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Summer Fun

Audiobook
Fiction: Literary
Unabridged   15 hour(s)
Publication date: 08/03/2021


Lambda Literary Award Finalist
AudioFile Earphones Winner

Summer Fun

Available from major retailers or BUY FROM AMAZON
Digital Download ISBN:9781696604529

Summary

From acclaimed author Jeanne Thornton, an epic, singular look at fandom, creativity, longing, and trans identity.

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Product Description

From acclaimed author Jeanne Thornton, an epic, singular look at fandom, creativity, longing, and trans identity

Gala, a young trans woman, works at a hostel in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. She is obsessed with the Get Happies, the quintessential 1960s Californian band, helmed by its resident genius, B—-. Why did the band stop making music? Why did they never release their rumored album, Summer Fun?

Gala writes letters to B—- that shed light not only on the Get Happies, but paint an extraordinary portrait of Gala. The parallel narratives of B—- and Gala form a dialogue bout creation—of music, identity, self, culture, and counterculture.

Summer Fun is a brilliant and magical work of trans literature that marks Thornton as one of our most exciting and original novelists.

Reviews/Praise

"Conversational and sardonic during the sections featuring Gala, Thornton softens into breathy naïveté for B--'s dialogue, imbuing every "gee" with heartbreaking earnestness. A haunting and memorable audiobook.” --AudioFile

“The epistolary form lends itself well to the theme of extreme fandom and the soulful self-discovery of transgender identity . . . Thornton wrings a great deal of heart and soul from this earnest confessional.” —Publishers Weekly

“Wildly imaginative . . . Thornton’s writing is as rich as her ideas and spiked with wit . . . Like the mysterious album of the title, a messy, mesmerizing, and deeply personal work of art.” —Kirkus Reviews

“I anticipated the release of Summer Fun for six years, and now that I finally got to read it, its characters and story will linger with me much longer than that. I suspect it will come to be considered the Pet Sounds of trans literature: a masterpiece that feels both astonishingly new and comfortingly familiar.” —Torrey Peters, author of Detransition, Baby

"There is no way to prepare for Summer Fun; we can only submit to Thornton's surreal, captivating and startlingly sui generis world. Summer Fun is a fully-realized vision so strange and compelling that even in writing this blurb I still can't quite shake the sensation of having genuinely known these characters, if only for a short and magical while." —Jordy Rosenberg, author of Confessions of the Fox

“A beautiful, mesmerizing volcano of a novel that elegantly vibrates with the intimate weight of decades. Thornton's prose is driving, joyous, and steeped with a grace reminiscent of Marilynne Robinson. It all builds to an ending that is no less than perfect. This book made me cry.”—Casey Plett, author of Little Fish

Author Bio

Jeanne Thornton is the author of the novel The Dream of Doctor Bantam and the collection The Black Emerald, both shortlisted for the Lambda Literary award. She is also copublisher of the independent press Instar Books and the writer and illustrator of the webcomics Bad Mother and The Man Who Hates Fun.