Off Season
by Anne Rivers Siddons
Grand Central Publishing
July, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-446-69829-0
368 pages
Trade Paperback
Fiction

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“Where does love go when it dies?” asks Anne Rivers Siddons in her beautiful novel, Off Season. “I’ve been thinking about that for a long time, and I have come to know many things about love between a man and a woman: that it is both tender and terrible, sweet and stormy, hurtful and healing, heartbreaking and heart-lifting. But the thing I’m surest about is that love endures. For a few special people, it does not die.”

Lilly is a sixty year old grandmother who has always lived a privileged and sheltered life. But no one is immune when it comes to love or death. When her long-time husband, Cam, dies, Lilly retreats to the one constant in her life, the family’s summer home (Edgewater) on the coast of Maine. There she walks through her life, trying to understand its progression and how she might move beyond what has happened to her.

We learn that the tragic loss of her first love at age 11 drove her into her own unique and ultimately safe shell, from which she did not emerge until she met her husband-to-be at age 18. Then there was the traumatic scene she witnessed between her mother and another man that triggered her intellectual crossing from child to adult. Amidst these reflections we are given an intimate look at a woman who has been mostly happy in her life and who has enjoyed a feeling of safety which has allowed her to find herself and grow her gifts to the point of excellence.

But this safety, the protective cocoon which has, in one form or another, always been there, has also made some of the harsh realities of life inaccessible to her. There are secrets Lilly-on-her-own will now learn that have the potential to shake her world.

Off Season is a wonderful read. Anne Rivers Siddons has that rare ability to capture the essence of emotion and relate it back to us in rich and moving language. I not only felt for Lilly, I was able to get close enough to her to understand her actions at age 11 and how her husband Cam didn’t just shatter her protective cage but actually replaced it. And in this understanding, the surprising conclusion of Off Season (which has upset many readers) becomes almost necessary. Yes, I was caught off guard, but reflection showed me that everything progressed logically, perhaps even necessarily.

This is the first time I’ve read the work of Anne Rivers Siddons: I’ve missed a lot. Siddons’ ability to observe and translate life makes her a true force in the writing world. With such brilliant assessments as “A best friend is as crucial to a child as air to breathe and food to eat. A child’s heart and mind are not yet deep and dark enough to hold secrets. They must be shared, or they will implode.” and the definition of married sex as “sanctified joy,” the author shows an awesome talent—the ability to touch our souls, the places where we actually live.

Off Season is a book any true fan of literature should make room for in their library.

Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye

This is some text prior to the author information. You can change this text from the admin section of WP-Gravatar  Clayton Bye is a long-time writer, editor and publisher. He has authored 8 books, published an anthology called Writers on the Wrong Side of the Road and reviewed many hundreds of other books. He offers a wide range of writing & editing services. Visit www.claytonbye.com. Read more from this author