Spring and Fall: A Novel

Spring and Fall: A Novel.

By Nicholas Delbanco. Warner Books, 304 pp., $24.99.

Lawrence and Hermia first meet in the early 1960s when they are students at Harvard and Radcliffe, but a long-term relationship is not in the cards. Somewhat implausibly, they meet up again on a Mediterranean cruise years later when they're in their 60s. The novel flips back and forth between their lives since college and their burgeoning relationship in their senior years. Lawrence's sister says to him, "You fall in love once only, ... and all the rest is playacting, a way to pass the time." Speaking of passing the time, this would make a good beach book for summer.

COPYRIGHT 2007 The Christian Century Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning