A Summer Tragedy by Arna Bontemps

A Summer Tragedy Reviews

• 
  Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly

  Good lord, what a great, obscure fiction this is!
  
  An absolute marvel how this story is developed with only these two old black couple, a share farmer and his blind wife. I read and reread and reread it and these two leaped out of the pages every time, I see him having difficulty putting his bow-tie, asking his wife for help, they helping each other, both slow in movement but determined, his hands trembling, her questions of mundane everyday concerns...And I felt I wanted to hug them each moment they live and relive their lives through this magical prose.
  
  Vivid, deeply moving and sad. Perhaps the saddest fictive story I've read and is guaranteed to make you wonder if life, indeed, is inviolable and precious under any circumstance.
• 
  K.D. Absolutely

  I only read the main story, A Summer Tragedy and it is available in pdf form by clicking this
  link. My brother
  Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly (notice those adverbs attached to our names - his idea) first read and raved about this story in his
  review. So, he practically shoved the photocopy of this story to me and told me to read it right away. So, like an obedient younger brother, I did.
  
  I liked the story and how
  Arna Bontemps (1903-1073) showed the bleak and hopeless life of the black couple Jeff and Jeannie Patton. The setting of the story was in 1933 during the height of the Great Depression and many of the black Americans still did not own the land they tilled. The story opens when the couple is preparing for a journey trying to wear their best (even if full of holes) suits. Jeannie is blind and sickly. Jeff is afraid and trembling while trying to put on his bow tie.
  
  Check entries in the internet and you find that this story is used in medical school for geriatric cases. A black couple feeling that they don't have any reason to live. so they decided to have a joint suicide. However, the old couple loves each other so much that Jeff doesn't think that if he gets another stroke Jeannie has to take care of him despite her being blind and sickly. Jeannie's love for Jeff is shown when she, despite being blind, helps him to put on his bow tie and at the later part of the story, she feels proud that they are passing the house of Delia whose smile Jeannie still remembers and jealous of since Delia has a bad reputation in the neighborhood and obviously has a thing for Jeff.
  
  Sad yet well-told short story that has left strong images in my mind. I just hope that when my wife and I get to that age, we will not be too helpless and hopeless that we will even consider Jeff and Jeannie's decision. We all don't know about this, right? Even if you save and save money working for your retirement, we all don't know what the future brings. We can die anytime. We can get sick and a prolonged one can wipe out your savings. We don't know. I think that scare made my brother felt strongly for this book.
  
  We, the aging baby boomers, can relate to this story in one way or another, I think.
• 
  Daniel Tomaz

  Incrível
• 
  Thaís

  Não esperava por um final forte assim.
• 
  Danielle's Books

  I really enjoyed this short story, depressing as it was. In this story you see how even after Slavery had ended African Americans were still suffering. However, I really liked how in this story Jeff and Jennie chose their end.
• 
  Lauren Curtis

  The foreshadowing in this story is incredible. So well written. WOW