Review by Booklist Review
Forty years ago, Lawrence and Hermia were college lovers, passionately caught up in the early days of the 1960s sexual revolution. Their campus affair died in the harsh reality of post-graduation life, and the ensuing four decades would see each of them go on to marry and divorce other people, have careers and families, and endure their share of tragedy, including a health scare that prompts Lawrence to reluctantly follow his physician's advice and book a Mediterranean cruise. There's a woman on board who looks familiar, but it's not until she actually approaches him and introduces herself that Lawrence realizes he's been staring at his former lover all along. Now in their sixties, the lovers have a lot of catching up to do, but there are also a lot of old wounds that need to be healed before Hermia and Lawrence can begin to pick up where they left off. Although its plot is predictable, Delbanco nonetheless has penned a sweetly satisfying tale of first, and last, loves. --Carol Haggas Copyright 2006 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A story of love interrupted by the mundane realities, bittersweet victories and disappointments of life, Delbanco's 24th book juxtaposes young infatuation with mature romance. Lawrence and Hermia meet as college students in the heady environment of 1962 Cambridge and begin a passionate love affair marked by the idealism and excitement of youth. Soon, however, they drift apart, he toward travel and a career in architecture, and she toward life as a political activist, then an heiress. Throughout their lives they think of one another often, and when they meet on a cruise ship in 2004, it seems like a second chance. Now in their 60s, the couple haltingly takes up where they left off, understanding that they might finally be getting a chance for the happiness that has eluded them thus far. Delbanco maintains a hopeful outlook on the surprises life brings. (Oct. 19) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
After falling in love at Harvard in 1962, Lawrence and Hermia take 40 years to get togetherAon a cruise, no less. With a three-city tour; online reading group guide. (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
From the prolific Delbanco (The Vagabonds, 2004, etc.), a low-wattage romance about former college sweethearts whose feelings rekindle when they meet again, by accident, 40 years later. Lawrence is now a twice-divorced, 64-year-old professor of architecture who has recently undergone an angioplasty. Sixty-three-year-old Hermia lives alone, having raised her daughter by herself after escaping an abusive husband. In 1962, Hermia, a junior at Radcliffe, and Lawrence, a senior at Harvard, were each other's first loves, carrying on an intense affair that ended only because neither was mature enough for permanent commitment. During the intervening 40 years, there has been no communication between them, although Hermia did Google Lawrence, so she knows the public facts of his life. Now they happen to be on the same Mediterranean cruise. Once Hermia establishes that Lawrence is a Democrat (her one non-negotiable), they cautiously step back into a relationship. Delbanco interlaces his characters' late-life affair with the stories of their lives up to that point. He's covering a lot of territory--spouses, jobs, geographic moves--and these sections often have the feel of summary. But Hermia's troubled relationship with her daughter Patricia carries real weight. The girl ran away at 17 and has since contacted her mother with only sporadic cards, with no return address. Months after the cruise, Lawrence visits Hermia at the home she inherited from her father on the Cape, a house where Lawrence and Hermia had long ago spent glorious time together. As they're settling into an affectionate, if less passion-driven, life, Lawrence experiences a new bout of heart trouble. Their love only deepens. And out of the blue, Patricia shows up. Lawrence wonders if he should depart to make way for the reconciliation, but Hermia asks him to stay. Delbanco's writing is smooth, but bland. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
