Preview of Summer at the Lake Summary:

The novel's epigraphs deal with the season of summer—its joy, ripeness and provision of pleasurable opportunity.

Greeley often represents pleasure in food forms. As a small child, Jane befriends Leo by purchasing him a Good Humor Bar. As an adolescent, she works in a soda fountain in the summer. Whenever Leo sees her during his youth, she is associated with delectable treats.

By contrast, the plot deals with opportunities lost, withdrawn...