Customer Reviews

Duet

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This book found me when I was getting ready to board a plane in the late 80s. The cover lead me to believe the book would not force me to think, so I grabbed it and ran to my gate. I have not stopped thinking about it since. Written in first person, the book details the life of Anna, an only child whose mother dies when she is a teenager (don't worry, her larger-than-life relative, Mamie, comes to live with her and teaches her the love of music) and who loves two things: Music and a boy named Will. Kitty Burns Florey bescribes the 60's in New England, and Anna's and Will's unique, funny and sad life experiences with such honesty and detail and, well, beauty, that I felt as though I had lived the story, not read it. This book screams to be made into a movie. I have passed this beautiful story on to many many friends and they've all said the same thing, this story lives and breathes, it's an utterly romantic story, timeless. Find it, Read it, LOVE it!

What is so compelling about Anna is that in the course of the novel she genuinely matures:
experiencing romance and friendship, expanding her talents while at the same time--in true
adult fashion--coming to terms with her limitations, and yet throughout she harbors an
undiminished love for the same man she's longed for since they were both grade school children.
Will has not fared well in life and has not always been a good man. He's played at best a
peripheral role in Anna's life. And yet what about him originally inspired her has endured in
her imagination. As fully as Anna may live in the moment, becoming a popular cabaret singer
and marrying well, Will and his destiny always holds a core part of her at bay. Florey succeeds
in showing us that unrequited love can, in its own frightening way, have the dimensionality
and consequence of of reciprocated love.

I read this book when it first came out and remember totally enjoying it--feeling like I was Anna, loving Will. The scenes are artfully written, the emotional content true and strong. It made me feel not alone, like a good book can do. At the time it reminded me of Anne Tyler's work, but I don't know if I'd still think that--I'll have to read it again, on the Kindle this time. DUET is a good introduction to the work of this author. Other favorites by Florey: CHEZ CORDELIA, REAL LIFE, and SOLOS.