The Future of Love

by Shirley Abbott

Book Overview

"[An] impressive first novel . . . Abbott's nuanced take on New York after the fall is spot-on, reminding us that love is about survival as well as loss." -- People Set in New York in 2001, Abbott's debut novel invites us into the lives of good people grappling with the hard choices and the sacrifices they must make to find love. In the manner of a contemporary Edith Wharton, Shirley Abbott exposes the inner lives and the tangled relationships of...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565125673
• ISBN13: 9781565125674
• Release Date: March 2008
• Publisher: Algonquin Books
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.7" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

The Most Incisive, The Deadliest Novel

Each chapter of Abbott's book jumps us from one character's point of view to another's. In some plot-driven novels this can drive me crazy. In this character-rich novel I loved it. No matter who was at the center of the next chapter, I was glad to be with them. I read with fascination, I went wherever the author led me. Abbott plunges us into the chaos of love, of everything that passes for love, of family strife, long-dead marriages, unexpected passion, death and destruction and second chances. At one point I thought, "The book is like a round of golf." No matter that the characters, with all their foibles, have hooked a drive on the last hole, overshot the green and putted crazily to a five-over-par. With each chapter all hope is refreshed, all chances renewed as they tee up for their next shot. Abbott's range of characters is tremendous: men and women, old and young, white and black, the very microcosm of a somewhat-monied New York. All of them have stumbled. Some are pitiful at times, some clueless, some angry or desperate. They have a fragile grip on confidence and desire, and I would follow them anywhere. In a chapter from Sam's point of view, we see where his marriage has landed: "Ah, yes. You marry. Then it's children, schools, mortgages, taxes, hard work, and you feel you've got a successful marriage on days when you're speaking to each other. No time or energy to ask why you haven't had sex with your wife for a year, and then five years and then ten. You are a pair...and you hardly know what love is. You hardly know who she is. But you cannot leave her, because that would be dishonorable..." The dilemmas in this novel often seem irresolvable. And to Abbott's credit, they are not always smoothly resolved. As we hear later about Sam and his lover, Antonia, "You get what you want and don't know what to do with it." This is the most readable, the most charming, the most incisive, the deadliest novel I have read in years.

A Book to Live In

When I enjoy a book I call it a "book to live in" - it becomes at least as (usually more) interesting than Real Life. For me, this was one such book. The narrative was engaging, the characters interesting, there were side issues that entertained and enlightened - and surprises. In short, it has all the elements of a successful novel. I look forward to future novels from this writer.

An important book

Many talented writers have tried to incorporate 9/11 into their novels, and failed: the terrorism attacks loom too large, and make other events and characters seem insignificant. Luckily, Shirley Abbott is not one of them. The Future of Love is a luminous book: gorgeously written, with profoundly human characters striving to do their best in a world that challenges and shakes them. Anyone who appreciates good writing and insightful characterization will love this novel.

Smart, compelling, believable characters

Love's the theme, but Anxiety the subtext in this smart and beautifully written novel. Abbott has a way of getting you right inside her characters from the moment you meet them, and cleverly leads you from one to the other, layering the connections among them. The setting is Manhattan, 2001, specifically and concretely so, but urbanites everywhere will recognize the characters' dilemmas and domestic disturbances, the choices and possibilities that engulf them even before the disasters of 9-ll. A stunning portrait of the ways modern (and uniquely privileged humans) cling to the illusion of control in a chaotic universe.