"Reminiscent of William Styron and Pat Conroy but with the sexual heat and obsessiveness of Scott Spenser's Endless Love, this is a spellbinding love story from a young writer of extraordinary gifts." Payne's shimmering writing reminds me so much of Andre Aciman in Eight White Nights, but more reachable, less into the game of love. A novel this beautiful evokes a past time, but also a state of boyhood that is timeless. This is a story of grief, of love, leaving childhood, and of joy. I love the Outer Banks so much and this book brings me right to that place, more than any other book I've read. This is in the top of my list of favorite books ever.
The book started well, but after 150+ pages, I became bored and wondered where the story was going to "pick-up." The text/story wandered and did not seem to have a point. I gave up and never finished it.
Successful 32-year-old New York artist Adam returns to his North Carolina home to confront first-love Jane and relive their eighteenth summer, when Adam and Cary were still best friends and Jane was Cary's girl. By the end of that summer, Jane and Adam had fallen in love, causing guilt that was only fueled by Cary's suicide three years later. In examining their feelings for Cary and for each other now, both finally grow up, arriving at a mature love that keeps them in the dance of life that Cary left early
