Novel Spans Decades in Tale of True Love

The Last Time They Met

3 1/2 Stars

True love can only be thwarted by car crashes, boating accidents and ill-timed pregnancy, at least according to Anita Shreve's latest novel "The Last Time They Met."

The story traces the disastrous love affair of two soulmates frustrated by fate. Ex-high school sweethearts and present-day poets Thomas and Linda have a chance reunion at a literary convention. Over the course of three days the two sift through their memories of the last several decades, chronicling their on-again, off-again romance.

This tale of star-crossed lovers has all the pulpy components -- love at first sight and steamy bedroom scenes in exotic locales -- of your typical beach-trip romance novel.

Fortunately, the unusually vivid description of human experience raises the book somewhat above the banality of grocery-store paperbacks. Shreve's earlier novel "The Pilot's Wife" was an Oprah's Book Club selection, so a certain quality and depth is to be expected.

One engaging aspect of the novel is the way the point of view switches frequently between the two lovers. Seeing a single experience from both genders is simultaneously entertaining and illuminating.

The story also skips across time, from their present meeting as accomplished poets in their 50s to a brief affair as 20-somethings to their disastrous teen-age encounter. Their changes expose the torments and hopes of people from middle age to adolescence.

The dialogue is wonderfully romantic and poetic. During one tryst, Thomas tells Linda, "It's exhilarating. Talking to you. It must be a form of blood-letting, this desire to pour the soul into another person."

Because both lovers are poets, meeting at a literary convention, the drama and casual literary references of their repartee is natural. Thus they can quote Keats in moments of passion without losing their appealing realistic quality.

Though the love affair stretches over years, it remains all-consuming. Even when Linda and Thomas meet by chance while working and living in politically torn Kenya, their love overshadows their exterior lives. Both recognize briefly the injustices around, yet their love affair overshadows all other concerns.

The foreign land and people serve purely as a dramatic backdrop for the love story. The novel sidesteps any political commentary by concentrating on passion, adultery, and the nature of love.

Following the lives of Linda and Thomas over paths not taken and things unsaid gives the reader a glimpse into the nature of love and fate. "The Last Time They Met" is a romantic novel that deserves to be read.

The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.