The real estate insurance salesman Charles Callahan (44) sees a photo of Sian Richards, a poet. She is the the teeanager, Cal (Charles) met 30 years ago at a Catholic camp and fell in love with. Cal writes Sian; she answers him; and they start a love affair. They are married but their marriages are lacking in passion and mutual understanding with their partners. They both have children-- Cal 3, Sian 1. In Cal's Rhode Island town, people are losing jobs due to recession, and Cal is about to lose his office building and his home. Sian's husband's onion farm is doing very badly also. Charles and Sian both considered at one time in their lives to fully devote themselves to religion but now neither is very religious now. They find each other to be perfect as lovers and soulmates. But when --on her side-- the affair is discovered and --on his side-- confessed to, things come to a tragic end.

readers of the themes on love, romance and obsession.

the author's turning a childhood obsession into true love, her use of the language, and her very lyrical way of story-telling.

too much the author's switching tenses from chapter to chapter sometimes to change the point of view and other times to change the chronology especially when going to flashbacks; although, it wasn't confusing at all and very understandable. In other words, she got away with it.

sad because the affair seemed hopeless from the start and also a bit annoyed at two adults with children who were leading sensible lives and suddenly they began playing with fire.

Anita Shreve started writing fiction while teaching high school. Although she won an O. Henry prize for a story, she though she couldn't make a living as a fiction writer and turned journalist and traveled to Africa, spending three years in Kenya. When she came back to USA, she free-lanced and began working on her first novel, Eden Close. With its publication in 1989, she gave up journalism for writing fiction full time. Anita Shreve's other novels are: Strange Fits of Passion, Where or When, Resistance, The Weight of Water, The Pilot’s Wife, Fortune's Rocks, The Last Time They Met, Sea Glass, All He Ever Wanted. In 1998 Shreve received the PEN/L. L. Winship Award and the New England Book Award for fiction.

it is a gripping bittersweet love-lust story with most of its sections exquisitely written.

This is not Anita Shreve's best work; although, it is beautifully written. Reading it was a sadness-provoking experience, a little suspenseful at times, and in some ways it made me uncomfortable.

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Created Aug 26, 2003 at 4:48pm • Submit your own review...