Customer Reviews

In the Meantime

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..And all the men and women merely players" .... William Shakespeare, As You Like It.

This slim tome recounts the lives of three friends, from the time of their earliest memories to the fall of the dominoes, and although it doesn't have anything for the action/adventure crowd, the author takes the reader meticulously through the years when Kathryn, Luke and Starling ruled the world.

It all started in the early 1930s when a boy with a wagon picked up a girl with a pigtail, and the two happened upon the prettiest boy in the world, who was at that precise moment, wearing a mud pie. From this chance meeting, a firm friendship developed that survived not only their dissimilar backgrounds and lifestyle differences, but racism, intolerance and a not quite rhapsodic Bohemian existence in Manhattan.

From threesome to twosome, and back again, life goes on for the friends, during which they observe the early, mesmerizing performances of Billie Holiday in her prime and witness the sad days of her drug assisted decline. Eventually, as it must, their paths begin to separate, and soon there is only one, but the point of this book is not so much the beginning, or even the end, but the journey in between.

Lippincott's characters pulse with suppressed desires, ambitions and dreams unfulfilled, and although I can't classify it as a page turner, there's a lot of drama to be found between the covers.


Amanda Richards, August 19, 2007

This is an extraordinary novel, a demonstration of time's inevitable shaping of human lives, from the ascent of youthful hopes and dreams, to middle-age's reluctant descent into the shards of thwarted ambition, on into the long flat plain of old age and its final reward of acceptance (if we're lucky): intense but calm happiness at simply being. So Kathryn, the only one of the original three lifetime friends remaining after eighty years, is able to just let unproductive thoughts go, and sit gloriously in sun slanting through windows, knowing that the dust will come, but in the meantime, she's lucky to be alive.
And although the author so deftly and authoritatively shows time's mean grip on us, he does it in a mere 170 pages, suggesting that art is the only way we can step out of the stream, distance ourselves enough to render time and assess its effects. He does the same with space, flashing to Tokyo and Amsterdam to give us indelible glimpses of less fortunate threesomes crushed by war. And the amazing thing is that this transcendence of time and space work in this slim volume, giving us a language to ponder them long after we put the book down.

Robin Lippincott's third novel, In the Meantime, has a lot more to do with style, structure, and character development than it does with plot. The plot is rather simple, really. In 1931, two friends, ages five and six, stumble upon the prettiest boy they have ever met. He is playing in the mud and is wearing a mud crown. The three become inseparable for the remaining lifetimes, with the novel ending on September 7, 2001. I can see where Lippincott chose to give the last chapter its pre-9/11 date. There is something innocent about all the days before that one that defines lifetimes.

What makes this novel different than the average coming-of-age or the BFF (best friends for ever) novel is the style. The long and never-boring sentences are reminiscent of the great Faulkner himself--only with punctuation. The back cover blurb is approximately 200 words, yet there isn't a word that can be deleted because each word provides important information for the reader to learn about the three main characters, Kathryn, Luke, and Starling. Some sentences run for almost two pages, but they are easy to follow.

In regards to structure, in the first section, we see the children meeting. In the second section is near the end of Kathryn's life, after Luke has passed and Starling has disappeared. What happens between those two sections is In the Meantime, where the three plot to go New York and live together, where Kathryn takes a husband and a lover, where Luke becomes a successful editor and tries to deny his homosexuality, where Sterling dreams of becoming a famous actor, only to have both his dreams and his lust for Luke dashed.

Character development is crucial in a novel like this, especially one that is a mere 178 pages long. You get to intimately know Kathryn, Luke, and Starling, yet there is not one spoken word of dialogue. Amazingly, none of the characters actually speak, yet each has his/her distinctive voice and speech pattern.

One chapter doesn't seem to fit. It takes place on August 6, 1945 when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. We see the effects of that day and event on three friends who seem to mirror Kathryn, Luke, and Starling in a different culture. But it is jarring, and I see no need for it to be there, unless it is to make a statement that friendships like theirs are not unique and happen everywhere.

Armchair Interviews says: If you want to read a book where every word was measured for its value to the sentence and the story, this is it.

