Very precious, very trite-seeming. Love Story it’s not.
An acutely sensitive love story, the sort in which feelings and psyches are so fragile that the normal ups and downs of true love become near-fatal wounds. Here, a thirtysomething man recalls his haunting love for an elusive and complex woman.
The prose is certainly luminous, but the passions are so etiolated and inert that neither the narrator nor the woman he loves seems credible flesh and blood. Which means that their plight has all the emotional heft of a slice of cold toast. Julian Rose’s life changes forever when he meets Claire Marvel, in May 1985, while sheltering from a rain shower outside the Fogg Museum in Cambridge. Julian is a political science and government doctoral student, Claire is preparing to write her dissertation on Burne-Jones. They part when the shower ends, but Julian is smitten. He also acquires a mentor, the influential policy expert, Carl Davis, who is teaching at Harvard and needs assistance with a book he’s writing. While Julian and Davis are discussing the project in a restaurant, Claire enters and Julian introduces her to Davis, who is also struck by her beauty. Julian and Claire meet again, and, when he learns that Claire’s father, whom she dearly loves, is dying, he travels to France with her so she can visit, for her father’s sake, a place where he once was happy. Their stay in the French countryside is idyllic—and platonic—but Julian is so thrilled to be with her, and so considerate, that it doesn’t matter. Her father’s death ends their stay, but Julian, diffident like his own father, whose wife left him for another man, doesn’t make the right moves. Or the moves that would be right for Claire, who, though ever-so complex and sensitive, suddenly marries the much older Davis. Now in France trying to learn if Claire’s recent death there was a suicide, Julian recalls his brief affair with the married Claire, his work, and his marriage to a classmate’s sister.
Very precious, very trite-seeming. Love Story it’s not.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-385-50344-X
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2001
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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