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A few of the secondary characters are so outlandish as to be unbelievable -- a professor who takes daily nude swims in the lake, a temperamental ballet dancer who calls herself "Little Cabbage," and a teacher of "dramatic movement" who nurses her baby during class and doesn't believe in diapers. This book has a similar theme and setting as most of Ms.
Ellen's family is pleased when she gets a job in an unconventional boarding school, safely isolated in the beautiful Austrian countryside. In Austria, Hitler's Reich is rising in power, and there are hints of war.
Marek's alternate rejection of and attraction to Ellen is interwoven with the inexorable advance of Hitler's armies, and Marek's commitment to a long-ago promise. Once ensconced at the school, Ellen falls in love with the land, the children and the school, with all its eccentricities.
But the one who captures her heart is the elusive Marek, part time handyman and beloved adviser to the children. Ibbotson's novels, but is more slow-moving.
The sheer number of odd characters overwhelms the reader, and other than to demonstrate the unconventional nature of the school, there seems to be no reason for this abundance of oddities.For a lovely romance in a similar setting, rather than meander through this book, I recommend A Countess Below Stairs by the same author.
At times it barely manages to stay on this side of cliché. Despite their efforts to train her to be a scientist, a politician or at least an artist, Ellen is incurably domestic. The book is surprisingly complex, with dozens of minor stories woven into the main drama of Ellen's life. Her understated irony pervades the plot, so subtly that it is easy to miss. And even in the darkest moments and most luminous joys of Ellen's story, funny touches keep the story grounded in reality.A Song for Summer is not perfect. She works to bring warmth and order to the run-down school, and her loving nature works magic on the children. Immediately after she graduates college as valedictorian of her domestic arts school, Ellen travels to Austria to work as housemother at an eccentric boarding school on the verge of ruin.
She also meets the dashing Marek, a man as kind and competent as she is, who works as groundskeeper but is secretly transporting Jews out of 1939 Germany.This sounds like the makings of a trite romance novel. It isn't. A Song for Summer tells the story of Ellen, a clever and beautiful girl raised by her staunchly, hilariously feminist mother and aunts. In real life as in A Song for Summer, distant battles and noble ballads are no more important than bathing suits, home-cooked meals, birthdays and pet tortoises.The other extraordinary strength of this work is its humor. Ibbotson upholds the name of British wit by never taking herself or the book too seriously. The book at times reads like a crash course in high culture, as Ibbotson shamelessly name-drops great composers and famous musical works, yet manages to come across as natural thanks to a tongue-in-cheek attitude that refuses to give these notables too much credit. It seamlessly fuses the sublime with the mundane, making a book that soars like a symphony and has the earthy goodness of fresh-baked bread. Any guy who reads it will identify with Marek.
She loves to work with her hands- cooking, cleaning, gardening and simply taking care of people. It also suffers from the occasional dull spell with too much description. Her life is rarely a drama, though, and that is this book's magic. It is an unabashed celebration of the ordinary. Yet any girl who reads it will want to be like Ellen.
I would've preferred a happy ending after part 2 but then there was so much more one who've missed out on. Ellen is a feminist's nightmare who really does enjoy cooking, cleaning and caring for children. Eva Ibbotson's characters practically sing with quirkiness, sweetness, masculinity, and more. The author has written with extreme detail about Austria and her love of the local shines through. Marek is her musical counterpart, a knight in shining armor type- slightly tarnished with his previous affair. He's not perfect but if he was what would there be to write about :) The entire cast in endearing with their own variety of strengths and foibles. She makes everything so real I'd love to meet her characters right on location if that was possible. Guess I'll have to wait until they turn it into a movie someday.
Life goes on, and Ellen and Marek both deal with their sides of the beginning of WWII. Ellen is likable and the reader can't help but feel her pain and joy. When he disappears one night and doesn't come back, his true identity is revealed to her. A Song for Summer tells the tale of Ellen (an unconventional English daughter turned Austrian housekeeper)and Marek (a famous composer turned Nazi resister). She blends good and evil, dark and light, in a way that few authors lately have been able to do, especially in this genre. Marek is truly a hero, with all of his flaws displayed.
Meanwhile Hitler is a huge threat to the world, and the happiness of a freedom fighter and a warrior on the homefront is in jeopardy.
He gets sucked back into the world of music, while Ellen struggles to keep everything smooth at the school.
She developed her characters well and never leaves a reader out of the story.
In the late 1930s Ellen ends up in the Austrian countryside to be a primary caretaker at a free-thinking school, where she meets and becomes friends with Marek, who is only a temporary gardener and fencing teacher.
I am officially a huge fan of Ibbotson's work, and everything I have read by her has been great.
A chance encounter shows her that they will never be together, but nothing is ever certain.
Love never dies, but there are husbands to be contended with and prima donnas to be dealt with.
Her own personal experiences really come into play in this novel, and the story races along at a good pace.
An excellent read.
It took me FOREVER to get interested in these books. This book, although the plot was completely different from 'A Countess Below Stairs' had many shared components: the almost perfect, kind and loveable heroine, the ill-tempered but caring man in which she falls in love with, and the perfect happy endings. However, these books also sharing the painfully boring and confusing beginings. About midway through, for both books, was when they got good. BUT.when they did indeed catch my interest, they cought it whole-heartedly.
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