Wicked Heat and Mary Gordon

The sudden, scorching heat surprised me by how fiercely it took my body by storm. I have been a dishrag. I tromped downstairs in the mornings at 8am to find the thermometer at 82 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday. Since we've lived here, it's never been so hot so early in the morning.

I'm at the tail end of Rosamund Lupton's Afterwards, and it has been a pure pleasure all the way through. I know I'm going to be looking for her first novel, Sisters, very soon.

To help me through the withdrawal symptoms and panic I experience when I near the conclusion of books I've loved, I've started reading The Love of My Youth: A Novel, published in 2011 by Mary Gordon, now available in paperback. Where was I last year when this novel first appeared? I had no clue, or I would have read it sooner. Miranda and Alex, both in their late fifties, meet again in Rome, where in their early twenties they were passionately in love. Gordon's writing is exquisite, and if you've ever wondered what it would be like to reconnect with a man or a woman that you were so in love with in young adulthood, then I urge you to read this novel.

Mary Gordon is an accomplished American writer and the winner of numerous awards. Her works published by Random House are the titles most widely available, but she has other, equally fine, books published at other houses. If a book about late-middle-aged people seems too old for you, please do try her novel Spending, one of my favorite novels. It's a delicious, literary romp!