Thursday, June 7, 2007
Ann Brashares, author. Courtesy of weeklyreader.comOn the heels of her last "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" book, author Ann Brashares dives into fictional adulthood with a new island-themed novel, "The Last Summer (of You and Me)."
Instead of teens, she features twentysomethings. And instead of those ubiquitous pants, she introduces a mystical setting to distill the emotional center of the story: Fire Island. Brashares' characters are three childhood friends who grew up summering on the island and now face the transformation into adulthood.
Before her upcoming appearances in North Jersey, we spoke to Brashares, who owns a house on Fire Island, about her own memories of the summer enclave.
Q. How did you first find out about Fire Island?
I first heard about Fire Island when I was in third grade. A girl in my class in D.C. had just moved there from New York City, and she was the only girl I knew whose parents were divorced. She talked about this place with such longing. ... This girl's husband was actually the one who introduced me to my husband.
It was freshman year of college when I started going out with my husband, and that summer -- along with my exciting new boyfriend -- I arrived on Fire Island by ferry. There were no cars, no streets; just boardwalk everywhere. We arrived at night, and it just felt so different. Everything was so incredibly lush and overgrown, almost jungly.
My first impression of it was that it was otherworldly and wonderful.
Q. Did you go back later as an adult?
When we had our first two kids, we had a little money to rent a place for the summer. We rented a house that was hilariously bad. I remember the mosquitoes feasting on our kids. But with a screen door, we thought, it would be great ...
My daughter [and youngest child Susannah Collins] spent the third night of her life on Fire Island. She is the one most connected to the place, because she was there from the beginning. We hadn't been able to go yet that summer because I was so pregnant. But when she was born, she was healthy, and she was our third child, so we just went.
Now the whole family comes over to our house in the summer. My kids [Sam, 11, Nathaniel, 8, and Susannah, 6] have great cousin action. I'm excited for them to have the full experience.
Q. Fire Island seems to be almost another character in your new book. Why was it such an important part of the story?
I wanted to capture the intoxication of the place, just the majesty of it. It's the feeling of being perched on this tiny piece of land next to a huge ocean. It's dramatically interesting in terms of human endeavors: You're contending with the universe, with love. It's a dramatic setting.
Q. What inspired you to write this book?
It was mid- to late summer, and that deep into the summer you sort of surrender yourself to this place. I was relaxed. I remember seeing my daughter walking in front of me in a poncho, and that's when I started wondering, "How do you grow up here?"
Q. Two of the main characters are sisters, and you write a lot about close friendships between girls. Did you grow up with sisters?
I actually have three brothers, no sisters. In my family, there are very few girls at all -- a bit of a dearth of sisters. So it's partly been a fantasy for me. ... When I had my daughter, that was a real shocker. She was the first girl born [in the family] in 35 years. I do partly take from my own sibling relationships when I write, although they are of a different gender.
E-mail: shih@northjersey.com
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