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81st out of 96 books
—
14 voters
Where or When
What would you do if out of the blue, you received a letter from your first love? Siân Richards sees no reason why she can't write back to Charles Callahan. After all, it's been thirty years and they are both married with families. But when they decide to meet again, an innocent correspondence becomes a dangerous intimacy. Swept up in the past and consumed by an obsessive...more
Paperback, 252 pages
Published
October 4th 2005
by Mariner Books
(first published 1993)
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I have to put this one in the 'Hated it' category. It's truly one of the most terrible books I've ever read with the most selfish characters imaginable. It's about a couple who reunites after only knowing each other after meeting in a summer camp when they were 12. Supposedly, they "fell in love", but their continued love story which knows no bounds, not even the bonds of marriage, and is less about love and more about lust. You'll find more smut than the worst Harlequinn novel between the pages...more
I'm not really sure how to rate this book. While it was good and I had to finish it to see how it ended, I was repulsed by the story also. The writing style was a little different than what I was used to and it took a little while to figure out who's point of view you were reading. Like I said before, the story was compelling and kept you going, but at the same time, I was repulsed by the story. I think it was the fact that I didn't agree with what they were doing and felt like you have to be ol...more
THE MOST I COULD SAY ABOUT THIS BOOK IN GENERAL IS: "IT WAS OK". ALTHOUGH I READ IT FAST IN TWO DAYS, THERE WERE A LOT OF DETAILS THAT DID NOT FIT. THIS MAN COULD NOT PROVIDE A LIVING FOR HIS FAMILY, AND KEPT SPENDING MONEY ON TRAVELING TO MEET HER, HOTEL ETC. HE ALWAYS SAID IT WAS A BUSINESS TRIP BUT NEVER PRODUCED ANY MONEY. MORE THINGS KEPT BEING ADDED TO THEIR PAST RELATIONSHIP THAT NO LONGER FITTED WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IN A WEEK AT CAMP WITH TWO FOURTEEN YEAR OLDS.
I WAS DISAPPOINTED IN THE END...more
I WAS DISAPPOINTED IN THE END...more
I have so many conflicting feelings about this book that I really hesitate to presume to write a review. In the first place: this is such a childish plot, it's more like a Nicholas Sparks book. Two people meet 30 years after they fell in love at camp and spent only one week together when they were age 14. Who does that in real life?!
In the second place, this book is really an anachronism because so much of the communication is based on desperate letters sent by overnight mail and phone calls mad...more
In the second place, this book is really an anachronism because so much of the communication is based on desperate letters sent by overnight mail and phone calls mad...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I love this book because it interposes the akward innocence of deep young love with the carnality of mature love. The book is summed up in this quote: "Was there, or could there ever be, he wondered then, and wonders now, a reconciliation between innocence and sexuality?" It does this by intertwining present day sex sessions with flashbacks to the intensity of young adolescent love in which every gesture and touch meant something.
The book is about old innocent first lovers who meet again 31 yea...more
The book is about old innocent first lovers who meet again 31 yea...more
This book is about finding an old love and the memories that resurface and challenge everything you're comfortable with and think of as your future. The ending catches you off guard which makes the book even that much more intriguing rather than having a typical ending. It's also a combination of stories from each of the lead character's perspective and love letters between the two. It was a quick read - I finished it in less than a day.
This is the second Anita Shreve book I have read and I found it very similar to the other (The Last Time They Met). Both had middle-aged people reuniting with their one true love from their youth. Both had dramatic endings - though this one did not match the astonishing ending of The Last Time They Met. And both I found to be faintly wishy-washy in the first part, an almost dreamlike quality appearing in the writing with lots of atmospheric language. The second half picked up and went hurtling t...more
I normally enjoy reading books by Anita Shreve, however, this book was nothing like her other books in not only the style of which it was written but also it's contexts.
Where or When is about 2 people who met at camp when they were in their late teens. They fell in love during that week and then they both went on to live their seperate lives. Fast forward 31 years and they meet again, fall back in love and start an illicit affair - both are married with children.
I had great difficulty reading t...more
Where or When is about 2 people who met at camp when they were in their late teens. They fell in love during that week and then they both went on to live their seperate lives. Fast forward 31 years and they meet again, fall back in love and start an illicit affair - both are married with children.
I had great difficulty reading t...more
The sad thing about this book is that it is not believable at all. And it's not in the fantasy genre, so no excuses. I'm a romantic to the core, but I highly doubt that these two very immatured people found love at the age of 14, and that too in a week's time. Uh huh, I'm not buying that! More like lust, if you ask me.
