Rating: 
Summary: Good but not great.
Review: This novel starts later in 2 star-crossed lovers lives and moves backwards in time unveiling a series of tradgic events and failures in both their lives. Bad marriages, pre-mature deaths of loved ones, etc. These star crossed lovers never get married and you'll find yourself wondering "why not?" throughout all of it's 300 plus pages. On the very last page that question will be answered. Don't peek, it's a surprize worth waiting for!So why did I give this book a "Good but not Great"? The book is broken into 3 sections. The first section "Linda" and "Thomas" are 52 years old, the middle section they are 26 years old, and in the final section they are 17 years old. The first 2 sections are pretty slow moving but the last section you will breeze through to get to the grand finally.
I give this one 3 stars...
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful
Review: Shreve's attention to the details of human behavior are what make this an exceptional read. This book is wonderful. At first, it ran a little slow, but as the book goes on, and you explore Thomas and Linda's love affair through time, it picks up, to a positively breathtaking finish. I have not read Shreve's other books, but I will likely pick them up, for this book was well worth the time spent.
Rating:
Summary: .........About Moments of No Return
Review: One day my wife and I switched books. I gave her a Ken Follett novel and she gave me this one. At first, I said to myself, Great, the literary equivalent of a "chick flick" from So-and-So's book club. Boy, was I ever wrong. "The Last Time They Met" is anything but that. It's so much more. By now most folks know the gist of the plot, Thomas and Linda, lovers for the ages, meet again at a writer's conference. Despite their relationships in the past, they have only crossed paths three times and the book is divided into three sections, "52", "26", and "17" that correspond to their ages at the time they are involved with one another. The catch is that Shreve tells the story in reverse, beginning with age 52 and ending with age 17. At the very, very end, in Shreve's words, the whole story is turned on it's ear. So no peaking at that last page. Two things I liked about this book. First of all, Linda. Her character grows in complexity as the story goes on ( and the ending explains why ). Hence, she is more complex when she is younger, and maybe that is true of life. She is sort of ho-hum at age 52, a little more involved at age 26, but complex and somewhat dark at 17. Strangely, Linda is devotely religious as a teen but hates God passionately when she is older. She has a dark secret that is alluded to throughout the book and it's not too hard to figure out. But it's the character development as she gets younger that really intrigued me. The second thing I liked is that Shreve accomplished something that very few authors can do. Elizabeth George can do it, James Michener could do it. And that is write from the viewpoint of the opposite gender. When she takes up the pen as Thomas, especially the part of the story that takes place in Africa, she really IS Thomas. When Thomas runs into Linda at the fruit market in the town in Kenya and "watchs her walk away and all the blood in his veins follow her" Shreve is reminding us that when it comes to lost love, men can be such fools. Linda and Regina meet and Thomas wants to separate them as soon as possible so that his conversation with Linda can go on for as long as possible. Linda mentions her husband's name ( Peter ) and the sound of it is "like a slug in his chest". I mean Thomas could have sat in Linda's cottage forever. The second part of the book is, to my mind, the best written. Shreve spent time in Africa in the 1970s and it shows throughout this section. She captures the romance ( small R ) of the dark continent. Yet, it is the third section that, to me, moves the quickest, maybe because Linda is more proactive. I read about 40-50 books a year but this may be the one that I enjoyed more than others because it just wasn't what I expected. Well done Ms. Shreve. And this is from a guy reviewing it.
Rating: 
Summary: Corker of an ending . . .
Review: I personally love reading Anita Shreve. She has wonderful style and character development. Without going into any detail, I was just sailing along with this wonderful read, and as it got better and more interesting, boom! It ends surprisingly and still has me thinking, and thinking . . .Time to stop thinking now and start reading it over. See ya! Enjoy it for yourself!
Rating: 
Summary: What a stupid book
Review: This book was very easy to put down. I only read to the end of it just because once I start something, I don't quit. I kept reading other books in between, it was that tedious. There were parts that were extremely boring that you really wanted to skip over them. The ending, well, you felt like you had just wasted your entire reading time because none of it really happened. What a poor jokester this author is. No one imagines all of their future that will never be as their life flashes before their eyes in the moments before death.
What did someone say about it being reminscent of the shower scene after the entire season of Dallas after Bobby was shot? Well, they described it well. You get involved with the details to find out later none of it ever happened.
Rating:
Summary: Oh -- NOW I get it . . .
Review: Thank goodness for Amazon.com book reviews!!! At the end of this book, all I could say was "I don't get it." After reading about 40 reviews and piecing together bits of information, the light dawns -- I've got it! I'm an avid reader -- 3-4 books/week -- this one took me almost a month to finish. The first section was lackluster; the second confusing; the third (finally) interesting. And the italicized speech -- found myself flipping back and forth, trying to figure out who said what. Although now that I "get it," that makes more sense (and is actually quite clever). I read The Pilot's Wife and found the story intriguing, but was never "hooked and drawn in" by the characters. I had some misgivings about reading Shreve again -- once more, an interesting story line, but I just didn't have that tug-at-my-heart feeling.
Rating:
Summary: B O R I N G
Review: Unless you have committed adultery it's really difficult to identify with this novel---my opinion. Nothing about it is exciting-honestly. I resent the reviews that state it is a book you cant put down once you have started reading it and you can't wait to turn each page. The truth is I kept hanging in there reading every page, every word...hoping it got better. It didn't.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: After reading this book, I felt sadness. This is my firts Shreve book, and I expected more. While the writing style was good, I think what truly attracted the book to me was the cover. The novel itself, is in many ways very predictable. Both characters do very predictable things and seem to care more for themselves than eachother. And for more than one reason, I could feel no sympathy for the characters. Overall i enjoyed the book and plan to read more of Shreve, but I hope this was not her best work.
Rating:
Summary: Oh, PUH..LEASE....
Review: Someone had recommended this book. The beginning was so boring that I almost didn't finish it. About halfway through, I got interested. Then, it was all a dream. I hate when everything is a dream stories. Remember when the show "Dallas" got mildly interesting in the middle, but at the end it was all a dream? Same thing!!! How silly!!!
Rating:
Summary: The Last Time They Met
Review: The Last Time They Met is probably the last book I will read by Anita Shreve. She does have a talent for description, but the plot moves along as fast as an elephant in search of a rare steak. As in The Pilots Wife, which I did enjoy, it takes a long time for Shreve to set her characters and the premise of her novel. The book could also have been improved if she wrote about the older couple as real people with real feelings. This part was most stale and uneventful, boring even. The couple in Africa showed the quirks of people in their 30's or 40's and the teens showed no teenisms. I did find the headlines of the African newspaper, included in the letters, amusing. I would not recommend this book. Why did I read this book? I read it because it was the book assigned by our book club. The general opinion of the club was that it was a snooze. The assigner read reviews acclaiming this book, and after reading the book was very apologetic. It is a book that makes one put it down to get up and do something else.
| 
