pattern that becomes ever more apparent as they catalogue the various dissatisfactions they have with their respective lives. The beginnings of a solid friendship form almost immediately, with Daisy wondering “How long had it been since she’d had someone’s complete attention this way, for this long? How long since she’d felt like she was with someone who could see her, and could see how hard she was trying?” (91). With The Bonds of Female Friendship beginning to form around both Daisy and Diana, the first part concludes with a surprise twist as the narration from Diana’s perspective reveals the first hint of dark, elusive, truthful details that combine with the many layers of foreshadowing throughout the novel’s first section to undermine any lingering expectations that Weiner’s novel will conform to the stereotypes of the conventional “beach read.” On the contrary, the dark edge of the narrative and the accumulation of unanswered questions places it squarely within the mystery genre despite its simultaneous “beach read” status.