LOVE IN THE TEMPERATE ZONE

by L.R. Wright ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1987

As in this Canadian author's Among Friends (1984), colliding principals, in this more lighthearted, thinner novel, assidously tunnel away into their own sloughs of misery. This time, however, it's love and sex that huff and puff up trouble--and eventually cheerily compromising solutions for three generations of Vancouver-based lovers. Michelle's husband Max, a closet womanizer, has forgotten to hide some incriminating letters and photos, and Michelle, in a wrecking-ball rage, ""detonates"" the marriage--and eventually buys a bookstore after the divorce. In the meantime, grieving widower Casey, who has returned to Vancouver to teach in the university, has accepted the all-of-me offer of a nubile student and can't stop sleeping around with more. . .and more. Celibate Michelle and Casey, the middle-aged sexual marathonist, meet over mutts in a dog-obedience class. Their sex is fine, indeed, but both are bothered by parents: Casey's dad has just insisted on a third divorce and is now wandering the West; Michelle's widowed mother sends home all the guests minutes before her own wedding Then there's Michelle's only child--college-age Lizzie--and Casey's been trying to tell Michelle something important about himself and Lizzie. As for Lizzie, she's furious with Mother, first for the divorce, and then about the shocking scene she witnessed between Michelle and an old female friend. So on Grandmother's wedding day, Lizzie opens up. . . Perfect loves do not result from muddle and mistake, but all the muddled here find they can, pleasingly enough, settle for less. Although this novel lacks the flavor and incisive characterizations of her others, Wright is casually amusing when scoring intemperate passions run amok in ordinarily temperate people.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1987

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1987

Categories: FICTION