Love Out of Season

by Ella Leffland

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060913029
• ISBN13: 9780060913021
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Length: 373 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Final Dissolution of a Relationship

This novel is a sensitive and very realistic portrayal of love and lovers seeking what they want in each other while at the same time realizing that the attainment of this is impossible. The story is about the final dissolution of a relationship and how the still existing feelings are carried by the lovers forever, like a prison inside of them. Love and pain will remain inside them forever but they no longer will be able to sus- tain any type of relationship or bond between them.

what's love got to do with it?

There has never been a novel with a more unfortunate title. Love Out of Season makes me think of a romance novel, and this was NOTHING like a romance. Where to begin? Johanna is a woman of stern self-discipline and high ethics. Morris is the complete opposite. If he were a microorganism, he would be an opportunistic parasite. He changes his story and goals every time his circumstances change. He and Johanna fall in lust and decide to live together. Right from the start it is obvious that Johanna is the subservient one in the relationship. Despite her high ethics and rigid discipline, she makes compromise after compromise with herself in order to please Morris, who continues with his free-wheeling ways. Their relationship is framed by two other couples: Conrad and Wanda are the archetype of the perfect couple. They love each other, they are kind to each other, they keep a 50/50 relationship. On the other extreme are Aquiline and Charles. Aquiline is in the driver's seat. She knows what she wants, she knows where she's going, unlike Johanna, who is completely adrift and falls off the deep end. After a year living together, Morris and Johanna get to a crossroads, and they part ways. And the book is barely a third of the way! Both go through a period of growth, very different each one, and they meet again at the grand finale, which really caught me by surprise. All this is happening in San Francisco in the late 60s. Those of you who think that your grandparents were squares should definitively read this book. I blushed in more than one occasion. There is a a lot of interesting commentary on art, women's roles in the workplace, and racial equality. This book started a little slow for me, but it caught momentum quickly, and i could not wait to get to it again to see if either one of the two lost souls had found their way again. I wish Ella Leffland were more popular, because she is a terrific writer. I have also read Mrs. Munck, a terrific story of revenge.