Telling the truth about their breakup is out of the question, because the cottage is up for sale, and this is the group’s last hurrah. But (surprise!) Wyn is there too, and he and Harriet have to share a (very romantic) room and a bed.
She’s ready for a vacation at her happy place-the Maine cottage she and her friends visit every summer. So they keep it a secret from their friends and families-in fact, Harriet barely even admits it to herself, focusing instead on her grueling hours as a surgical resident.
They’ve been part of the same boisterous friend group since college, and they know that their breakup will devastate the others and make things more than a little awkward. Wyn Connor and Harriet Kilpatrick were the perfect couple-until Wyn dumped Harriet for reasons she still doesn’t fully understand. This collection about love offers snippets of joy, small and large, and the tart balances the sweet to just the right degree.Įxes pretend they’re still together for the sake of their friends on their annual summer vacation.
These stories are very much products of the times in which they were written, however-many in the 1970s and '80s-and some notes clang instead of sing: the 30-year-old man dumping his girlfriend to rush to the side of an 18-year-old woman he'd secretly kissed and who's now home alone while her mother is gravely injured, and calling it selfless the focus on being thin, looking too thin, or becoming fat after eating a few solid meals. Many stories cut off at their apexes-a kiss, a walk through an orchard, a walk up the aisle, the realization of joy and love and home found within another soul. Despite the brevity of the tales and the thematic constants (American-British pairings living in London monthlong trips weekends in the country wild and cultivated gardens jobs as fashion editors, nurses, and lawyers unexpected accidents chance encounters and a plethora of family members and siblings and children and loving mothers and, sometimes, women who have no one at all), each story stands alone, unique and memorable, with its own story of love found. In this collection of 15 short stories, published together for the first time, Pilcher (1924-2019) has done something remarkable. Love-falling in love, being in love, trying to rediscover love-can be even more wildly complex because it involves two people coming together. They have moods and frustrations and make impromptu decisions that have long-lasting repercussions. A delightful collection of short stories that explore the myriad facets of falling in and out of love.
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