Greene tells a predictable story of infidelity, love, loss and male bonding in this well-crafted but somewhat stale first novel. Nathan Carter is the 30-something protagonist who finds himself emotionally bereft after the death of his father, so much so that he drives north from Boston to Vermont and ends up starting a new life as a rural mailman. After a weather-related accident on his delivery route, Carter befriends 79-year-old widower Wallace Fiske, who helps Carter sort out his troubled love life while slowly revealing the story of his marriage to a woman named Nora. The farmer describes the pivotal crisis in his marriage, when a farmhand became attracted to his wife, a fierce attachment that led inexorably to violence. Greene is a reasonably engaging storyteller; the relationship between the two men develops in intimate, minimalist scenes that capture the flavor of smalltown life. The female characters aren't as well developed as their male counterparts, however, and on the whole readers may feel that Greene paints his characters in familiar, bland strokes: "We were each running from something. I was running from my father's death and from the shallowness of a life incomplete without shiny, new love. Wallace was running from something far more profound: a past that haunted him, a past he could not escape, and a story he had never told to anyone."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From AudioFile
In a somewhat predictable novel about romantic love, betrayal, friendship, and death, Thomas Christopher Greene tells two stories. The first centers around the life of 20-something Nathan Carter, a man running from many failed relationships, as he moves to rural Vermont. The second reveals the life story of Wallace Fiske, a crusty mid-70s Vermonter who becomes an unlikely friend to Nathan. Christopher Burns reads Greene's first novel with an aloofness that seems out of place for Nathan's character. He excels, however, at reading in Wallace's voice, providing just the right amount of abrasion and ill-temper to make the character believable and likable in spite of his flaws. Despite Burns's mediocre reading, the story itself is a decent diversion and an interesting glimpse into rural Vermont. H.L.S. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
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