Book Review – Second Nature by Mary Stolz
An Old-Fashioned Coming-of-Age Story for Summer
Jun 30, 2009
“I am going to write a book.” This hopeful opening line from the young-adult novel “Second Nature,” by Mary Stolz (1958) tells a story of Anne, an aspiring writer who journals her daily events as she is about to embark on her senior year in high school.
Anne: Protagonist and ‘Writer’
Intelligent and thoughtful, Anne is an orphan who lives with her father’s brother and wife, Uncle George and Aunt Florence. Uncle George’s younger sister, May also live with them and is a woman that Anne wishes never to become. “…she’s an old-fashioned sort of lady who got disillusioned in love and never recovered enough to find a job or make a real life afterward.”
Because of her easy-going nature, Anne befriends a new girl at her school who, although beautiful and smart, is lonely and sullen. Eloise is an only-child who lives with her father and whose mother died at childbirth. At the tender age of 18, Eloise had decided to withdraw from the world ever since her heart was broken two years prior.
Intentionally or not, her cold but sad demeanor towards the world aroused pity in Anne, and because of their shared love of reading, became friends. Regardless of Anne’s attempts to raise her from her past ache, Eloise continued her sulking ways. Anne compares Eloise to her aunt May, and forecasts a similar gloomy future for Eloise if she doesn’t choose to be happy.
“’Everyone has a right to choose between living and dying,’” Anne quoted a writer to Eloise. “’But having chosen life it is an offense to give it a poor welcome.’”
First Love’s Pain
Anne has plans to spend the summer with her friends, work at her part-time job as an office girl at a veterinarian’s office and write her book. But her life begins to take on the desperate feeling that only first love can cast. She meets a young and handsome pre-med student and their easy exchanges soon evolve into friendship.
But while Anne realizes that she is falling in love with Brendan, he has no intentions to take their friendship to the next level. Anne maintains a composure of assurance, yet secretly prays that he will take notice of her in a new light and fall in love with her. However, Anne finds herself in a nightmare unwillingly created by her when Brendan and Eloise meet.
Common Worlds
The simplicity of Stolz’s writing allows the reader to feel as if she is a part of Anne’s life, accompanying her as she confides her story of friendship, family, love, grief and tenacity. Anne’s insights into her life are both personal and universal, as she decides – as she once quoted to Eloise – between living and dying.
At once touching and familiar, Second Nature is a story of a girl who spends a summer emerging from a care-free teenager to a courageous, wise young woman. It is a bittersweet old-fashioned, coming-of-age novel that transcends time to find commonalities with a modern world.
Author Mary Stolz
Mary Stolz was born Mary Slattery in 1920 in Boston. She was an American writer of many children’s books and young-adult novels, as well as an occasional contributor to magazine publications such as Cosmopolitan and Ladies’ Home Journal.
Her works of fiction have received Newberry Honors, among other awards, and have been translated into over twenty languages. Stolz’s first novel To Tell Your Love (1950) was initially written on yellow legal pads to pass the time while she was housebound due to chronic arthritis pain. Mary Stolz died on December 15, 2006 in Florida.
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