Summer of '69

At 24, Blair is the eldest child of Kate and Wilder Foley. A graduate of Wellesley, Blair had a career as a teacher. She values intellectual inquiry and thinks a modern woman should be able to both work and be a devoted wife and mother. Blair tends to get carried away when she feels desired by others. She idealistically envisions glamourous scenarios for an alternate self, particularly after she quits her job at Angus’s insistence. Blair’s choice of partners reflects her conflicting aims. When they first meet, Joey Whalen is charming but unsettled, while his brother Angus has a solid career as an astrophysicist. Thus, she chooses Angus, thinking he’ll be a good family partner.

Angus curtailing Blair’s career causes her to become resentful and passive, fantasizing about escaping into romantic bliss with Joey. Blair and Angus’s inability to communicate about either her needs or his sadness unnecessarily complicates their physical separation. Isolated in Nantucket, Blair renews self-assertion. She begins to realize her natural inclination to mothering, as evident in her sensitivity to Jessie’s needs, her kindness to Pick, and her assertiveness in thwarting the latter’s intended liaison with Sabrina. When her twins—Genevieve and George—arrive, Blair fiercely embraces the role of mother. To reunite with Angus, she learns to insist on honesty as well as her own desires for a career. She makes sure that Angus holds no delusions regarding the sacrifices he’ll make as her husband or as the children’s father.

A junior at Simmons College, Kirby—Kate’s middle daughter—is a politically aware social activist who reads Betty Friedan, marches with Martin Luther King, and protests the war. She dresses like a “hippie,” smokes pot, and seems confident and unafraid, although much of this is bluster. Her painful relationship with Scottie Turbo has left her feeling undeserving of love. Scottie’s manipulation of her, her unwanted pregnancy, and her miscarriage are traumas she hasn’t fully dealt with as she fights for a new start. Kirby consistently urges others not to be taken advantage of, which is a result of her own realization that Scottie abused both his authority and her devotion. She counsels her older sister, Blair, to be honest with Angus and stand up for what she wants and tries to reason with Patty regarding her abusive relationship with Luke.

Kirby wants to be a proponent of equality among people of different races. She idealistically hopes that prejudicial behavior toward African Americans will shift with the changing times. Her intentions are good, but she sometimes has a rose-colored vision. Her own romance with Darren defies the conventions of the day, people’s prejudice, and the Fraziers’ suspicion that Darren might come to harm by associating with her. While Darren prefers to hide their relationship, Kirby wisely realizes that any relationship she must keep secret can’t survive. However, when he kisses her in public, she’s encouraged. This confirmation of his seriousness enables Kirby to figuratively—and literally—say goodbye to Scottie. Months later, she dates Darren openly and in a much healthier place.

Kate’s only son, Richard (or “Tiger”), 19, is called up for active military duty in Vietnam in April 1969. A former high school football star, he hasn’t yet found something to study and is teaching drivers’ education for the summer. He dates his girlfriend Magee for two weeks before he ships out. He’s close to his sisters, particularly Jessie, to whom he writes long letters that detail his experiences in Vietnam. He’s close to other soldiers, especially Puppy and Frog, who are both later killed in battle. While the war is much more than he bargained for, he credits Exalta for giving him tenacity and strength.

The Foley-Levin family often discusses Tiger’s childhood, including his love of bowling, Tiger believes in what he’s doing, and his courage is rewarded when he’s made sergeant. During his mission to Cambodia, he saves a young Vietnamese child who lost his mother, which shows his kindness and bravery. He wants his mother to know that she raised him to be a hero. Tiger asks Magee to marry him, sending his grandfather’s ring to her as a promise ring.

Kate’s youngest daughter, Jessie, turns 13 the day she arrives at her grandmother’s home, All’s Fair, for her annual summer visit. She longs for maturity and responsibility but also fears it. Jessie chafes at Exalta’s control and labels her grandmother’s resistance to Jessie’s signing her paternal name as prejudiced. Jessie identifies as Jewish and is close to her father. She feels overwhelmed by multiple things, including her changing body, expectations from family and friends, and her perception that the larger world has gone “haywire.” She worries about Tiger in Vietnam and Kate’s drinking. Jessie discovers that shoplifting combats her worry and anger, especially when she’s inappropriately touched by a male tennis instructor. Exalta intervenes to stop Jessie’s shoplifting.

Jessie’s summer is full of firsts. She gets her period and her first bra but also must deal with an inappropriate first sexual encounter. Jessie develops a crush on Pick, with whom she shares her first kiss and her first heartbreak. These initiations into adulthood are minor compared to her major realization that the adults in her life are human beings with foibles. By the end of the summer, however, Jessie feels like she’s coming into her own through her tribulations.

