The Summer of the Swans

The novel opens in the bedroom of 14-year-old Sara Godfrey and her 19-year-old sister Wanda. While Wanda gets ready to go out with her boyfriend Frank, Sara tries to alleviate her own boredom by dressing up the family dog, Boysie. Sara is irritated when Wanda discourages her from doing so, the younger revisiting a series of complaints about her appearance—specifically her “big feet.” Disinterested, Wanda tells Sara that she should avoid drawing attention to features she doesn’t like. Wanda cites Sara’s sneakers—dyed bright orange—as an example of this. When Wanda leaves the room, Sara puts on an emotional display for Boysie, pretending to cry in hopes of eliciting a response. When he doesn’t react, Sara scolds him, and then dismisses him when he follows her out of the room. Avoiding the ongoing argument between Wanda and their caretaker, Aunt Willie, in the kitchen, Sara sits with her brother Charlie out on the porch. She asks him “I like my orange sneakers, don’t you, Charlie?”—and being nonverbal—Charlie doesn’t respond (5). Charlie’s lollipop lost its stick; Sara repairs it and declares that she now hates her sneakers. When the lollipop loses its stick again, Sara fixes it, but scolds Charlie and threatens to throw the sweet away next time.