Spring and Fall

Nicholas Delbanco
Warner Books (2006)
ISBN 9780446578714
Reviewed by Mary Greenwood for Reader Views (12/06)

The spring of “Spring and Fall” by Nicholas Delbanco refers to the first love affair between Hermia and Lawrence in 1962 when they were college students at Radcliffe and Harvard.  However, after a quick and passionate affair, they break up not knowing exactly why.  Forty years later in the fall of their lives (hence the title “Spring and Fall”), they meet by accident on a Mediterranean cruise.  Lawrence is recuperating after a heart health scare and she is invited to the Captain’s table.  Even after forty years, Hermia recognized him immediately, but it took three sightings before she got the courage to introduce herself to Lawrence.  He knew she had looked familiar but did not remember her until she spoke to him.

Recognizing some spark from that original puppy love in 1962, the pair slowly gets to know each other again during the rest of the cruise. The author Delbanco uses flashbacks to show the history of the couple. Both are now single. Her husband was paranoid and tried to kill her. He has had two wives.  She has one adult daughter from whom she is estranged. He has one daughter and two sons. He is a Professor of Architecture in Michigan whose career is not as satisfying as he had hoped.  She was the daughter of a famous artist who died as a result of a terrible drunken car crash. She was a book editor but is now an heiress who lives in Cape Cod by herself.  As the story unravels, it seems inevitable that they will get a second chance at happiness.

The novel is about mature love.  Age spots, divorce, physical frailty, disappointments, estrangements and tragedies make the story more poignant and rewarding. In retrospect, Hermia and Lawrence probably were not ready for true love in 1962 and it may have taken the forty plus years apart to set the stage for the more mature and more real love.  I would recommend “Spring and Fall” to those of a certain age who can remember back to 1962, or to anyone else who likes a romance.

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