An excellent lawyer, David is Kate’s second husband, He met her when he handled her case against the insurance company over Wilder Foley’s death. David is a kind man who willingly fathers Kate’s three children and their own daughter. He has a good sense of humor but is also very aware of difficult situations around him. Although he’s deeply in love with his wife, he’s firm with her that the marriage won’t continue if she keeps drinking and hiding her problems. Even so, he remains her major support when she suspects that Tiger is dead. His Jewishness caused an estrangement between him and Exalta, who refused to attend his and Kate’s wedding. Additionally, David isn’t entirely welcome at the Field and Oar Club, although he downplays this to Jessie. He tells his daughter that qualities beyond ethnicity are just as important to self-definition, including intelligence, kindness, fairness, and responsibility. To reach a middle ground, David asks Kate to consider buying their own Nantucket house. When she finally does this, along with ceasing to drink to cover up her problems, he’s grateful. The couple has a fresh start at the end of the book.

At 75, Exalta is the upper-crust widow of Pennington “Penn” Nichols, a well-respected World War II veteran. Their summer home on Nantucket is the major setting of Hilderbrand’s story. Having grown up in a staid generation, Exalta cares about propriety and outward resilience and grace. This has a negative side because it doesn’t allow for honest expression and makes Exalta biased about others based on their status or ethnicity. Exalta likes routine, and her social circle is small; her major destination is the elite Field and Oar Club.

Exalta’s personality intimidates Kate and her grandchildren and festers dislike between herself and David. Like Kate, she has a proclivity to drink too much, and consistently ignores difficulties. She won’t listen to a bad word about Wilder and is obtuse to Jessie’s experience with Garrison Howe. Her actions and remarks about David’s family are unkind and unacceptable. However, Exalta’s relationship with Bill softens her: Although her more conservative side might not imagine dating a caretaker, her more open side embraces a new frontier with him. By the novel’s end, Exalta is a much warmer person, and she embraces Kirby’s choices and accepts Magee into the family.

Now in his seventies, Bill Crimmins has been the caretaker for the All’s Fair home for at least three decades, starting when he was an early widower. A kind, level-headed individual, Bill was a good parent, but his only daughter, Lorraine, is estranged from him, which obviously pains him. Extremely loyal to the Nichols family, Bill has kept Pick’s paternity a secret and is sympathetic to Kate’s difficulties with it. In addition, he understands the duress that Kate is under regarding Tiger, and when Kate fears that he may be dead, Bill calms her down. His weekly bridge game with Exalta spurs their romance, which culminates on the night of the moon landing. She asks, “Did you ever think we’d live long enough to see this?” (360), suggesting both the man walking on the moon and their love affair. Bill encourages Exalta to be more liberal and generous to others.

While Bill is shown to bring out the best in others, his daughter, Lorraine, is a troubled individual. Although once friendly with Kate, she was also infamous for her ill-fated relationships with men. Kate discovers Lorraine and Wilder having sex in the buttery closet in 1953. Lorraine leaves Nantucket, gives birth to Pick, changes her name to Lavender, and raises her son in a commune. She abandons Pick in California and doesn’t contact him—or her father. She shows up unexpectedly at the All’s Fair house, unkempt and smelly. She hurls mean words at Kate, goading her about Wilder. When Lorraine leaves with Pick, they go to Woodstock, where she abandons him again. He finds her, and the two join a community in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.

Pickford “Pick” Crimmins is 15. His paternity is unknown to most of the Foley-Levin clan. At the start of the summer of 1969, Pick seems confident and self-reliant to Jessie, who’s attracted to his blond hair, tanned skin, and sense of freedom. His upbringing on a California commune seems “exotic,” making him seem part of the counterculture that Jessie admires through Kirby’s stories. Pick works at a local restaurant, travels by bike, and stays out past curfew. Although he appreciates Bill’s care, he remains distressed about Lorraine’s disappearance and feels vulnerable. He kisses Jessie but considers Sabrina his girlfriend. When Lorraine arrives, Pick is angry but soon relents and goes with her. After Woodstock, Pick and Lorraine settle into another communal living situation in a small town, where he attends high school. He and Jessie remain friends, but Blair, Kirby, and Tiger never learn that Pick is their half-brother.

The brothers Angus and Joey Whalen are both Blair’s love interests in the novel. Joey is Blair’s boyfriend right after she graduates. He’s spontaneous, charming, and romantic. However, when Blair intellectually bonds with Joey’s brother, Angus, over space flight and novels, she marries him instead (39). Joey gives Blair a silver lighter inscribed with his declaration of his eternal love as a wedding gift. When Blair is pregnant, Joey’s sympathy is attractive, and the two share a kiss, almost beginning a physical relationship, and Blair sees him as a romantic prospect. However, Joey, busy building his life in New York City, soon becomes distant.

Early on, Angus is attentive to Blair, and they share a passionate love affair, but he’s increasingly affected by sadness that he can’t explain, even hiding his therapist’s identity from Blair, which makes Blair suspect that he’s unfaithful. After the birth of their twins, he explains his condition, and Blair accepts him again, with the caveat that he’ll allow her to return to work. By the end of the book, Angus is a changed man, relaxed and more attentive to Blair’s needs.