Featured Review: Love, Lust, and Other Complications
Posted: 12 Apr 2014, 08:34
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Love, Lust, and Other Complications" by P M George.]
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"Love, Lust, and Other Complications" is an intelligent and well written fiction book exploring themes such as friendship, love, loneliness and human connections. It is also a romance story featuring mature characters, though not the kitschy kind of story mind you. Its protagonists are a middle age couple in their sixties, a refreshing change from all those young love romances.
Truth love and happiness is hard to find at any age, the more so the eldest one gets. As one grows older, one sometimes becomes more set up in his ways and carries around more baggage so to speak. A boy meets girl, they are falling in love, moving in together and the all merry go round. Sounds simple enough, right? But life isn't that cut and dry and love is much more complicated than that. Is love possible at late age? How can one tell the difference between love and lust? Is sexual union the main issue in a relationship or just a side track? Those are a just a few of the issues that our couple needs to figured out.
This is the story of Sue and Mike, sixty years old protagonists from Australia who are looking to add that extra spice to their lives. Sue is feisty, independent, forthright, candid and energetic to boot. She has one failed marriage under her belt and she is just starting to overcome the death of her male partner and lover. Her life is good: she has a good part time job as a research librarian, has her own apartment and has good girlfriends. Still, she feels lonely and misses sex. Yes, sex is still a factor at a mature age. She isn't looking for marriage but for a male companionship. Her only daughter Kate, who is single and searching for Mr. Right as well, advises her to dabble in online dating. Sue goes to it with gusto as she does all things. Her motto in life, and a good motto to embrace, is to live life to the full. Kate lives in Sydney while Sue lives at St. Kilda, but they are close and share everything, including anecdotes on unsuccessful dates (which I found touching).
Mike is a retired health professional who moved to Blairgowriem after his divorce. Two failed marriages left him disillusioned and wary and he finds women an enigma. He is happy with his lot, enjoys the casual sex and feels comfortable with his body. Running is his fort and his main passion in life. He runs every day rain or shine and participates in Marathons.
Sue starts to date, but nothing comes out of that. While vacationing in Blairgowriem, she goes for a leisurely walk on the coastal track. Mike bumps into her while running and knocks her off her feet, literally. Not an auspice starts for a relationship. One thing leads to another and the two start dating. As time goes on, they start to become romantically involved. Not only is Mike a good lover, he is also a good listener and a great company to boot. Their relationship isn't a bed of roses though and they have the odd quarrel now and then. Both protagonists suffer from insecurities and will have to comprise and solve their differences in order for the relationship to work out. Sex is good, but is it enough? Is there more to their relationship than sex? Will they take the leap and deepen their relationship? You will have to read the book to find out.
A good book is about a simple humane story, written with a great talent. This is such a book. The pace was a bit slow, but it befitted the budding relationship. The author employed a stream of consciousness technique at times, thus giving the reader a window into the protagonists' soul. The gender of the author isn't clear, but if he is indeed a man, he has a great insight into the women mindset. A good story also creates an emotional connection and this story managed that admirably. The protagonists were very well drawn. The author managed to expose their most inner thoughts and emotions (sometimes to an unnecessary extent) without crossing the line into boredom, thus making them real. I really cared about the protagonists and was curious to see the outcome of their story.
I didn't know what to expect when I started reading the book and was afraid the focus of the story will be on sex scenes, but such was not the case. The sex scenes weren't that many and were tastily drawn. There was overuse of swear words and the heroin overanalyzed things at times, but let's not get into trivialities. All in all, it was a VERY enjoyable read. I liked the flow of the writing, the development of the characters, and the story itself. I also liked the fact that the author gave us the mindset of the two characters and not just one of them, so it was not all one sided. After consideration I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars and recommend it as a great read!
***
Buy "Love, Lust, and Other Complications" on Amazon
Buy "Love, Lust, and Other Complications" on Barnes and Noble
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Truth love and happiness is hard to find at any age, the more so the eldest one gets. As one grows older, one sometimes becomes more set up in his ways and carries around more baggage so to speak. A boy meets girl, they are falling in love, moving in together and the all merry go round. Sounds simple enough, right? But life isn't that cut and dry and love is much more complicated than that. Is love possible at late age? How can one tell the difference between love and lust? Is sexual union the main issue in a relationship or just a side track? Those are a just a few of the issues that our couple needs to figured out.
This is the story of Sue and Mike, sixty years old protagonists from Australia who are looking to add that extra spice to their lives. Sue is feisty, independent, forthright, candid and energetic to boot. She has one failed marriage under her belt and she is just starting to overcome the death of her male partner and lover. Her life is good: she has a good part time job as a research librarian, has her own apartment and has good girlfriends. Still, she feels lonely and misses sex. Yes, sex is still a factor at a mature age. She isn't looking for marriage but for a male companionship. Her only daughter Kate, who is single and searching for Mr. Right as well, advises her to dabble in online dating. Sue goes to it with gusto as she does all things. Her motto in life, and a good motto to embrace, is to live life to the full. Kate lives in Sydney while Sue lives at St. Kilda, but they are close and share everything, including anecdotes on unsuccessful dates (which I found touching).
Mike is a retired health professional who moved to Blairgowriem after his divorce. Two failed marriages left him disillusioned and wary and he finds women an enigma. He is happy with his lot, enjoys the casual sex and feels comfortable with his body. Running is his fort and his main passion in life. He runs every day rain or shine and participates in Marathons.
Sue starts to date, but nothing comes out of that. While vacationing in Blairgowriem, she goes for a leisurely walk on the coastal track. Mike bumps into her while running and knocks her off her feet, literally. Not an auspice starts for a relationship. One thing leads to another and the two start dating. As time goes on, they start to become romantically involved. Not only is Mike a good lover, he is also a good listener and a great company to boot. Their relationship isn't a bed of roses though and they have the odd quarrel now and then. Both protagonists suffer from insecurities and will have to comprise and solve their differences in order for the relationship to work out. Sex is good, but is it enough? Is there more to their relationship than sex? Will they take the leap and deepen their relationship? You will have to read the book to find out.
A good book is about a simple humane story, written with a great talent. This is such a book. The pace was a bit slow, but it befitted the budding relationship. The author employed a stream of consciousness technique at times, thus giving the reader a window into the protagonists' soul. The gender of the author isn't clear, but if he is indeed a man, he has a great insight into the women mindset. A good story also creates an emotional connection and this story managed that admirably. The protagonists were very well drawn. The author managed to expose their most inner thoughts and emotions (sometimes to an unnecessary extent) without crossing the line into boredom, thus making them real. I really cared about the protagonists and was curious to see the outcome of their story.
I didn't know what to expect when I started reading the book and was afraid the focus of the story will be on sex scenes, but such was not the case. The sex scenes weren't that many and were tastily drawn. There was overuse of swear words and the heroin overanalyzed things at times, but let's not get into trivialities. All in all, it was a VERY enjoyable read. I liked the flow of the writing, the development of the characters, and the story itself. I also liked the fact that the author gave us the mindset of the two characters and not just one of them, so it was not all one sided. After consideration I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars and recommend it as a great read!
***
Buy "Love, Lust, and Other Complications" on Amazon
Buy "Love, Lust, and Other Complications" on Barnes and Noble