IN THE MEANTIME is the finest book I've read this year. Robin Lippincott has managed, in a mere 170 pages, to tell the life stories of three compelling characters and friends--Kathryn, Luke, and Starling. Lippincott's tale begins with midwestern children who dream of escaping to New York City--an American ideal--to chase dreams and reinvent their lives. The friends come of age against the backdrop of WWII, details of which Lippincott creatively intertwines with his narrative. He paints vividly the bombing of Hiroshima and its devastating effects on the people of Japan. He reveals also the desperate fight for survival one man experiences in a Nazi concentration camp. These events, though geographically removed from his main characters, affect the tone and urgency of Lippincott's novel. That his characters--Kathryn, Luke, and Starling--might live life fully. That we as the novelist's readers might do the same. The novel ends a few days short of September 11, 2001. As Lippincott writes, fittingly, close to the end of his story, "She turned to musing about the brevity of human life and how, retrospectively, it is but a flash, an instant--something that takes place between this or that historical event, between this or that much larger and more significant natural phenomenon..."

I highly recommend this book.

Robin Lippincott is a talented author whose two previous novels ("Our Arcadia: An American Watercolor" and "The Real, True Angel") were models of well crafted fiction. Now Lippincott has authored a third literary gem with "In The Meantime", a novel that features the intertwined lives of Kathryn, Luke and Starling who first meet each other at the age of five in 1931. Residing in a small Midwestern town, the three become fast friends. After the end of World War II they move to New York City and find themselves dealing with the racism and prejudice of America in the 1950s. Throughout their adulthood their steadfast bond of friendship endures through all manner life's disappointments. There three-person friendship is mirrored within the pages of "In The Meantime" by the experiences of three friends in Hiroshima on the day the atomic bomb was dropped, and by a trio of jews hiding in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. The story stretches over seven decades until there is only one of the friends left to relate their story. A seminal work of literary skill that fully engages from first page to last, "In The Meantime" is especially recommended for academic library Literary Fiction collections, community library contemporary novels, and the personal reading lists of those who appreciate a finely crafted novel with respect to both the longitudinal development of characters and deftly presented dialogue.

Mr. Lippincott's novel, IN THE MEANTIME, chronicles the cyclical (de-)evolution of a friendship among three people - Kathryn, Luke, and Starling - through the course of their lives. From early childhood in 1931 until old age and death just days before 9/11, the triad passes through life. They periodically come together for a sense of continuity and drift apart to develop a sense of personal identity at each stage in life.

In its 170 page brevity, the novel is delightful yet puzzling to read. The odd aspect of the novel is its concern with stylistics and architecture, which nearly overshadows the story itself. The reader is reminded of a more coherent form of Faulkner's narrative architecture with its reliance on multiple perspectives on the same set of events. As for the language, it flows fluidly as though it were inspired by Virgina Woolf. Every word in every sentence has relevance. Mr. Lippincott's writing is lucid and tight, yet it risks appearing as an academic exercise. Interest in the novel is redeemed, however, by the power of its own jazz-influenced lyricism.

A brilliant yet potentially UNDER-appreciated aspect of the novel is its use of global relativism when examining the triadic friendship. The story of the friendship among Kathryn, Luke, and Starling is the primary triad and gains the most attention, but it is not the only triadic friendship. Their relationships are counter-balanced by two additional friendship triads: one in Hiroshima, Japan during the atomic bomb explosion of WWII, and the other triad of Jewish teens in Nazi Germany who struggle to survive. The American triad flourishes circumstantially while the other friendships perish as a result of brutal historical events. The bond among Kathryn, Luke, and Starling, by contrast, appears fragile and evanescent against the backdrop of history and the passage of time. All three triads are tangentially woven together.

Mr. Lippincott is also to be lauded for his graceful treatment of topics such as adolescent homosexuality, sexual repression, and crossing the color line in the 20th century.

Mr. Lippincott's novel is brimming with potential. This sketch is a rare case where, perhaps, less IS NOT more.

The lives of three friends - Luke, Kathryn and Starling - from the age of five in the 1930s until a few days before September 11th, 2001 provide the setting of "In The Meantime". But the true meaning of this elegantly crafted novel lies in its challenge to reexamine the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Japanese civilians. The mid-section of the novel takes the reader to Hiroshima, and into the lives of ordinary Japanese citizens on that horrendous day. Seichi, Yukio, and Myeko are three Japanese friends with hopes, dreams, and plans just like the three American friends. "In the Meantime" explores the humanity of Japanese citizens who were going about the tasks of ordinary life on the day the bomb was dropped. Later, Kathryn meets Peter, who along with his friends Renata and Hans, are sent to Auschwitz. This is a beautifully written spiritual journey for all those who are brave enough to embark. It is highly recommended.

Summary: Kathryn, Luke, and Starling met at the ages of 5 and 6 in the early 1930s; and became inseparable from that moment on. From elementary to early high school they attend the same schools and are constantly at one of their houses, usually Starling's.

