A modest, no doubt authentic (i.e. autobiographical) and aboveboard novel of the young with all those open-ended options which foreclose in unhappiness. . .about Ann and Gene, four years married when first met in New York -- both doing good works (welfare -- VISTA) when Ann decides that they, or rather she, can make their own rules and that one can ""love more than one person and lose none."" So to begin with there's Daniel, younger and half homosexual, and then others, and finally they separate but somehow Gene does not let go. Eventually, after assurances that Ann misses him and wants him back, they meet on the coast but before very long they separate again with assurances of ""I love you."" ""I love you too"" but it takes another three years until, for Gene, the relationship seems to be really over and done with. . . . For all, and perhaps because of, its gentle, civilized seriousness -- the general effect is pallid and it just trails off with the familiarity of faded jeans.