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Book Review of The Last Letter from Your Lover

The Last Letter from Your Lover
jlautner avatar reviewed on + 105 more book reviews


I must have found this on some list or read a review of it, but I no longer remember why I wanted it.

This is a curious love story, or rather double-love story, perhaps. The main events take place at very different times: in the 1960s and then in 2003.

Jennifer Stirling lives a life of quiet desperation, it seems, until she sees a way out. But before she can take any route she is in a bad automobile accident and cannot remember much. Her husband Larry takes her home from the hospital and she tries to make all the right motions but does not know what is expected of her.

Jennifer's story is told in a back-and-forth manner, going back and forth in time in the same year, so it is not immediately obvious what happened consecutively. The book starts with her waking in the hospital, but then the author gradually fills in the blanks until we have a pretty good idea of Jennifer's life and loves. She does not appear to have great love for her husband but she does fall for someone else, and this love transcends whatever she might have imagined love to be like.

It is not a simple matter for the two lovers to be together, however. One obstacle after another stands in front of them, until we do not know whether they ever got together. Until the last part, in 2003, when a young reporter discovers some letters.

These two love stories, intertwined, did appeal to me. It may have been that I was just in the mood to think about what it means to be in love, what the nature of love is. Or perhaps the author did a good job of presenting these couples in a believable way. Either way, I did enjoy it.