Charles comes across to me as an irresponsible, deranged man who just wants to escape from his financial troubles. Also, it's quite amazing how he is broke, but he magically alway...more
Charles comes across to me as an irresponsible, deranged man who just wants to escape from his financial troubles. Also, it's quite amazing how he is broke, but he magically alway...more
Not a book I could recommend to anyone and certainly not up to Shreve's usual standards. Characters are among the most inordinately selfish I have ever encountered and at least one of them is clearly bipolar and off meds. And yet I kept reading it. Why? years ago when I was a divorce lawyer I encountered people who did behave like the characters in this novel. They really do exist or at least those who reunite with their long lost high school or college sweethearts do. A pair of 14 years old who...more
Anita Shreve is my favorite author but this book was horrible. I hated the main characters, I hated the premise and found it totally unbelievable. They met for one week at summer camp when they were twelve? And fell in LOVE? And now, in their adulthood, they are going to leave their spouses to be together? It just really didn't do it for me.
Despite what other people said, I really liked this book. it was well-written and the story was very intriguing. Young love, coming-of-age, reunion and infidelity, things I love to read in a novel every day. Besides, this book is so dear in my heart for it discusses first love, losing it and then finding it back again after years of waiting and almost forgetting that there was still a person out there who still remembers you. Maybe this book gave me some hope that this could also happen to me. W...more
Charles Callahan is reminded of his first love, Sian Richards when he chances across the picture of her in the newspaper. Charles met Sian at a summer camp in his late teens. He decides to write a letter to her and warily she answers him back.
Charles is in the midst of financial woes but has a wife and three children. Sian is living on a farm with one child. The letter-writing becomes more and more intense until a meeting is arranged and then an affair starts.
I liked the premise of lost love but...more
Charles is in the midst of financial woes but has a wife and three children. Sian is living on a farm with one child. The letter-writing becomes more and more intense until a meeting is arranged and then an affair starts.
I liked the premise of lost love but...more
2 stars because I just positively love the style of this author but eek the plot was so sad and wrong. Great example of how wickedness never was happiness. I had to skip several paragraphs throughout because of the explicitness. But I do love the author's style and enjoyed a few of her other books.
I haven't read anything by Anita Shreve before. Not sure if this was written for a predominantly female or male readership, but as a guy I found sufficient depth, sensitivity, and insight into the middle aged male psyche here to send shivers down my spine. Published in the early nineties, the subtext of the story is one of financial decline, depression, businesses closing,... therefore every bit as relevant now in 2011 as it was back then.
The male and female leads here are middle aged, both marr...more
The male and female leads here are middle aged, both marr...more
This book was okay but not great. I don't reccomend it. It's the story of two people who have an affair and the tragic consequences they suffer. This theme was done perfectly by Edith Wharton in her novella Ethan Fromme. I reccomend Wharton's verson of this theme.
I usually enjoy Anita Shreve quite a bit. This story was a sad story as well as repulsing. I just can't stand how selfish humans can be. This was not Shreve's best book.
I really didn't know what to expect out of this book. This was my first Anita Shreve book. I was hoping this book would give me some moral insight or guidance. However, I really disliked this book. I gained nothing from reading it. And felt that the characters where very immature and selfish, no matter their advanced age in the book. Who falls in love at 12? And who carries that lustful feeling with them their whole life? And even more confusing, why would they shatter everything they had at hom...more
Charles first saw Siân at summer camp thirty-one years ago, and he fell in love. He never really lost memory or longing of her, even though they never saw each other again after those few fateful, scorching weeks they spent together; so when he comes across her photograph serendipitously while flicking through a literary magazine, his world begins to spin in a new direction. He needs to see her. Forget the wife, forget the kids—he needs Sîan. His sinking business and financial security set the t...more
I got this book from Edith's library overflow. Have you read this, Edith?
I was underwhelmed by this book. It discusses a mid-life crisis in a man who is failing financially and in his marriage and family life. He seeks "love" and validation from a woman he knew and "loved" as a 14 year old at summer camp for one week. REALLY? I'm not convinced.
All that said, this book did portray the sad state of affairs in many 40-something marriages where couples live parallel lives that intersect only at the...more
I was underwhelmed by this book. It discusses a mid-life crisis in a man who is failing financially and in his marriage and family life. He seeks "love" and validation from a woman he knew and "loved" as a 14 year old at summer camp for one week. REALLY? I'm not convinced.
