About the BookGlenda Fieldston is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with her seven-year-old daughter, Astrid, when Eugene Lerman comes walking by with his eight-year-old daughter, Meredith, a schoolmate of Astrid’s. The families spot each other, Glenda and Eugene engage in long-range cursory assessments, and then they go their separate ways. But not for long. Glenda and Eugene cross paths professionally soon after, and circumstances at work bring them into close association. So begins a friendship fraught with complications. Glenda’s independence is self-imposed and fierce. Eugene’s was foisted on him by a wife who left him. Although Glenda’s and Eugene’s personal demons are incompatible, their longings are, confoundedly, in harmony. Their cautious friendship is further inhibited by past and present relationships, and it remains to be seen if they can break out of their set ways to make a break for uncharted love.
Review
Relationships lack a certain something without conflict. A sense of tension doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing when it comes to romance. Sometimes, it ignites a spark between two opposites.
...as in the case of Glenda and Eugene.
She's the uptight neurotic and he's the disheveled philosopher. They drive each other crazy, but in a good way. It reminds me of a scene in the last Harry Potter movie when Hermione mutters about Ron, "When am I not mad at him?" It's that kind of push and pull dynamic that keeps the fire of romance alive and burning.
But at the base of things, the couple truly has to care about each other. Challenging the one you love needs to be done with tender loving care, otherwise it devolves into nothing but cattiness and cruelty, a series of stinging rebukes without any constructive encouragement.
Ultimately, it's about growth, individually and collectively. If a couple can grow together, then they stand a chance of making it. Her honesty tries him, while his presumptuousness makes her want to run in the opposite direction. Yet somehow they make it work when, "her…vulnerability bounded out to meet his."
He likes how he can't figure her out. He's drawn to how she's "staunchly independent, yet cloyingly maternal." She resists letting down her guard with him, especially when it comes to not looking her best in front of him. However, she finds out that he likes her when she's a mess, when she's not perfect. She's finally able to let her hair down and he discovers a newfound excitement when it comes to monogamy, because now with Glenda, he is able to approach it with a heightened awareness and an enhanced appreciation.
Do they eventually make it down the aisle? Well, the last line says it best: "She felt control falling from her like a bridal gown, exposing her to the hazards and other possibilities of love."
***
Love and Other Hazards can be purchased at:
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Prices/Formats: $2.99 ebook, $14.95 paperback
Genre: Family Life, Romance
Pages: 256
Release: May 10, 2017
Publisher: River Grove
ISBN: 9781632991225
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About the AuthorClaudia Riess is a Vassar graduate who has worked in the editorial departments of The New Yorker magazine and Holt, Rinehart and Winston books and has edited several art history monographs. Her first novel, “Reclining Nude,” was published by Stein and Day. Oliver Sacks, author of “Awakenings,” had said her first book was “exquisite—and delicate… a most courageous book, full of daring—a daring only possible to a passionate and pure heart.”
The author divides her time between the Hamptons and Manhattan with her husband, Bob.
Links to connect with Claudia:
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