I'm a big fan of Jeffrey Lent, but this one really fell short for me. Set in the 1920s, it's the story of Henry Dorn, a 57-year old English professor who decides, after his wife and son die in an accident, to take a luxury liner to Holland, where he plans to explore his familial roots. On the way, he meets the woman of his dreams. One main problem for me: I hated her. She's a cliché of the so-called independent woman of the day: she smokes {hashish as well as cigarettes), she drinks (including absinthe), she wears revealing clothes, she's a regular at sleazy underground clubs where "Negro music" (jazz) is featured, she refuses to talk about her mysterious past, she flirts, she eats "exotic" foods, she has radical political views, she lives a lavish lifestyle with no apparent means of income, she plays cat and mouse games (disappearing for days at a time without warning), and she wields sex like a sword. I hated her, and I hated that Henry fell for this crap; I had expected that he would eventually come to his senses, or that Lydia would dump him. But no, instead we get a cheesy O. Henry ending that was predictable as the last chapter slowly played out.

The novel is non-chronological, jumping from Henry's childhood and his relationship with the uncle that raised him, to his curiosity as a teenager about his absent father, to the earlier years of his marriage and as a father, to his guilt over the way he dealt with his son's issues when he returned from the war. A lot of the reviews of this book focus on his self-exploration. That might have been a lot more interesting if, in the end, he hadn't come off as just another middle-aged sap.

If I've turned you off of this book, fine, but please give Jeffrey Lent a chance by reading one of his wonderfully written, highly original, and absolutely captivating historical novels, like Lost Nation, In the Fall, or A Slant of Light. ( )

I liked this book overall. The story is told in two time frames -- circa 1925 and circa 1890-1923. I found the writing style odd in places--he uses quite a few sentence fragments--but I was intrigued by the characters & their stories. The ending took me completely by surprise. ( )

Another beautifully written, lyrical novel from Jeffrey Lent. I fell in love with his characters and despite the ending which broke my heart, I highly recommend this book. ( )

This novel is a far cry from Lent's epic first novel, In the Fall, and his gristly but moving tale, Lost Nation. The lack of proper punctuation, and the shifts in time were very confusing, and detracted immensely from what could have been an engrossing read. ( )