Last Time They Met, The

Rating:
Summary: Not at all disappointed
Review: This book was one of the best books I've ever read. I recommended it to all my friends. I read and re-read the entire last chapter 3 times. I actually was relieved at the ending. Like most Shreve novels, you aren't looking for "and they lived happily everafter."

Rating:
Summary: Stunning!
Review: I highly recommend reading Anita Shreve's "THE WEIGHT OF THE WATER" before you begin "THE LAST TIME WE MET." But whatever you do, definitely read them both. The stories are surprisingly intertwined with characters taking us through the most important times of their lives. Lives filled with hope, love, loyality, success, betrayal, loss, and deep regrets. Both endings will leave you feeling stunned. You will, no doubt, find yourself wanting to re-read the last chapters over and over again. When a book grabs you this way, I consider it a successful story told (despite how I feel about the outcome). Anita Shreve is a wonderful author and "THE LAST TIME WE MET" (as well as "THE WEIGHT OF THE WATER") is an excellent read. Don't pass these two books up!

Rating:
Summary: A Haunting Tale
Review: This was a very strange novel, cleverly written in reverse, beginning at middle-age, reliving time spent together in Africa in their 20's and then ending with the life-shaping events of their teens. I found it very disconcerting and confusing, hard to follow and sift through all the 'flashbacks' for clues from the past which explained the present.

I almost gave up on the book after the first section, but then I became enchanted with the vivid descriptions of Africa in the middle section, so I stuck with it. I'm glad I did. Even though the ending was very shocking, and gave me the feeling that it was all just a waste of time, it haunted me, keeping the story with me long after I finished reading it. I reread that last page dozens of times, and each time, the story became more and more tangible and meaningful to me. Finally I came to deeply appreciate it.

I especially felt the concept of true eternal love, one that cannot be forgotten or diminished by moving ahead without the other, very close to my heart. Much of these characters and their romance reminded me of myself and my own experiences, which endeared the story to me even further.


Rating:
Summary: mixed feelings
Review: The book had a slow start with lots of tedious detail about the hotel room that Linda is staying in during a literary convention in Toronto. During the convention, she encounters her first love, Thomas (another poet at the convention.) Gradually, you are made aware of the history between these lovers that spans over three decades. As they become reaquainted with eachother, the reader gains interest in their history as tidbits are slowly revealed. (Patience is required during this first chapter.)
The second chapter goes back about 26 years. The two lovers accidentally bump into eachother at a market in Africa. Both are married when they meet. However, their connection is undeniable and they have an affair whose climax is tragic. As a reader, you know Thomas and Linda are doomed. But you can't help being swept away in their obsession.
The last chapter goes back to when both met for the first time at the age of seventeen. You get the butterflies of young love when reading this. You learn Linda's dark secret. Then, you learn the tragic reason why they couldn't be together. The last page takes your breath away. I don't want to give it away. But I was stunned.
This book made my heart hurt. It is full of mourning and regret. The ending was shocking. But in retrospect, I felt mislead

Rating:
Summary: Luminous, haunting, and provocative questions about love
Review: The Last Time They Met blew me away when I listened to the audioversion. Shreve evokes a whole time and place around the idea of a sacred first love. Thomas and Linda, are like twin souls, separated and in a compulsive drive to merge together. Shreve's tone, timing, tempo, and narrative style sinks the reader into a world of a special and provocative enduring intimacy. In fact, reading this book made me visit Boston because the air of the city streets seemed to seep out of the book. Shreve is a master of economy, choice, and description. The characters are 3-dimensional and her writing prompts rich visual scenes while reading or listening to the story.

Thomas and Linda live eras of their lives in stolen moments. In section one, both are 52 and in Toronto where they are full of nostalgia and recollection. A touching scene is written while they talk on a Ferry to Toronto Island from the downtown Harborfront. This interaction ends in a promising possibility between two weary souls circa 2001 who have hurt so much without each other. Section Two finds Thomas and Linda at 26 in Kenya. This time they are in the realm of the forbidden keeping second choice spouses at bay. Heartache ends this sequence of their lives in the 70's era where Carter is about to fall defeated against Reaganomics and Thatcherism. Section Three is their love at its most joyful and inspiring. Thomas and Linda are blossoming 17-year-old poets in Boston who meet at the edge of a pier. Orphaned Linda has just come home to Massachussetts after being sentenced to a home for wayward girls. Blue blood Thomas is the handsome, pedigreed, cocky, hockey-playing son of a Boston brahmin family on Allerton Hill. Somehow these two connect and their ensuing romance plays out like a Greek tragedy meets Boston Public.

