The Last Time They Met: A Novel (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Last Time They Met opens with two old lovers, both poets, running into each other at a writer's conference. Well, Linda Fallon and Thomas Janes aren't old, actually--just middle-aged, with a lifetime's worth of history between them. In the first section, Anita Shreve only suggests what that history contains: there was adultery, we gather, and a car accident, plus some illicit encounters under a pitiless Kenyan sun. Presumably the rest of the book will lead back to the beginnings of this grand passion, right? We think we know where this is going--but that's the tricky part, because we don't.

The novel does get off to a slow start, with an unnecessarily drawn-out description of a luxury hotel. But it picks up speed as it moves backward in time, from the lovers' vividly evoked interlude in Africa, to their adolescent years in the Massachusetts village of Hull, and finally to Linda's deepest, darkest secret. Only then does the author unveil her final revelation, which should leave most readers somewhat out of breath, and possibly even obliged to turn back to the first page and read the book over again. Shreve is a canny storyteller, and she knows her characters inside and out. (As well she might: Thomas is the husband of Jean, the photographer in The Weight of Water.) And The Last Time They Met is yet another example of the kind of book she does best--one that's as skillfully plotted as a thriller, but with writing that lingers long after the last plot twist is unfurled. No matter whether people actually have affairs like these. Reading this book only makes you wish that they did. --Mary Park --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

The latest work by this versatile novelist (The Pilot's Wife; Fortune's Rocks) may be her most mature to date, as she demonstrates new subtleties in the unfolding of a complex plot. Proceeding in reverse chronological order, Shreve recounts the obsessive love between poets Linda Fallon and Thomas Janes; theirs is a highly charged affair, though they connect only three times in 35 years. The novel's three sections ("Fifty-Two," "Twenty-Six" and "Seventeen") refer to Linda's ages when she meets and later encounters Thomas first (last in the book's structure) as a troubled teen near Boston with "only indistinct memories of her mother and no real ones of her father"; then in Kenya, where Linda has joined the Peace Corps and Thomas's wife, Regina, is working with UNICEF; and finally at a literary festival in Toronto where both characters, unbeknownst to each other, are guest speakers. Though each of the novel's segments is intensely powerful, the cumulative effect is especially wrenching, as the reader knows what Linda and Thomas have yet to experience. Their Africa encounter is especially gripping, since both characters are torn between their mutual passion and their love for their spouses. (Linda has also married, and Regina's announcement of her pregnancy adds further tension.) Shreve's compassionate view of human frailties a recurring theme in much of her work is at its most affecting here, as she meticulously interweaves past and present with total credibility. Her fluid narrative perfectly mirrors her protagonists' evolving temperaments and viewpoints, while her overall restraint serves to intensify the novel's devastating conclusion. (Apr.) Water, starring Sean Penn and Elizabeth Hurley, is due in theaters later this year.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books (January 22, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316781266
• ISBN-13: 978-0316781268
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (463 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #141,445 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning!, July 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Last Time They Met: A Novel (Hardcover)

I highly recommend reading Anita Shreve's "THE WEIGHT OF THE WATER" before you begin "THE LAST TIME WE MET." But whatever you do, definitely read them both. The stories are surprisingly intertwined with characters taking us through the most important times of their lives. Lives filled with hope, love, loyality, success, betrayal, loss, and deep regrets. Both endings will leave you feeling stunned. You will, no doubt, find yourself wanting to re-read the last chapters over and over again. When a book grabs you this way, I consider it a successful story told (despite how I feel about the outcome). Anita Shreve is a wonderful author and "THE LAST TIME WE MET" (as well as "THE WEIGHT OF THE WATER") is an excellent read. Don't pass these two books up!

41 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow! Anita Shreve can sure tell a story!, March 30, 2001

By	Joanna Daneman (Middletown, DE USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This review is from: The Last Time They Met: A Novel (Hardcover)

I read this because I loved the way The Pilot's Wife was so cleverly crafted. I expected more of that kind of writing here and I was NOT disappointed.

