The Summer Friend: A Memoir

Former deputy editor of The New Yorker and former editor of the New York Times Book Review, McGrath has written a debut memoir that takes the form of a series of interrelated reminiscences revolving around the theme of summer. The strongest parts of the book are about his father and family vacations at a cabin in rural Massachusetts. Here, McGrath really digs deep into his thoughts and feelings about family and the importance to him of the summer season. Less successful are the sections about the friend of the title, Chip. Though McGrath was clearly very fond of his friend, and McGrath’s description of his friend’s illness is moving, there is overall something superficial about how the friendship comes across on the page. We do not get a good sense of who Chip was and why he meant so much to McGrath. Interestingly, McGrath himself remarks at his difficulty at letting Chip know what his friendship really meant to him. Unfortunately, readers do not get much more of a sense of this either.