false 284474 3 David Huddle's first novel is masterful and often stunning, so carefully written that the words shimmer with purpose and necessity. Essentially the tale of two couples who have known each other since they were all teenagers, <I>The Story of a Million Years</I> follows Marcy and Allen, Uta and Jimmy as they try to keep going through storms of nostalgia, grief, manic lust. The foursome have been together so long that they all know the same songs. Sometimes Uta dreams about Allen, and Jimmy has long been convinced he loves Marcy, but as time moves on, these hushed-up desires become smooth and polished, like stones. Moving back and forth through various points of view and instances, Huddle brilliantly captures the sense of marriage as a system of secrets, in which certain memories and infidelities are held close like shields, talismans that protect the self from being subsumed altogether by the structures we build around love, the houses we build to contain our impulses.<p> Like someone playing a song over and over again at different speeds, the author recapitulates key moments until they break apart. For Uta one such moment happens when she's in college, lost in Manhattan after her friends ditch her, wandering back to their apartment at dawn. She doesn't push the buzzer to wake her flaky friends. Instead she sleeps in the front hallway in a post-drunk bliss. Uta's attachment to this moment is beautifully rendered in her down-to-earth, Lutheran-raised, sad-hearted voice. She remembers vividly "the crazy little bit of goodness that came into me in the front hall when I was standing there all by myself with my finger about to press the doorbell, when I knew I was safe, and when I decided not to disturb the sleepers. That was the closest I'll ever come to knowing what it feels like to be one of the really decent saints, like Saint Francis, or Saint Teresa of Lisieux. It was the only time I've ever had that feeling."<p> Huddle leaves many things out of his story, and there are moments when it's difficult to believe that these are couples with kids, jobs, dogs. The author is not, however, concerned with the noise of that world, but rather with silences, with moments when two people who have known each other forever find themselves face to face, struck dumb by the sight of each other, rendered speechless by a face's sudden mystery. <I>--Emily White</I> 848854 1999 The Story of a Million Years total:50|5:0|4:0|3:0|2:2|1:0| 50 168 67 8 3 0 false false Wed Jun 18 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 15 20:11:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 17 21:37:20 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2002 Thu Mar 06 09:04:33 -0800 2008 Thu Mar 06 09:04:33 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 08 18:54:30 -0800 2009 Tue May 19 14:02:15 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Feb 23 12:56:48 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 23 13:02:25 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 true true Sun Feb 17 12:05:10 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 17 12:10:02 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 03 07:43:57 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 09 08:36:48 -0700 2007 5 0 false false Sat May 19 15:21:00 -0700 2007 Wed May 14 11:39:04 -0700 2008 1 0 false false Thu Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 1999 Fri Jun 15 21:52:50 -0700 2007 Fri Jun 15 21:52:50 -0700 2007 2 0 false false Thu Nov 12 10:49:12 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 02 07:55:19 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 02 07:55:32 -0800 2009 2 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Oct 19 12:31:32 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 19 12:31:32 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Tue Sep 08 21:10:01 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 08 21:10:01 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Sep 01 12:22:23 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 12:22:23 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Thu Aug 27 09:04:41 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 27 09:04:41 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Aug 21 06:15:05 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 21 06:15:05 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Aug 12 15:03:02 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 12 15:03:02 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Aug 03 08:06:22 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 03 08:06:22 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Jul 22 14:10:55 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 14:11:01 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Jul 22 06:36:28 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 22 06:36:28 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Jul 18 05:45:33 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 18 05:45:42 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Thu Jul 09 17:48:54 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 10 13:18:35 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=284474