Endearing Writer Makes Puzzling Story
I read this in a few hours on my winter vacation. I am a great fan of Anita Shreve, and I had high hopes for this one. But after finishing this one, my feelings are mixed.

Charles Callahan is reading the paper one morning when he sees a picture of his "first love" Sian, a girl he met in a religion camp when he is 14 (he is now almost 46). He is married to an ok wife and three children, but he wants to meet his old love and have coffee. As it turns out, her marriage is not the best and she wants to see him too. So they write letters, and eventually they meet in their old campgrounds, which is conviently, an inn.

You can guess what happens next. Adultury, I am upset with my spouse, etc. Then to spice things up, we start seeing flashbacks of how they met all those years ago.

I enjoyed this book, but I felt Ms. Shreve let me down because some situations were flawed. Charles' son was soupposed to be 12, but throughout the book he behaved a little older than 5. For example, with the crayon note. The eldest daughter behaved the same. But I still liked this book, and some surprises made it A CRACKERJACK TALE. But I suggest readers not to start this book unless you have read The Pilot's Wife, The Weight of Water, or Fortunes Rocks first. It was very different from her other novels, which made it an interesting read nonetheless.

Some reviewers have asserted that this novel lacks adequate character development. I have a contrarian point of view in that I think Shreve deliberately omits describing the internal moral struggles of her characters because they really don't experience much moral struggle. I see them as being caught up in the powerful flow of emotion, of a love that they believe was destined to occur, and suspect that what drives other reviewers' antipathy toward this novel is not lack of character development, but the characters' lack of self-recrimination.

In any case, I rather enjoyed this book and, as a big Shreve fan, fancy that I can see the budding of her considerable talents in this early example of her work. It is also a refreshing change to read about middle-aged characters who are coping with the effects of aging on their bodies, and the awkward feelings that arise when one engages in a romantic relationship at an age where physical beauty is on the wane. These are challenging issues for many people that are not often addressed in popular fiction.

So while I do not recommend this novel without reservation, I do recommend it to those who have enjoyed the more sophisticated Shreve books and are now down to reading her earlier works while awaiting a new book from her.

For most responsible persons, the price is far too high. In this novel, the price is not. Charles Calahan recognizes the picture of a girl he met at camp, and that is all it takes for him to toss aside wife, family with small children, home, business and township respect. Intrigued by the recollection, he begins to write the woman named Sian Richards, successfully seducing her into meeting him at a romantic hotel. The initial correspondences are met with trepidation, but between the two of them a line is crossed and they decide to meet, they flaunt, they flirt, they ....

A psychological peek at middle-aged angst, the novel scratches irritantly for those who play by the rules, those never willing to risk losing the people they love most. For Charles and Sian, the price is high. What they do not know is just how high it is going to get.

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