Summer to Fall

By Albert Waitt
Barrel Fire Press, $15.00, 320 pages

Summer to Fall by Albert Waitt is a simple story about a 25 year old man named Cam, who is struggling to find his place in a small coastal community in northern Maine. Cam works construction jobs in the hopes of one day making enough money to buy his grandmother’s old home on the coast. But with everything in his life taking a turn for the worse, Cam is left making some split second decisions that will change his summer, if not the rest of his life.

Waitt accurately depicts town life, especially in a small, east coast village. Waitt has a talent for capturing human life in its simplicity. He has crafted a typical 25 year old, who is falling into his calling and experiencing all the typical growing pains. The story is good, but simple. The book is not particularly deep, the plot is pretty predictable, and each character plays a typical role. Nothing seems to go right for the main character, which can be frustrating. Waitt could be a little more generous with his characters, making them more complex and making them more balanced between good and bad, annoying and self-reflective, egotistical and humble. But even with all of that in mind Summer to Fall is an easy, enjoyable read for a lazy Sunday afternoon as long as readers aren’t looking for a book to change their world.

Reviewed by Nicole Green

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