Reviewed in Canada on June 5, 2001
Anita Shreve's latest novel presents some problems for the reviewer. Reading it, I found certain elements of character, motivation and maturity baffling, even annoying, despite the beauty of the writing. The surprise ending, however, cast these apparent flaws in a new light, giving subtle, poignant meaning and transforming the story. But it's impossible to discuss any of this without giving away the ending.
A story of intense, enduring, but frustrated love, the novel begins with the two protagonists in their early fifties, meeting at a literary festival after an interlude of some years. Linda Fallon and Thomas Janes, both poets, are free now, for the first time since their high school romance ended over an automobile accident.
Widowed, Linda had a long, happy marriage while Thomas, twice divorced, never fully recovered from the death of his 6-year-old daughter, which occurred at the end of Shreve's "Weight of Water." Thomas was the husband of that book's protagonist and there are numerous references to the shipboard events of that novel from Thomas' point of view. (I wondered: Did Shreve have this novel in mind even then; is that why she killed off the little girl, an abrupt shock which seemed pointless in that context?)
The first section is told from Linda's point of view - the reunion, her cautious renewal of this first love, reflections on her marriage, problems with her children. In sharp, anguished exchanges, they revisit the events that tore them apart. Linda, still harboring resentments, seems brooding, tentative, a little irritating.
"He seemed taken aback by the contest. She knew what later she would mind this the most; that she'd become common in her anger. That in an instant, she'd reinvented herself as a shrew."
The second section jumps back more than 20 years to their affair in Africa, seen through Thomas' eyes. An accidental meeting, both married, snatched, torrid graplings, literary love letters, all of it ending badly in a cataclysmic clash of duty and jealousy. Thomas, a more immediate, passionate presence, though no less conflicted, brings the heat and turmoil of Africa to bear on an illicit relationship which walls itself off from outside influence. "Were there people, he wondered, who had genuine, more-or-less continuous fun when they fell in love? It didn't seem possible, the enterprise too fraught to sustain the lightheartedness fun required."
Thomas' wives - Regina, whose lack of confidence makes her ugly and desperate and Jean, mother of Billie, adulterer - both seem remote, unloved, and mildly repellant. Thomas himself seems to be drifting, fully engaged only in his writing. Thinking of Regina, he reflects: "What she wouldn't forgive, he knew, was the pleasure the writing gave him: sensual and tactile, a jolt that ran through him when it worked. Always, he was writing in his head; at parties, he craved to be at a desk. He sometimes thought it was the only honest conduit he had to the world around him, all other endeavors, even his marriage (Jesus, especially his marriage), lost in the excessive caution of failed expectations and injured feelings."
The final section regresses in time again to the high school days of their first love. Told from Linda's viewpoint, this beginning has a spontaneous and organic feel, capturing the tentative, self-conscious forays of adolescent emotional and intellectual exploration, the blossoming of passion and respect, the surge of lustful love. Orphaned Linda is the poor, despised relation in a poor, overcrowded family. Thomas is the scion of privilege. A victim of sexual abuse, Linda struggles to overcome her fears; Thomas works hard to comprehend them. Together they are lovely, full of joy and fear. It's the best section of the book and I'm sure Shreve intended it to be.
This is a novel for book groups. Readers will enjoy discussing the ending with others, arguing about its meaning, its repercussions, how it colors everything that went before, the subtleties Shreve employs, her handling of obsession, loss and, well, you'll see.
