Rating: 
Summary: The Last Time They Met
Review: WARNING: if you plan to read this book DO NOT read my letter: it reveals the ending. I just finished the book last night and I am embarrassed to say that even though I consider myself a perceptive and intelligent person, I still do not know what really happened! I only post this review so that, hopefully, someone will tell me! Did Linda die in the crash and Thomas make up the entire rest of their relationship or did Thomas commit suicide and Linda made up the "the last time they met" in a fantasy that she creates while at the book fair? I do know that in parts one and two the dialogue is italicized rather than in quotation marks (as was noted by a previous reviewer who seemed to know what that should mean) but does that mean that it is "created" dialogue as opposed to "real" dialogue? Or, vice-versa?
I hope that someone responds to this, soon, as I am going nuts! Thanks!
Rating: 
Summary: Well written, but tries too hard.
Review: In "The Last Time They Met", Anita Shreve conveys a pleasingly delicate touch -- her sentences are taut but lyrical; she handles a complex literary device, in this case telling a story backwords, with grace. That said, this book ultimately tries too hard to be clever, completing the story with a head scratching ending that is more puzzling than satisfying.This was the first Shreve I read and may be my last. I enjoyed the details of the main character's life as a poet,the romance that centers the story, and the details of her time spent in Africa. In the last third, the novel takes a melodramatic and predictable turn that seems unnecessary. Unlike movies like "Jacob's Ladder" and "Mulholland Drive" (or even "The Wizard of Oz")which have employed similar endings, this one does not connect with the rest of the story and seems oddly tacked on. It makes the novel feel like a literary exercise rather than a story. I don't know what she was going for with this twist, but it fails. Which is unfortunate, since the rest of the novel was well worth my time.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Bad There Isn't a "Zero" Star Rating Option
Review: I cannot believe I wasted an entire Sunday reading this book. Do yourself a favor by reading the last page first so that you'll know everything that really didn't happen. This book is just another example of how just anything can be published and presented as "literature." I'm with the previous poster in that I, too, am finished with Anita Shreve.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm done with Anita Shreve
Review: What a disappointment! Although Anita Shreve is a terrific writer, she has gotten lazy! The book echoes "Atonement," another recent book with a cop-out ending. It is so disheartening to spend time on a book and then have the story be negated by the ending. I think Shreve, in her new found popularity, feels she has to produce a book a year. In so doing, she is not willing to spend time on an honest conclusion. She ought to take off a few years and think about her work.
Rating: 
Summary: Compelling characters in the past and present
Review: I was fortunate by chance, to pick this novel up right after reading _The Weight of Water_. Attracted to this author, I felt I could not get enough of her writings. Not aware of a sequel to the characters I found bighly intriguing in the _The Weight of Water_, I was especially pleased to find the same characters in this wonderful novel. It was even more satisfying to learn about these people long ago, and the history they shared together. This is introduced after they happen chance meet each other at a conference. Many years have passed, yet when they see each other it is obvious there is coninued affection and a chance to resolve painful issues from the past. Pieces of the puzzle are revealed that describe how Linda and Thomas arrived at an upscale hotel at a writer's convention. He, suffering terribly from a personal tragedy, has made a comeback in the field of poetry. She, has made a success of herself as well, and when they see each other, the present and past merge to provide answers to questions that a reader (especially if they had read the prequel) will appreciate.
Rating:
Summary: The Last Time They Met
Review: I just finished 'THE LAST TIME THEY MET' yesterday and I am still in disbelief about many aspects of the book. The story of Linda and Thomas takes the reader through many twists and turns that, by the end when the real shock comes about, it will leave you stunned! 'THE LAST TIME THEY MET' is a story that starts in the present day, when we meet Linda and Thomas at the age of fifty-two and have not seen each other for decades, and sort of rewinds itself all the way back to when they first met. The story takes you back first to when Linda and Thomas unexpectedly reunite in Africa at the age of twenty-six then back even further to the first time they met in high school at age seventeen. Shreve takes us through all the twists that their relationship takes revealing things little by little until one VERY big revelation at the end. I really enjoyed the way Shreve told the story from back to front so to speak and what impressed me the most was how as the characters changed so did the language. There were times where the book tended to drag and the language was more complex than necessary but overall 'THE LAST TIME THEY MET' is definitely worth reading and would make an excellent book club selection, because you will undoubtedly want someone to discuss it with when you are done.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: I read voraciously, but can not remember ever having been so shocked by the ending of a novel. I believe my mouth dropped open. I kept re-reading the last bit over and over interspersed with the occasional "Wow". Besides and including the ending I really, really enjoyed this novel and couldn't get it out of my head for days. Lovely story, excellent and skilled writing.
Rating:
Summary: First love...the love of youth...the endless joy of
Review: memories...the thrill of meeting again..of fulfilling that love again and yet again. All this is in this most wonderful novel that I finished and immediately turned back to page one to reread. I think if I read it again in a year I will have yet another perspective on the lives of Thomas and Linda. When was the last time they met? Were they really in love or was it just childish infatuation? The sheer joy in their meeting again will send chills down your spine. As their lives and love are traced backward from their last meeting to their first, you will share their joys and sorrows and run the gamut of every emotion in between. You will love this book: it's style, grace, prose and most of all its story line which will never, ever leave your mind. It is so well written and executed that the author holds you in her spell the whole time you are turning pages and living the lives of these two very real people with their story which they are dying to share with you.
Rating:
Summary: A little disappointed, not her best, but not bad
Review: I think that Shreve's WHERE OR WHEN was a much better book and the plot is oh so similar. The ending disappointed me in that I couldn't ascertain the timeline b/c I couldn't adequately make the connection between the location of the last incident in the book and how that fit into the timeline. I like Shreve and this wasn't a bad book. Perhaps if I had read this first, prior to Where or When, I would have liked it more.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully Done
Review: In The Last Time They Met, Shreve has written a novel that is very hard to put down and even harder to forget. This novel will leave the reader mourning and aching. It is truly a once in every blue moon experience to find a book where one can get so attached to the characters. This will tug the heart strings of anyone who has a high school sweetheart and aches to know where they are now...if they are happy...if they are alright.
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