Wherever your summer took you, whether that be interrailing across the European hotspots, beach-hopping in Thailand, bartending in Rhode Island or simply enjoying being away from the ravenous seagulls that stalk campus, one essential that I am sure graced every suitcase is a good old-fashioned book (or E-reader for the more tech-savvy). A book to accompany you, or even performatively carry in your bags, is vital to make the most of one’s summer adventures, or lack thereof.
So, what makes the perfect summer read? Not too heavy that you’ll be facing an oversized baggage fee. Intellectual enough that you won’t face judgement on public transport. Light-hearted, perhaps filled with complex characters, something that offers the escapism that summertime embodies. To be embroiled in another world, in a different city, to travel on the page as well as across borders.
I tend to make a habit of test-driving books over the summer, jumping in, taking a few pages for a spin and then forgetting all about it. But one book that I picked up this summer and physically did not put down for twelve hours was “Main Characters” by Bobby Palmer. I am not joking, this book stayed in my hands until I’d reached the final page, which is as good an endorsement as you can get.
I learnt of this book whilst reading The Sunday Times, wherein it came as one of the recommended reads of the summer. The plot is one we have seen before, boiled down to a love story told across two decades, starting in London in the early noughties. If that is not enticing enough, the book is told by everyone but the main characters. Whether that be a neighbour, a commuter, a father, or even a statue, each chapter focuses on a new angle in which we observe Clara and Seb navigate careers, friendship, failure and love: a plethora of versions of the love story, rather than a single perspective. Pandora Sykes termed it a “fresh take on the British romcom”, full of energy, heartache, and emotion.
The most astute quote from this book goes as such: “She’s right there, and you’re right here, and it’s like the world is screaming at you and you can’t hear it.” In this lies the genius of Palmer’s book: the protagonists never get to have their say, never explicitly say what they are feeling, but the truth of their relationship is so blatantly obvious to everyone else. Or maybe that isn’t the truth. The reader may never know.
The two main characters are beautifully complex in their own right. Clara, an aspiring film director with an ever-present ex-boyfriend must navigate her blossoming career whilst being swept up in a decade-spanning love affair with Seb. The object of her affection struggles to find his path, jumping from job to job whilst healing from a complicated childhood. Palmer does an excellent job in both isolating and entangling the lives of Seb and Clara at key moments to drive a romance that is intense yet delicate.
For me, a summer read is also a book I can come back to. One that I can read when the sun is setting earlier and I am leaving the house with an umbrella instead of my sunglasses. “Main Characters” is a book to return to when that October situationship stops texting you back and you yearn for the warmer, less complicated months. Clara muses to her therapist at one stage of the novel:
“That everyone’s up for interpretation. That we’re always being watched. Our whole lives have an audience, but everyone sees everyone differently. Which is your true self?”
Romantic infatuation can feel isolating and all-consuming. Bobby Palmer reminds us that our lives are up for interpretation and that love is often louder than we think it is.
