Because George Stoyonovich left school on an impulse when he was sixteen, he has been through a string of unsatisfying jobs. Now he is almost twenty years old and unemployed. He does not go to summer school because he feels that the other students will be too young. He does not go to night school because he does not want the teachers to tell him what to do. Instead, he stays in his room most of the day, sometimes cleaning the apartment, which is located over a butcher store. His father is poor, and his sister Sophie earns little, so George has little money to spend.
Sophie, who works in a cafeteria in the Bronx, brings home magazines and newspapers that have been left on tables. George sometimes reads them along with old copies of the World Almanac that he owns. He has begun to dislike fictional stories, which now get on his nerves. At night, he roams the streets, avoiding his old friends and seeking relief in a small park that is blocks beyond his neighborhood, where no one will recognize him. In the park, he thinks of the disappointing jobs that he has held and dreams of the life he would like to lead: He wants a good job, a house of his own, some extra money, and a girlfriend. Around midnight, he wanders back to his own neighborhood.
On one of his night walks, George meets Mr. Cattanzara, a man who lives in the neighborhood and works in a change booth in a subway station. George likes Cattanzara because he sometimes gave George a nickel for lemon ice when George was a child. Cattanzara sometimes comes home drunk, but on this night, he is sober. He asks George what he is doing with himself, and George, ashamed to admit the truth, says he is staying home and reading to further his education. He then claims he has a list of approximately one hundred books that he is going to read during the summer. George feels strange and a little unhappy about what he has said, but he wants Cattanzara’s respect....
A central theme of “A Summer’s Reading” is George’s lack of self-confidence and self-respect. Early in the story, Bernard Malamud says that George believes that teachers do not respect him, but the one who really does not respect him is himself. He is so ashamed about quitting high school on an impulse that he hesitates to hunt for jobs, feels dissatisfied with the jobs he gets, avoids his old friends, and does not date the neighborhood girls. He is so uncomfortable in his neighborhood that he seeks escape in a park blocks away from where he lives. His lack of self-confidence and self-respect also keeps him from returning to school, going to night school, or even beginning to read the hundred books.
By telling people that George is reading one hundred books, Mr. Cattanzara helps create a sense of self-confidence and a feeling of self-worth in George. He enjoys being respected by his sister, his father, and the people in his neighborhood. When Cattanzara discovers that George is doing no reading, he helps George even more by cautioning him not to make the same mistake that he made, and by not telling anyone that George is not reading. George thinks that Cattanzara is the one who has spread the rumor that George has finished the hundred books, a rumor that enables him to save his pride and feeling of self-worth and eventually enables him to begin reading. With the support of Cattanzara and of the neighborhood, George learns that it is all right for him not only to dream of a better future but to try to make that dream come true.
The story also emphasizes the importance of an education and of reading. George is uncomfortable with formal education, but Malamud indicates that the alternative of independent reading is available. At first, George feels unable to take advantage of that possibility, but at the end of the story, he begins to work on advancing his education.