All that said, this book did portray the sad state of affairs in many 40-something marriages where couples live parallel lives that intersect only at the...more
I don't know how I missed this book by Shreve; it's an old one from 1993 and I have read everything else by her, other than her newest. I loved this book and read it in 2 sittings. It's typical Shreve with her uncanny insight into human nature and relationships. I've always loved the song "Where or When" and the lyrics are what the plot is based on: an old love happening again after 31 years and the consequences of that love. Charles and Sian reconnect after 31 years but now each of them is marr...more
I have set a higher expectation for Anita Shreve because I have loved the books that I've read of hers.
This book is OK.
About two people who met and fell in-love when they were young and somehow met again after 20 years and they started seeing each other again and realized that they loved each other.
Before they met, the exchanged letters. I liked it very much if I don't have to think about the family they were cheating on.
The end was quite tragic to the wife of the man - nothing could be more...more
This book is OK.
About two people who met and fell in-love when they were young and somehow met again after 20 years and they started seeing each other again and realized that they loved each other.
Before they met, the exchanged letters. I liked it very much if I don't have to think about the family they were cheating on.
The end was quite tragic to the wife of the man - nothing could be more...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
I do not know why I keep reading books by Anita Shreve. I don't think I've ever liked one. The main character in this book I actively disliked and
(spoiler alert)
his demise at the end of the book I anticipated and hoped for as early as chapter 4. She's a compelling enough author as I never put down her books when I start them. I just choose to believe life isn't this bleak and there were moments in this book that were just crude, the opposite of a love story that supposed to be rekindling. One r...more
(spoiler alert)
his demise at the end of the book I anticipated and hoped for as early as chapter 4. She's a compelling enough author as I never put down her books when I start them. I just choose to believe life isn't this bleak and there were moments in this book that were just crude, the opposite of a love story that supposed to be rekindling. One r...more
I have read quite a few of Shreve's novels. Unfortunately, the last two I read have been real disappointments. "Where or When" is almost sickening. Improbable, despicable and tragic. I cannot imagine anyone reading this book and feeling anything close to sympathy or empathy for the main characters, who in their affair, destroy their own lives and the lives of their families. In completing the book this morning, I only feel that they both deserved what they got in the end.
Gut feelings aside, I w...more
Gut feelings aside, I w...more
Well hard to rate. I gave it 3 stars because I finished it and did wonder how it would end. Vita's for story I am disappointed. They haven't seen each other since they were14 yrs.old and only knew each other 1 week back then! Fast forward some thirty years both married with kids and they take on this secret affair that in the end destroys everyone. I just didn't get the passion the felt for each other remembering each other as 14 yr Olds in love. I think this book does prove that marriage is abo...more
Emotionally charged book. As much as I wanted to rate this a 5star book I couldn't with how it was written. It goes back in time and the chapters are read from two different character viewpoints. So by the 3 paragraph you are still trying to figure out who's viewpoint and which era. Now with that said the storyline was incredible. Anita Shreve goes somewhere that most authors will not even explore. Two married individuals in love with someone else and explores infidelity and the danger it create...more
I felt vaguely dirty reading Where or When - but intrigued. The premise: two forty-five-year-olds who fell in love at camp 30 years ago randomly reconnect and start an affair. Both are in unfulfilling marriages and have kids (and money issues).
The concept of getting a letter from your first (and possibly true) love out of the blue is compelling (the female protagonist is a writer, whose book jacket cover is remarkably similar to Shreve's own), and watching these two hurtle toward disaster is li...more
The concept of getting a letter from your first (and possibly true) love out of the blue is compelling (the female protagonist is a writer, whose book jacket cover is remarkably similar to Shreve's own), and watching these two hurtle toward disaster is li...more
Where or When is a story of first love, a tender love started at summer camp when Cal and Sian are 14. Camp ended and thirty-one years later, Cal, now called Charles has a wife and three children. He sells insurance and is losing his house and business in the poor economy. The last thing he needs is a distraction, or is it the only thing he needs.
Charles happens to catch Sian's photo in the newspaper. He immediately recognizes her even though he's not seen her in thirty-one years. Sian has writt...more
Charles happens to catch Sian's photo in the newspaper. He immediately recognizes her even though he's not seen her in thirty-one years. Sian has writt...more
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Anita Shreve grew up in Dedham, Massachusetts (just outside Boston), the eldest of three daughters. Early literary influences include having read Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton when she was a junior in high school (a short novel she still claims as one of her favorites) and everything Eugene O'Neill ever wrote while she was a senior (to which she attributes a somewhat dark streak in her own work). A...more
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“If you're skating on thin ice, you might as well dance.”
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Feb 27, 2013 04:29am