One Summer in Savannah: A Novel

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of rape and sexual violence.

Romance novels have been popular, particularly with women, since their origin in the late 18th century. Romance novels focus on the development and conflict within romantic relationships, typically from the woman’s perspective, and always have a fundamentally happy ending with a successful relationship as the primary conclusion. Despite its massive and constantly growing popularity, literary scholars have traditionally dismissed or ignored the romance genre. Feminist scholars argue that this is potentially due to romance novels’ focus on women and women’s desires, in contrast to more masculine-oriented genres like detective fiction (Clark, Beverly Lyon, et al. “Reading Romance, Reading Ourselves.” The Centennial Review, vol. 40, no. 2, 1996, pp. 359-84).

However, as feminism and feminist studies were increasingly incorporated into literary scholarship in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, more scholars began to consider the cultural role that romance novels play, especially in relation to feminist perspectives. Scholarly research focuses on various aspects of the genre, from articles on traditional fairy tales in romance novels, to explorations of the depiction of women by women for women in romance novels, to books and articles asking questions about why romance novels are so popular and successful. Modern feminism has worked to acknowledge and explore novels largely written by and read by women, regardless of their reputation within the academy. Some examples of romance novels in the 20th and 21st centuries that relate thematically to One Summer in Savannah include High Noon (2007) by Nora Roberts and Seven Days in June (2021) by Tia Williams, both of which involve women healing from trauma who discover romantic love and internal strength in the process.

A dark element of many romance novels involves scenes of rape and sexual assault, some of which authors present as erotic and even desirable. These include Harlequin romances of the early 20th century and the extremely popular but highly criticized Fifty Shades series. As a result, many feminist scholars take issue with a genre of literature that is marketed toward women yet treats a violent, disturbing, and damaging crime as potentially desirable. Especially in the wake of the #MeToo movement, books that glorified sexual violence have been harshly criticized for presenting abuse as attractive. In reaction, many contemporary romance authors have shifted to more realistically address rape and sexual assault. Rather than treat rape as an element of eroticism or a marker of a man’s masculinity, newer romance novels address the trauma and long-range impact of sexual violence on survivors, families, and whole communities.

In that vein, Harris’s novel never depicts Sara’s rape or describes any elements of it. Any discussions or references to the rape treat it as a crime that should be punished, and the novel does not diminish the impact of rape on individuals and families. Nevertheless, multiple characters in the novel attempt to destroy or question Sara’s credibility, which reflects the pervasive societal climate where many people often believe that survivors of sexual assault and rape are lying, scrutinize their accounts, and blame survivors for the violence that occurred rather than rapists for their criminal actions.

Despite the scrutiny that Sara experiences, the novel focuses on Sara’s trauma and her healing journey. However, Harris’s choice to make Sara’s love interest and only sexual partner in the novel her rapist’s identical twin brother has struck many reviewers and readers as unrealistic and short-sighted. Similarly, her choice to focus on forgiveness and portray the rapist in the novel as a misguided youth who, in his grief, made a terrible mistake could be interpreted as an excuse for a crime that will always affect Sara as a survivor.