At 42, New Hampshire ski salesman Frank Cadwallader has settled into an increasingly lifeless marriage. A lifelong Quaker, he joins a peace mission to the Soviet Union, but the first cracks in his familiar world appear before he leaves\u2014Russian lessons lead to an obsession with his alluring teacher, Olga, whose own titillating secrets prove nearly as surprising as Frank\u2019s attraction to her. More importantly, she awakens an intellectual curiosity that expands once Frank reaches Finland and Russia: \u201cHe was uncomfortable,\u201d the author writes of Frank\u2019s first forays into nude saunas, \u201cbut he liked being uncomfortable like this.\u201d As the Quaker delegation discusses nuclear disarmament with its Soviet counterparts, Frank is enthralled by the history, politics, and customs of a world far from his own. He\u2019s equally captivated by Immi, a married Finnish nurse with whom he continues to correspond after returning home. Their letters sustain a profound relationship as Frank changes careers and his wife, Mary, immerses herself in caring for AIDS patients. Von Reyn follows these relationships across decades, weaving historical events into the chronicle of the characters\u2019 changing lives. As he and Mary enter into what Frank dubs \u201cmarital intimacy reimagined,\u201d his love for Immi endures, but old age comes for all the characters as their hope for reinvention collides with the inevitability of loss. The author conveys his characters\u2019 thoughts with precision and beauty, deftly capturing Frank\u2019s awe at Finnish summers and his obsession with the woman he can\u2019t have. Some clumsy dialogue works too hard to explain epidemics, Quaker beliefs, or geopolitics, but the swiftly evolving story minimizes such shortcomings with surprising developments and sharp integrations of historical events. (The Challenger\u00a0explosion becomes an obstacle to Frank\u2019s long-awaited contact with Immi, for example.) Ultimately, this tale of separated lovers transforms a classic romantic setup into something relatable and deeply moving, with smart ruminations on desire, curiosity, and growing older.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At 42, New Hampshire ski salesman Frank Cadwallader has settled into an increasingly lifeless marriage. A lifelong Quaker, he joins a peace mission to the Soviet Union, but the first cracks in his familiar world appear before he leaves\u2014Russian lessons lead to an obsession with his alluring teacher, Olga, whose own titillating secrets prove nearly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7241"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}