But as they get older, so do the cruelties and insults from people that don't understand them or their friendship, and so Starling and his family move across town, away from the hostility expressed by some of the more aggressive high school bullies.

They continue their friendship regardless of the distance that is, until something happens between Luke and Starling that causes a separation between the two and Kathryn is left in the middle, and left to mend the boys' friendship. We follow the three from a small Midwestern town, to New York City where they hope to follow their dreams, and then we follow Kathryn to Boston. We see Luke turn into a successful publisher and bachelor for life, Starling a struggling actor and then a worse fate, and Kathryn a student, then a married woman and adulterer.

Review: In the beginning the book can be a little hard to read, but once you get past the first 30 or so pages, it becomes interesting, relatable, and totally engrossing.

This is a story that follows about 70 or so years through some of the hardest times in history, but ending only days before September 11, 2001. I believe the author did that for a reason also; it seems despite the wars and the depression and the like, these three characters lives were fairly innocent and continuing on would have left them a lot less innocent.

There is a chapter where you see three similar friends in Hiroshima, and you also see the outcome of those friends when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and I should give a warning that this chapter is disturbing and detailed. This is definitely not a story for everyone, but it is a good read; it puts things into perspective at times and can really make you think and I think anytime a book makes you think, that's a good thing.

At one point in In the Meantime, the narrator mentions that lifelong friends Luke, Kathryn,and Starling love the work of "writer's writers" such as Truman Capote. Robin Lippincott should know of "writer's writers" since he is one himself. I can scarcely imagine that any serious writer could read In the Meantime--or any of Lippincott's books--without occasionally pausing over a sentence and thinking, "Damn, I wish I had written that!" Lippincott's style dazzles in both style and sense; it is both luminous and lucid. But In the Meantime is not a triumph in style alone; the book's story and substance stay with the reader long after the book is closed. The story of Luke, Kathryn, and Starling and their remarkable friendship will haunt readers and lead them to reflect on their adolescent dreams versus their adult realities, on friends as family, and on humanity's losing battle with time. Highly recommended.

The premise is a good one. The juxtaposition of the three American friends, the three Japanese friends, and the three German friends is interesting and thought-provoking. But I just could not get into the story. I always felt like I was viewing the characters from afar and aloft. There is little dialogue, and few descriptions of actual individual events. Lippincott describes what their summers were like, and what their school days were like, but no particular day or week or event. Kathryn and Luke and Starling had dance parties at Starling's house, and the author describes what the parties were like, but not any particular one, only a rather self-indulgent single sentence which runs an entire two pages describing the general flavor of the dance parties. Perhaps the author's intent was for his run-on sentence to mirror the flow of a party, but I found it rather affected. I suppose I ought to have appreciated the cadence of the words... but all I could think is "my, what a very long sentence, has he beaten Joyce Carol Oates for the record?"

The novel touches on just a few details from each stage of their collective childhood, and seems to be rushing towards something. A few typical lines:

"And so the three friends flourished and floundered, floundered and flourished, as the seconds and the minutes and the hours and the days, the weeks and the months and the years, piled up and eventually collapsed and got buried under the sheer accumulation of time."

"And so the years, like wheels, rolled blithely by, and summertime always came around again-- Katie, Luke and Star had, by now, all three of them, lived long enough to know and feel certain that hey at the very least could count on one thing: and so began the inevitable slow, sly glance toward the future."

"And so the years passed, they just swung by, accompanied by and inviolately intertwined with music, and music was nothing but a freight train, a large barge barrelling down this track or that river with its incessant and inexorable and indefatigable rhythm, leading our fearlss threesome on, pulling them along body and soul..."

"And then along came summertime, another summer-- the season of their first meeting, THEIR time.."

"And then along came September and their final year of high school, a time that should have been a happy one, full of hopes and plans and dreams for their future together.."

"And so the school year passed, and much precious and valuable time was unconsciously and unintentionally wasted."

"The summer passed in a haze and suddenly it was September again and the leaves began to fall.."

Instead of becoming absorbed in the story, I was counting the "and so it passed" sentences! But I was not giving up because the story seemed to be going somewhere. I finished it and felt that it was a lot of effort for little reward. Fans of this novel will probably say it's the journey and not the destination that was important, and that I have missed the poetry of the author's words. Maybe so. But I wanted to know these characters, I wanted to understand what bound them together and what motivated their actions, and I never felt that I did.

Oh, and whomever writes for Publisher's Weekly should look up "hone" vs. "home." Tsk tsk.