Almost Like Being in Love: A Novel [Paperback]

Steve Kluger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 11, 2004

A high school jock and nerd fall in love senior year, only to part after an amazing summer of discovery to attend their respective colleges. They keep in touch at first, but then slowly drift apart.

Flash forward twenty years.

Travis and Craig both have great lives, careers, and loves. But something is missing .... Travis is the first to figure it out. He's still in love with Craig, and come what may, he's going after the boy who captured his heart, even if it means forsaking his job, making a fool of himself, and entering the great unknown. Told in narrative, letters, checklists, and more, this is the must-read novel for anyone who's wondered what ever happened to that first great love.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kluger's latest epistolary novel (after the well-received Last Days of Summer) is an engrossing, often laugh-out-loud tale of two unlikely lovers. High school jock Craig McKenna and Broadway musical-obsessed Travis Puckett fall in love during their senior year at the Beckley School in Tarrytown, N.Y., spend a summer in Manhattan, then drift tearfully away to different colleges: Travis to USC, Craig to Harvard. Twenty years later, oddball Travis, now a history professor at his alma mater, is a favorite with students thanks to some unorthodox teaching methods, but he's laughably unlucky in love. An injury ended Craig's college football career, and he's now an upstate New York attorney with activist inclinations and a soft spot for runaways. He's also about to marry long-term boyfriend Clayton-though he's never forgotten his first romance. As Travis wades through the dating pool (most of his dates score badly on his "Boyfriend Checklist") and doles out advice to his straight screenwriter roommate Gordo, Craig takes on the biggest case of his life: a run for the state assembly. When Travis becomes determined to reunite with Craig, he sets off on a wild cross-country adventure, providing perfect fodder for Gordo's ultimate screenplay. In true fairy-tale fashion, Travis insinuates himself back into Craig's life, but will the pair end up happily ever after? Though the narrative is overlong, Kluger keeps it absorbing with a parade of newspaper articles, letters, diary entries, checklists, court transcripts and charts, all composed to brilliant comic and dramatic effect.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Steve Kluger has written extensively on subjects as far-ranging as World War II, rock 'n' roll, and the Titanic, and as close to the heart as baseball and the Boston Red Sox. He lives in Santa Monica, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; First Edition edition (May 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060595833
• ISBN-13: 978-0060595838
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #575,353 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

STEVE KLUGER shook hands with Lucille Ball when he was 12. He's since lived a few more decades, but nothing much registered after that.

Kluger is a novelist and playwright who grew up during the Sixties with only two heroes: Tom Seaver and Ethel Merman. Few were able to grasp the concept. A veteran of "Casablanca" and a graduate of "The Graduate," he has written extensively on subjects as far-ranging as World War II, rock and roll, and the Titanic, and as close to the heart as baseball and the Boston Red Sox (which frequently have nothing to do with one another). Doubtless due to the fact that he's a card-carrying Baby Boomer whose entire existence was shaped by the lyrics to "Abbey Road," "Workingman's Dead," and "Annie Get Your Gun" (his first spoken words, in fact, were actually stolen from "The Pajama Game"), he's also forged a somewhat singular path as a civil rights advocate, campaigning for a "Save Fenway Park" initiative (which qualifies as a civil right if you're a Red Sox fan), counseling gay teenagers, and--on behalf of Japanese American internment redress--lobbying the Department of the Interior to restore the baseball diamond at the Manzanar National Historic Site. Meanwhile, he's donated half of his spare time to organizations such as Lambda Legal, GLSEN, and Models of Pride, and gives the rest of it to his nephews and nieces: Emily, Noah, Bridgette, Audrey, Elisa, Paloma, Logan, Evan, and Robbie--the nine kids who own his heart. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts--the only city in the world.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creatively written and highly enjoyable, September 26, 2004

By 

Michael T. Rognlien (Palo Alto, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Almost Like Being in Love: A Novel (Paperback)

When I started this book, I was a bit leary of reading an entire story full of narratives and articles, as I'd never been presented a novel in that storytelling format.

Having read the book in one sitting, though, I can say with confidence that it worked extremely well. Mr. Kluger has a natural sense of comic timing and wit, without being excessively catty or bitchy in the process. While I would have liked a bit more at the end of the book (after so much buildup, it felt rushed) the journey with the characters was well worth the somewhat stilted ending.

If it's any help, after reading this, my first Kluger novel, I bought the rest of his catalog on Amazon. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Perfect Summer Book, May 26, 2004

By 

M. Jensen (Tacoma, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Almost Like Being in Love: A Novel (Paperback)

Saying a book is a summer book usually means it's fun, but brainless. Nothing could be further from the truth when talking about Almost Like Being In Love. Mr. Kluger's book is certainly fun and easy to read, but what makes it a summer book is the heartwarming, breezy tale of a love that has to be despite the odds against it. Like Last Days of Summer (Mr. Kluger's previous book) Almost is cleverly told through an endlessly imaginative array of emails, letters, newspaper clippings, menus, and, my favorite, the boyfriend checklist.

The more I read of the book, the more I wanted to learn how everything turned out, especially since Mr. Kluger set himself the challenge of giving us a happy ending when someone had to be hurt at the end. Yet, he does it and you walk away from Almost Like Being in Love feeling that life can be great and love does sometimes win in the end. I hope that this book is as big a hit as Last Days of Summer despite it's gay content. Only a grinch (or conservative Republicans as I call them) could not read this book and feel good at the end.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Flawed but charming, June 28, 2005

By 

Angie J. Han (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Almost Like Being in Love: A Novel (Paperback)

This book is often unrealistic and less than subtle, not to mention overly optimistic and sometimes nauseatingly cute. On the other hand, would you expect otherwise from a romance novel?

The wildly romantic tale glides along on sheer charm. It's a playful, fun story filled out with endearing major and minor characters-- Travis's roommate Gordo's correspondences with his father comprise some of the funniest moments. Moreover, Kluger actually throws in some twists and turns, none of which are wholly original, but which do keep the story fresh and interesting through the end.

All in all: You aren't going to impress any lit crit majors at cocktail parties, and the novel does require some suspension of disbelief. But it is a fast, breezy read, ideal for the beach or airplane. I enjoyed it far more than I expected to.