Customer Reviews

Friends and Lovers

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Helen Macinnes, best known for Cold War spy stories, uses her intense style of character study to detail this love-at-first-sight romance, complicated by sabotage from both families. David (a student from London) and Penelope (a debutante from Edinburgh meet at a vacation hideaway on an Irish island. Penny's family use ridicule and classism to label David as not worthy. Her questioning artistic spirit has never fully fit into family expectations, but David is viewed as the ultimate threat to family loyalty and parental discipline. David's family expect him to sacrifice all to become breadwinner in support of their own vainglorious pursuits. So the new couple carry on their romance largely in secret from their family, and school and workplace friends replace their family as supportive mainstays. Their developing relationship require each to rethink their goals and how they might reach them. Their growing maturity (very satisfying) brings realistic conflicts that speed them to the stories climax. A character-study driven romance.

This book is very different from Helen Macinnes' usual spy thrillers. It is a love story - but it is so much more. This is basically the story of a young impoverished student David who meets a girl from a more well off family and the barriers they have to overcome. The book explores the problems of developing and maintaining relationships, whether with family, friends, or lovers. Some parts seem a bit dated now but it's uplifting without being soppy. And the writing is excellent. Ms. Macinnes has a way with words.