In "The Last Time They Met", Anita Shreve writes a story that reveals secret after secret that makes you gasp at even single words she uses. Her writing is razor-sharp and so cleverly crafted that each time a secret is unveiled, you have to go back to the first clue and marvel and how she got there.

This is a wonderful novel about "might-have-beens" and "should-have-dones" and the regrets and decisions that make the tapestry of a life. Well done, Anita!!

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Surprise ending transforms novel, June 5, 2001

By	Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Last Time They Met: A Novel (Hardcover)

Anita Shreve's latest novel presents some problems for the reviewer. Reading it, I found certain elements of character, motivation and maturity baffling, even annoying, despite the beauty of the writing. The surprise ending, however, cast these apparent flaws in a new light, giving subtle, poignant meaning and transforming the story. But it's impossible to discuss any of this without giving away the ending.

A story of intense, enduring, but frustrated love, the novel begins with the two protagonists in their early fifties, meeting at a literary festival after an interlude of some years. Linda Fallon and Thomas Janes, both poets, are free now, for the first time since their high school romance ended over an automobile accident.

Widowed, Linda had a long, happy marriage while Thomas, twice divorced, never fully recovered from the death of his 6-year-old daughter, which occurred at the end of Shreve's "Weight of Water." Thomas was the husband of that book's protagonist and there are numerous references to the shipboard events of that novel from Thomas' point of view. (I wondered: Did Shreve have this novel in mind even then; is that why she killed off the little girl, an abrupt shock which seemed pointless in that context?)

The first section is told from Linda's point of view - the reunion, her cautious renewal of this first love, reflections on her marriage, problems with her children. In sharp, anguished exchanges, they revisit the events that tore them apart. Linda, still harboring resentments, seems brooding, tentative, a little irritating.

"He seemed taken aback by the contest. She knew what later she would mind this the most; that she'd become common in her anger. That in an instant, she'd reinvented herself as a shrew."

The second section jumps back more than 20 years to their affair in Africa, seen through Thomas' eyes. An accidental meeting, both married, snatched, torrid graplings, literary love letters, all of it ending badly in a cataclysmic clash of duty and jealousy. Thomas, a more immediate, passionate presence, though no less conflicted, brings the heat and turmoil of Africa to bear on an illicit relationship which walls itself off from outside influence. "Were there people, he wondered, who had genuine, more-or-less continuous fun when they fell in love? It didn't seem possible, the enterprise too fraught to sustain the lightheartedness fun required."

Thomas' wives - Regina, whose lack of confidence makes her ugly and desperate and Jean, mother of Billie, adulterer - both seem remote, unloved, and mildly repellant. Thomas himself seems to be drifting, fully engaged only in his writing. Thinking of Regina, he reflects: "What she wouldn't forgive, he knew, was the pleasure the writing gave him: sensual and tactile, a jolt that ran through him when it worked. Always, he was writing in his head; at parties, he craved to be at a desk. He sometimes thought it was the only honest conduit he had to the world around him, all other endeavors, even his marriage (Jesus, especially his marriage), lost in the excessive caution of failed expectations and injured feelings."

The final section regresses in time again to the high school days of their first love. Told from Linda's viewpoint, this beginning has a spontaneous and organic feel, capturing the tentative, self-conscious forays of adolescent emotional and intellectual exploration, the blossoming of passion and respect, the surge of lustful love. Orphaned Linda is the poor, despised relation in a poor, overcrowded family. Thomas is the scion of privilege. A victim of sexual abuse, Linda struggles to overcome her fears; Thomas works hard to comprehend them. Together they are lovely, full of joy and fear. It's the best section of the book and I'm sure Shreve intended it to be.

This is a novel for book groups. Readers will enjoy discussing the ending with others, arguing about its meaning, its repercussions, how it colors everything that went before, the subtleties Shreve employs, her handling of obsession, loss and, well, you'll see.