Shreve write a multi-layered kind of romance. I loved it because (A) I am a romantic at heart; (B) It reminded me of my own Thomas; and (C) I do believe that our first loves leave a mark on our souls that no other love can erase. Romantic regret if a tricky topic to write about. Shreve achieves to unfold fiction on this exact theme while holding true to her literary prose. This is not a book of overt nostalgia, melancholy sentimentality, or obsessive yearnings. The Last Time They Met is a testament to the potent power of a true love, first love, and life-long love. We are awakened by the fire of a first love but as years go by we forget to the point of amnesia. This book does justice to honor the alchemical transformation that love brings to our lives.

I read this book after listening to the abridged edition on audio. The first time you read The Last Time They Met, you may find yourself having a good cry for the bittersweet love between Thomas and Linda.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing ending
Review: I won't spoil the ending for those who have not yet read the book (beware: some other reviewers do give it away), but suffice to say it was extremely disappointing. This was the first Anita Shreve book I read and had been looking forward to it based on her reviews. The book was about two star crossed lovers who meet again. Much is hinted at what happened when they were kids, but is not revealed until the final chapters. On the final page, the story is wrapped up in a way that made my jaw drop. I actually had to read it twice to make sure I hadn't mistaken it. It made the whole rest of the book, which I had enjoyed up until that time, seem like a total waste of time.

Rating:
Summary: Worth it
Review: I just finished this book. My first Anita Shreve. Worthwhile and meaningful. I loved it.

Rating:
Summary: d isappointed
Review: I found this book to be too contrived. As Shreve kept shifting back and forth in time she kept hinting about deep secrets that would be revealed as the book evolved. The anticipated hidden facts were really not worth waiting for. I found the characters selfish and self-involved. The fact that they were "artistic" and thus more sensitive (for themselves) allowed them to hurt others. The ending disproved the entire premise of this book.

Rating:
Summary: The Height of Confusion
Review: The novel introduces us to two lovers whose lives are far from ordinary: we have to begin with, two poets, one a beautiful female, the other a dashing male. The male, Thomas is married, unhappily,and the female, Linda, is widowed. We are told with endless description,although it is well-done, about the times (three) they meet beginning when Linda was seventeen. Linda, of course, was abused sexually,so that supposedly makes her sensitive-it's a modern, overdone theme. Thomas has a scar which Linda fingers lovingly during their love scenes.
The love scenes can be read by thirteen-year-olds with impunity, which makes them only tantalizing and frustrating to the adult readers.
Speaking of frustrating, the reader awaits anxiously and interestingly, after plodding through scenes in Kenya and tedious teenage sex, to reach the last chapter where it is hoped the author will explain the unknowns-the automobile accident; Linda's abuse; the hope that the lovers will have a life together; only to read an ending that not only fails to be a denouement; but, instead, kills off Linda when she was seventeen and proceeds to list all of the events that could have occurred in her life if she had not died at a young age. Thomas, of course, kills himself. Thus, everything that happened in the beginning of the book didn't happen? If the reader was supposed to read another of Shreve's books first, for explanation, he should have been made aware,somehow, so that he may not have been caught in "The Height of Confusion."



Rating:
Summary: Brilliant plot and superb writing....
Review: I just finished this book and it's the 4th of Shreve's novels that I've read. All of them have been page turners, which I simply can't put down once I begin.
I'm blown away by the cleverness with which she weaved the entire plot! I can't ever remember reading a book where my jaw was actually hanging with the last few paragraphs. As soon as I began to read them, I understood and began shaking my head with the shock and surprise. Some readers have mentioned feeling "cheated" or that she used a "gimmick." I say this author has only proved once again why she is my favorite. This is brilliant writing at it's best and I'll be thinking about it for a long time. I didn't realize that "Weight of Water" was connected to this book and I now look forward to reading that one. But reading this one first in no way will diminish my feelings.
I've already read Shreve's latest, Light on Snow....another superb novel! I just hope she'll have another one out for her devoted readers before I finish the 5 or 6 already written that I'll be reading in the next couple months.....because if not, I just might have to start reading some of her books all over again. And with an author like Anita Shreve, I'm sure a second reading will bring me even more pleasure.