Making Love: A Romance

by Lucretia Stewart

Set against the sexual freedom of the 1970s and the tough realities of solitary life in the late 1990s, Lucretia Stewart's moving first novel charts the sentimental education of a woman who learns the truth about herself through the intricate lessons of desire and pain.

This is the first U.S. Edition.
Wisconsin edition for sale only in North America.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0299199207
• ISBN13: 9780299199203
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Length: 228 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.0" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Making Love Talk-Show Style

Perhaps you will be expecting a series of erotic love tales from the title of Lucretia Stewart's novel, "Making Love." However, what one finds is a seemingly endless parade of failed love affairs that have a propensity for the desperate, not steamy, sultry side that is easily found in Harlequin romances. Stewart's characters appear to be tragically compulsive and unable to act in their own best interests, even when the choices are clear. For example, the unnamed female protagonist is unable to leave Louis, a married manic-depressive alcoholic, because she feels like it is "one big movie" and says, "I couldn't let go because the relationship had developed a life, a momentum of its own, which was quite separate from the individuals involved in it." Stewart's writing transmits a palpable sense of loss, depicting characters that cling to an unhappy fate out of fear and habit. The author's sentences are crisp and to the point as we watch the unnamed female protagonist meander from the beginning of her love life in the 1970s to the present. Overall, a believable and even an enjoyable read, despite, actually, because the terrain of the unnamed female protagonist is awash with horrible decisions. Reading this train wreck proves to be delicious fodder for any rubbernecker or unscrupulous talk-show host. Bohdan Kot