Seven Loves - Valerie Trueblood

Rating: 2 Drink more Mint Juleps before reading (åå)

Pages: 232

Synopsis (from BN.com)
Who most deeply affects our lives? Sometimes it is those who touch us briefly, even unexpectedly. For May Nilsson, these include the lover she takes in her forties; the handsome, troubled young rebel she is determined to rescue; the police officer who inadvertently plays a major role in her greatest catastrophe. Moving back and forth in time, from May's childhood to her eighth decade, SEVEN LOVES weaves together the strands of an ordinary life made extraordinary by the complex passions that drive it.

This book has 4 stars at BN. I am not sure why...although I think it would be a good discussion book for a book club. I think the ones that you like typically are good discussions. This book was very disjointed. The concept that it was about the 7 great loves May had.

Here are the problems I had with this book:

#1 - she had a woman at work who she had a crush on as one of her great loves but neither of her daughters! Hello???!! Are you serious?

#2 One of the people she loved was a man who I don't beleive she ever talked to...he was an aide in the nursing home she was in. I can understand this more than the woman, but still no daughters! On some level for the story I guess the daughters would have told a similar story but then please don't call it Seven Loves...ok - I am moving on...

#3 I had a hard time following the characters in the book because it was very disjointed. I couldn't remember who characters were and when things happened because it jumped around so much.

#4 Affairs. I am scared to think affairs may start the way the author discribed. May liked a man at a conference and sat down with him and had a drink. Before they knew it they were in an affair. Do affairs really start like that? One day you are monomgomous and then next day not? With so little thought. I guess I would have like to have seen her give some thought to the affair and how it would effect her family.

...as you can see this would be a good discussion.

There is a quote in the reading guide from Trueblood where she said in an interview, "she is a bit of an anti-plot, because of the 'contained arc: the beginning, the complication, and the resolution. Novels like that, I just don't believe. It's hard for me to see that things really could ever be tied up with a resolution.'" I am not sure that things always can be tied up with a resolution...but you are telling a story...please tell it in a way that people can follow it!

The best thing that I can say is...It's OVER!! :)