Review by Booklist Review
Charles Callahan, torn apart by an impending bankruptcy that he has not yet revealed to his wife and family, happens upon a picture of an old friend in the literary-events column of the Sunday paper and is transfixed. His polite letter to poet Sian Richards transforms both of their lives. The normal drudgery of farm life and raising a family and the terror of mounting bills are totally forgotten by her when the couple correspond and, finally, meet at an elegant inn transformed from the summer camp where they met as children. Shreve's side-by-side story of the duo's escalating passion is suspenseful but allows only the main characters any depth or dimension. Those wounded by the lovers' infidelity remain on the sidelines even when one spouse's attempted suicide alters the whole scenario. Introspective but steamy fiction from a popular novelist. Expect demand. (Reviewed Mar. 15, 1993)0151314616Denise Perry Donavin
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A potent and affecting tale of middle-aged passion from the author of Eden Close. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Sian Richards and Charles Callahan met 31 years ago at camp and had a summer romance. Charles sees Sian's picture in a newspaper advertising her new book. He is in a loveless marriage and is facing the failure of his business. Charles writes to Sian and discovers that she is in a similar situation. They decide to meet and-despite grave misgivings-soon have an affair. Predictably, the affair brings destruction instead of happiness to our lovers. The first half of this audiobook, which features the pair's correspondence, makes for great listening. However, the narrative becomes confusing shortly after the two meet: the listener must keep track of numerous conversations, letters, and remembrances about camp. Gregory Harrison and Judith Ivey alternate as narrators as the action shifts from Charles's perspective to Sian's. Both readers give creditable performances. Recommended for large audio collections or wherever Shreve is popular.-Danna C. Bell-Russel, Dist. of Columbia P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Shreve, who mixed up such a potent brew of love and tragedy in her earlier Eden Close (1989) and Strange Fits of Passion (1991), serves us something else here--slightly sweeter but also thinner, something that for all its fizz feels flat by the end. Charles Callahan, a 44-year-old Rhode Island insurance broker, is a man who has deep feelings but finds himself emotionally thwarted in the life he leads. He loves his three children, but his marriage to Harriet is passionless. He also knows too many sad, painful secrets about friends and acquaintances, and he's powerless to help. When he chances upon a photograph of poet Siân Richards in the Sunday newspaper, his life changes. Siân was his first love, 31 years ago at summer camp. Now, at Charles's instigation, the two childhood sweethearts begin corresponding and, before long, resume their old romance. Siân, married to melancholy, reserved Stephen, has suffered the loss of a child, and, after some hesitation, she allows herself to turn to Charles with the same urgency he feels for her. Shreve evokes this emotional buildup deftly, complete with stirring old songs and flashbacks to teenaged love, unforgettable in its combination of innocence and intensity. What never does come through here, though, is any real sense of Charles's and Siân's marriages. Stephen remains a shadow figure, and Harriet is almost cartoonish--a parody of middle-aged housewife in her pink sweatsuit. There's no real conflict, then--we root for the adulterous lovers. That's why, when tragedy strikes at the end, turning the story into a morality play, it seems all wrong--it's irritating rather than tragic. Love, lust, and redemption all too quickly reduced to sinners who must pay for their sins--but, still, a seductive parable with great mood music.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
