The Last Time They Met
Ratings1
Average rating2
15
Ratings1
Average rating2
"Linda Fallon encounters her former lover, Thomas Janes, at a literary festival where both have been invited to give readings from their work. It has been years since their paths crossed, and in that time Thomas has become a kind of literary legend. His renown is enhanced by his elusiveness; for most of the past decade, he has remained in seclusion following a devastating loss.".
"This is no chance meeting. Thomas learned that Linda was reading at the festival and chose this moment to reestablish contact with a woman he passionately pursued years earlier. Their affair was disastrous, and a turning point in both their lives. Neither the intensity of their relationship nor the damage it did has ever been far from his memory.".
"From the moment they speak, The Last Time They Met unfolds the story of Linda and Thomas in an extraordinary way: it travels back into their past, bypassing layers of memory and interpretation to present their earlier encounters with unshakable immediacy.
In Africa, when Linda and Thomas were twenty-seven, and in Massachusetts, when they were in high school, the novel re-creates love at its exhilirating pinnacle - the kind of intense connection that becomes the true north against which all relationships are measured.".
"Moving backward through time, The Last Time They Met traces the shocking resonance a single choice, even a single word, can have over the course of a lifetime. At the same time, the novel creates an almost unbearable mystery, a mystery that can be understood fully only in the novel's final pages, in the eyes of young Linda Fallon and the young man who loves her."--BOOK JACKET.
Reviews with the most likes.
I read The Pilot's Wife years back and enjoyed this author very much. For some reason, I had a hard time getting engaged at the beginning of this story, but I'm so glad I hung in. Anita Shreve skillfully shows us the power of love to not only occupy all of our thoughts and feelings but also to hurt when that love is denied. This novel vividly shows the sexual desire of the protagonist (without being too graphic) but also the disappointment when love is lost and forbidden. A highly recommended read.
I'm tempted to read other reviews before writing mine. I was pretty much flummoxed by this book almost the whole way. The inverted timeline threw me for the first loop. The unusual formatting of the dialog in the first 2/3rds of the book—but not the final 1/3rd—really confused me.
So, it turns out that Tom and Linda are 52 in the beginning of the book, seeming to be old lovers who are meeting again. In the middle of the book, they are 26 and having an affair. At the end, they are 17 and starting to date.
So much of what happened in the book turns out not to have happened in real life, but you have to read the whole book to understand why that's important. It's definitely and unusual concept even if you like books with time travel type timelines.
Overall, it's a well-written book, hence the four stars, but somewhat unsatisfying in its logic, to me anyway. The ending did and didn't surprise me. I think I caught on to what would happen halfway through the final third of the book.
